Respectful discourse paramount
Charlottesville showed the wrong way to debate the issues
Like so many people, I gaped open-mouthed as I viewed the pictures coming out of Charlottesville. I experienced a mixture of emotions as I read through story after story on my phone; the torchlight parade that bore an eerie resemblance to the Weimar-era marches in Germany was chilling; and the rhetoric that seemed to come from another era in history was shocking. All of this was happening now and was progressing in real time, and it was disturbing for a variety of reasons.
Of particular note for educators was that some of these protests were occurring on a college campus. Just last spring, I accompanied a group of students to the University of Virginia campus as part of a trip to study and understand the Revolutionary era in American history; to see this particular intellectual village devoted to the life of the mind transformed into a venue for hate speech seemed incongruous at best. On a more personal level, a Bosque alumna is starting a PhD program at UVA any day now, and I worry about her navigating such waters. Lastly, I wondered, “What do we say to our students about this phenomenon?”
The question of whether to remove statues or rename buildings from another time could be the topic of a rich and lively debate. Whether the argument is over renaming buildings honoring President Woodrow Wilson on the campus of Princeton; replacing windows in Yale’s Calhoun Hall, named for former vice president and secessionist John C. Calhoun; or taking down a statue of Robert E. Lee, we can acknowledge that there are strong feelings around these issues. We can argue with one another, and we can agree to disagree. Those of us teaching children could use these debates as teachable moments; we could show how people of strong opinions can disagree in a civil fashion and attempt to work things out. Our students could research how changing mores and norms can be reflected in our architecture and how the process of naming or renaming a structure can demonstrate a people’s acknowledgement of previous wrongs and an attempt to redress them. Our classrooms could be the locus of invigorating and passionate discussion.
Unfortunately, that’s not what we saw unfold in Charlottesville, and now we need to explain and reaffirm that there are some types of language and action that go beyond the pale. In schools that are committed to diversity, equity and inclusivity for all students, we must state strongly and unequivocally that racist and bigoted language have no place. Those of us who educate children must create a setting where students can be challenged intellectually but feel safe physically. Students need to realize that they can deconstruct ideas but they must not destroy people. Our students’ thoughts may be open to challenge, but their physical and psychological well-being must be our paramount concern.
Ultimately, we can help students learn in this time of vitriol that we can disagree with each other while not denigrating one another. As educators, we don’t have to settle for the current state of discourse in our country; we have the privilege and the responsibility to teach students that in a civil society, we can differ in our opinions and we can peacefully protest but there are universal values of respect and human rights that are fundamental to our democracy. In the process, our students will learn to carry a torch of truth and illumination rather than hatred and prejudice.