Teachers help to make sense of Capitol violence

Social studies teachers nationwide set aside lesson plans this week to help young people make sense of scenes of violent siege in Washington by supporters of President Donald Trump.

A teacher in Alabama presented photographs of insurrection at U.S. Capitol without commentary and asked students to write poems in reflection. A Minnesota instructor fielded comparisons to aftermath of George Floyd's killing.

Approaches varied, with some teachers deliberately holding off on historical comparisons with events so fresh. Many trod cautiously in light of varied political viewpoints in ir classrooms and communities.

But educators universally described efforts to hear out students' fears and concerns and instill a sense of history and even hopefulness in a school year shaped by nation's reckoning over racial injustice, coronavirus pandemic and constraints of distance learning.

Many teachers said y tried to focus on importance of engment and to push back against creeping sense that violence is inevitable end to political division.

In deeply conservative Alabama, 10th grade teacher Blake Busbin said he, too, considered how his presentation and langu could be perceived by students and community.

Busbin, a teacher at Auburn High School, made a point to let students watch chaos unfold on TV. He was a high school senior on 9/11 and school principal ordered a media blackout, which he felt cost him an opportunity to watch history in t he making.

day after Capitol siege, he rose before dawn and gared 25 photographs that he showed for 10 to 15 seconds each without saying anything, n asked students to write poems. He wanted it to be day a of reflection.

"My strategy, as I told my students, I like to consider myself kind of like a grill master," he said. "Before you put meat on grill, it needs to marinate for a while."

students submitted poems anymously, and y weren't read in class. Busbin said y helped him understand students' frame of mind and will help guide future instruction.

poems, he said, show a desire for a more harmonious government, a more bipartisan approach and a belief that things can get better.

In David McMullen's classroom at Great Path Academy in Manchester, Connecticut, politics emerged when a student addressed unfounded claims that it was a false flag operation. Ar student stepped in and said even if that were case, president and supporters had encourd mob neless.

"Today was just to kind of soak in events and talk about m and write some stuff down, because, as I tell my students, y are future's primary sources," he said.

McMullen and or teachers also heard out students who were deeply affected by photographs of Confederate flags carried through halls of Capitol and who saw a double standard in heavier response by police to Black Lives Matter protests.

Reising said conversation among her students was strained by ir hybrid learning model, and because some have t even met face to face. But she tried to end discussion on a hopeful te.

South St. Paul, Minnesota, teacher Mark Westpfahl set aside his planned lesson on state treaties and instead grabbed morning newspapers with ir "Insurrection" headlines to use as visual aides to teach his sixth grade students, who are learning remotely.

Just miles from fiery clashes ignited by Floyd's death, re were questions from his students about police response that will carry into lessons next week.

As he taught his 10- and 11-year-old students over video, three or four parents made ir way into view on his screen but didn't interrupt.

In such a fraught political climate, Westpfahl said, "you are wondering, are you listening because you're finding this fascinating and interesting, or are you listening because you want to question everything that I'm saying or doing?"

(Im Credit: AP)