I know that the current election results is something that is on a lot of our minds, but especially as educators, it's something we may have to deal with on a day to day basis, and it's a topic we can't really talk about. So, what do we do?
Well, I propose that we talk about it anyway.
As teachers, we know that we are not supposed to bring our personal opinions into the classroom when it comes to topics like who our new president is, but I fully feel like this is a conversation we can have with our students without revealing how we feel one way or another.
One of our main goals as teachers is to make and environment for out students in which anyone and everyone can feel comfortable. This means everyone. The biggest result of this election so far is that it has caused so much division in society, and everyone is more concerned with who you supported than what other wonderful traits you have as a person. People are being reduced to "Hillary supporters" or "Trump supporters", and that simply isn't how to world works.
Now, we've all known for a long time that in a culture that is a diverse as the American culture, there is no way that everyone can think in the same ways and believe in the same things, but all of a sudden, we see people who come from different perspectives, and we tell them that they are inherently wrong. This is not something we would ever want to hear ourselves. So of course our students wouldn't want to hear this as well.
As a result of this election, many students are scared. They may be scared because they see the tension that surrounds a situation like this, and it all seems too big for them. Many of us work in culturally diverse schools, so we see students who are all of the sudden worried that they are going to be discriminated against for being who they are. This is the case for all of our students. Hispanic students express fear over the safety of their families in America. Gay students wonder, when things were just starting to look better, if their lives will be increasingly more difficult. And students who are considered more conservative are treated with mistrust when they have never shown any reason to be.
We need to get our students talking. We need to keep them as informed as we can, so they aren't spreading misinformation and just propagating mistreatment on any scale.
An article I read by The New York Times talks about an Iowa school that experienced student protests and student walk outs because they were frightened, and saw this, like many other people in our country, as a way to have their voices heard.
"Like many other schools around the country since the election, West High has become a microcosm of the United States itself, a place roiled by tension, divisions and mistrust. Students in many schools say supporters of Donald J. Trump have felt empowered to lash out at minorities, while outraged backers of Hillary Clinton have been spurred to organize and demonstrate. And teachers have been struggling to provide guidance even as they themselves are processing the election results."
But it wasn't just the minorities who were feeling scared.
"Even Trump supporters say they feel under siege. Two girls walked into the principal’s office after the election and told him that as conservatives, they did not feel safe walking through the halls, were receiving dirty looks and felt they were not “on an equal basis” to other students, the principal, Gregg Shoultz, said."
Students hear snippets. They hear what their parents have to say. They see what's on TV or what's on the internet. But many may not know how to process that information, or know how to sort out the media's wheat from the chaff. As teachers we should be showing them how to keep their eyes open, and how to seek out information and answers. We should be telling them that it's ok to have opinions, but it's not ok to be a bully. We can't just sweep this one under the rug. We need to talk to them.
I don't think I have all the right answers, and I don't think dealing with something like this in the classroom will ever be easy, but I do think as teachers it's important that we face social issues and talk about them with our students instead of ignoring them.
If you're interested in reading The New York Times article, I have linked it here.
