US education

Fifteen-year-old Sevan Minassian-Godner’s brain struggled to process the images of violent, pro-Trump insurrectionists defacing the Capitol.The scene reminded the Berkeley high school sophomore of a movie, maybe the Hunger Games. Not the unbreakable idea of American democracy he’s grown up learning about from pop culture, books and Hollywood.“One thing I remember going through my mind was, how could people do this? How is it possible?” he said. “To see on live television this revolt to a fair election really opened my eyes to how just awful right now our world is getting.”From Berkeley to Milwaukee to Maryland, young people are coming to terms with last week’s violence that left five dead and a president impeached for the second time. And right alongside, teachers are having to answer thorny questions about democracy, race, policing and where the country goes from here.Many teachers say kids have been remarkably resilient and curious about the events at the Capitol. They have also noticed that many of their students of color, sadly, did not find the scene shocking.The violence has taught students some tough lessons about the America they are coming of age in – one that has normalized political division and proved time and again that all citizens are not treated equally under the law. It’s important not to shy away from these conversations in the classroom, and to place events in context, educators say.“Reactionary violence is a thread in our nation’s history,” says Oscar Ramos, a ninth-grade history and government teacher in Maryland. “When people say they don’t understand how it could happen, that’s not true. We have to be clear-eyed in the history of our country to make sense of the events for kids. I believe they can handle being entrusted with hard truths.”A lesson in inequalityFew schools may be better positioned to help students unpack the conversation than Berkeley High, located in Berkeley, California, a cradle of progressive activism where discussions about white supremacy, voter suppression and toxic masculinity are woven into the ninth-grade curriculum.As events unfolded at the Capitol, Sevan’s mom, Hasmig Minassian, who teaches the freshmen seminar, said she and co-teachers quickly pivoted from a planned lesson on gender.After starting by defining terms like coup, sedition, insurrection, domestic terrorist and treason, teachers framed the day’s class by reminding students that what they had just seen was unprecedented.Then teachers presented contrasting images: photos of Black Lives Matter protesters doused with pepper-spray by militarized police forces, juxtaposed with images of a Capitol police officer taking a selfie with a rioter, or peacefully escorting an older intruder out of the building.In the images, students took note of the fact that unlike other political movements they have studied, this one seemed mostly devoid of young people, made up of instead of older white males – people who students described as being baited into violence by the very president they trusted, Minassian said.“Kids are really attuned to the fairness of things,” she said. “Forget left or right – they’re all about sniffing out what’s fair or unfair. And I think they saw a group of people being taken advantage of by Trump, and were really curious about the punishment for breaking into the building, or Nancy Pelosi’s office, then posting photos of it.”But to Minassian, what stands out most was how most students found the events troubling, but not unexpected.“It made me a little sad to hear how unsurprised the students were. I had to pick up more adults from the floor than kids that day,” Minassian said.For students of color, she added, the differential treatment by police was a reality they already understood. “Seeing burly white men assaulting the halls of government, with representatives hiding under their desks in fear, it didn’t feel that different from what they feel just walking down the street and passing a cop. It was like: welcome to my world.”‘Don’t shy away from hard conversations’Across the country in Montgomery county, Maryland, not far from the Capitol attack, Oscar Ramos started Thursday’s discussion with historical context, reminding students that democracy wasn’t meant for people of color when the country was first founded by white men, some of them slave owners, and how racialized violence is a recurring theme in US history.That day, in fact, the class had been scheduled to discuss Black Wall Street, a thriving center of Black culture and commerce that in 1921 was looted and destroyed by a white mob in what became known as the Tulsa Race Massacre, one of the deadliest racist attacks in US history.Ramos recalls pausing frequently as he led an open discussion about the Capitol attack, choosing words carefully so as not to alienate students whose narratives conflicted with those he presented. As a Latino teacher, Ramos worries about accusations of bias in the content he teaches. But, he said, choosing not to talk about racial violence is a form of bias, too.Janine Domingues, a clinical psychologist at the Child Mind Institute who specializes in helping children and families who have been affected by trauma, said it was important to be truthful when talking with children about the events at the Capitol, even if it means leaving out graphic details and keeping explanations simple.“For children, it’s important to check in on what they’re feeling and offer reassurance. ‘I know what you’re seeing is scary, but we’re safe right now,’” Domingues said. Children of color and those from marginalized communities may feel particularly vulnerable and targeted in the wake of racialized events, she added.Older children and teenagers may be ready for an open dialogue about what the events mean for the country, she said, though adults will still want to filter information and guide the conversation.“I think it’s a tremendous growth opportunity and a chance to give students skills for how to process what’s happening,” Domingues said. “As long as we don’t shy away from these hard conversations.”‘You have control over your actions’Those hard conversations were under way last week in the midwestern city of Milwaukee, as David Castillo, a planning assistant with the school district’s office of Black and Latino male achievement, helped lead a dialogue with the students he mentors.Castillo said students keyed in on how differently police had handled Black Lives Matter protests over the summer.“I could see the wheels turning in their heads, the cognitive dissonance that comes from recognizing the hypocrisy of that the same group that shouted ‘Blue Lives Matter’ are now attacking police,” Castillo said.“As Black and brown kids from inner-city Milwaukee, they know how law enforcement responds. It’s like: I already believed this, and now I have tangible evidence,’ he said.One fifth-grade teacher in Milwaukee, who asked not to be identified, said she was “blown away” by the level of engagement and sophistication with which her students discussed last week’s events.Part of the morning was dedicated to helping students recognize misinformation by comparing sources, a skill that she says educators have a moral obligation to equip students with. But most of the time was devoted to open discussion – one that lasted three hours.One student connected the apparent complicity by some of the Capitol police to the lack of Latino representation in textbooks. Others expressed fear, she said, asking whether the politicians in the Capitol were safe or if they had been kidnapped, or what could happen during Joe Biden’s inauguration.“I had to be honest that I shared those concerns about further conflict,” she said “I thought it would be more powerful if I was real with them.”Across town, on the city’s north side, first-grade teacher Angela Harris focused Thursday’s class on empathy and emotional regulation, using rioters’ actions as an example on how not to react.To make the discussion concrete, she tied it to the mock elections held previously in class – which Joe Biden won – and asked how they would feel if someone was so upset by the results they tore up the classroom. Students were indignant, she said. They immediately wanted to know what consequences such a person would face.Every student in Harris’s class is Black. Even at six years old, students noticed that police seemed to respond differently to the white mob than the ways they have seen cops behave in their community. Milwaukee has one of the highest incarceration rates in the US for Black men. More than half of all Black men living in Milwaukee county have been incarcerated before they reach 40, according to a 2013 study by UW-Milwaukee.“They have a fear of police even at five or six years old. It’s part of their everyday life,” Harris said. “For some of them that was the first time they might have seen white people interact with police,” she said.Harris said she didn’t dive deeply into this thread – they’ve already seen enough disparities just living in Milwaukee, she said, one of the nation’s most segregated cities – choosing instead to focus on the skills they could grow.“I want them to understand that at any moment, you have to be the one the who has control over your actions. And what happened at the Capitol is a perfect example of folks not being able to control their emotions.” More