LESSONS IN CHAOS
City teachers help students learn from D.C. madness
Confusion, fear and rage spilled into virtual and in-person city classrooms Thursday as teachers and students set aside their planned lessons to discuss Wednesday’s violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
“People were overwhelmed, embarrassed, discouraged, desensitized to everything going on,” said Abbie Jobe, a junior at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Manhattan, who discussed the events during two virtual class periods.
“I think it’s important that every teacher gives this space so they’re not disregarding the fact that when we shut down these laptops we actually have to face what’s going on the real world,” she said.
As the pro-Trump Washington march in support of baseless accusations of election fraud escalated into a violent assault on the Capitol building, many city teachers realized they’d need to restructure their lesson plans to help students deal with the fallout.
Lucas Johnson, an English teacher at Harvest Collegiate High School in Manhattan, drew on a lesson plan he’d developed during the Black Lives Matter demonstrations last spring.
“The sad thing is that in some ways I was prepared for this,” said Johnson. “I already had this lesson in my back pocket for the series of other upsetting and traumatizing things that have happened in my students’ lifetimes and my tenure teaching.”
Johnson said his first priority was tending to the emotional health of the 16 ninth-graders in his care — many of whom are already dealing with lingering trauma from the pandemic and the switch to remote learning.
Johnson gave his students a chance to write privately about their feelings — whether directly related to the riot or not. He responded to each entry after class with a brief message of support.
High school history teacher Patrick Sprinkle knew he wanted to dissect the political and civic implications of the siege with his 11th and 12th-grade U.S. history and government students.
“I shared with the kids that I got into teaching out of a passion for democratic education and preparing our students for obligations as citizens in a messy democracy and I just joked with them it’s messier than ever,” he said.
Sprinkle said his students needed little prompting to share astute observations about the insurrection.
“A lot of students were upset, and reasonably so, about the rank hypocrisy between [the treatment of] the Black Lives Matter protesters and the domestic terrorists,” Sprinkle said, adding that one of his students was hit by police rubber bullets during a racial justice protest last year.
Students across the city were quick to sniff out hypocrisy or double-speak in the reaction to the news, teachers said.
One normally quiet ninth-grader at Harvest Collegiate High School pointed out that lawmakers ducking for cover from possible gun violence in the congressional chambers finally “know what it’s like in K-12 schools, her teacher Kiran Chaudhuri said.
The student quickly added that “‘some of them voted pro-gun,’ ” Chaudhuri recalled.
It wasn’t just history or humanities teachers devoting class time to help students unpack the events.
Daniel Jordan, a music teacher at Midwood High School, constructed an entire lesson plan around helping students understand why conspiracy theories take hold.
“I want my students to understand the science behind why something like this is believed and have the research skills [and] practice for the future so their opinions are credible and concise,” he said.
Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza told city educators in an email Thursday morning they have “have the opportunity, and responsibility, to acknowledge and discuss these events.”
Carranza sent a list of resources including a lesson plan specifically geared towards the insurrection in addition to advice for broaching painful conversations with young people. Several educators said the list of resources, alongside the explicit encouragement of the schools chief, made it easier to broach the topic with students Thursday.
Lynette Guastaferro, the CEO of curriculum developer Teaching Matters, which provides professional development for city teachers, said finding a way to clearly communicate with the youngest children is especially important.
“Sometimes people think you shouldn’t talk to a second grader about it, but you kind of have to,” she said, adding that young kids are absorbing stress from adults and the media.
Abbie, the junior at Eleanor Roosevelt High School, said she appreciated her teacher’s offer for students to take the remainder of the period after the heavy discussion to “do what we needed to do.”
“We are living through so many historical moments, I think it’s important for teachers to sometimes give us a break,” she said. “You can’t just talk about people going to the Capitol and then go to equations. Your mind is still there.”