November 4, 2024
The news last week that the Bellevue (WA) School District has been confronting a rise in antisemitic graffiti forced me to reflect on my experience as a principal on Election Day 2016.
I knew I had to get to school early the Day After. I’m glad I did, since what greeted me were three large swastikas drawn in chalk on the concrete wall of the playground. Luckily, our custodian and I were able to clean them off before any kids arrived. As the sun came up, stunned teachers started asking if I would cancel our First Wednesday all-school assembly planned for that morning. No, I decided, it’s important for us to come together, to be a community, and to remind each other that nothing about those bonds and our care for each other will change as a result of the election. In fact, those bonds are more important than ever; they will strengthen us and we must nurture them.
But, as classes streamed into our vast new auditorium, I wasn’t prepared for the solemn sight of 700 young children, half of who were in tears and the other half wondering what was going on. For the rest of the day, teachers managed to keep things quiet, allowing older students time to talk together in groups if they wanted to, and otherwise maintaining quiet routines.
It’s been a busy Fall, and anyone who has been around schools knows how important this focus has been to start the school year right. This laser focus, however, can mean that we can careen into November like I did that year as a school principal without having planned ahead for the possible impact of the national election on my school community. Now, since many of us were in remote learning during the 2020 election, we may be out of practice recognizing how national events can impact a school community. What’s more, the divisiveness and vitriol that has marked the 2024 campaign means that many educators have likely chosen to avoid the topic completely.
National events have a way of impacting schools whether we want them to or not. Regardless of the political, racial, cultural or economic profile of your school community, you can be sure that your students are absorbing the general election anxiety adults are feeling heading into November 5, 2024. We also know that this election is likely not to be resolved with a clear winner that night. A prolonged process could raise anxiety even more for weeks or even months following the vote.
As a school leader, here are some things you can do to make sure your school is prepared for Election Day. Of course, most educators coming out of the pandemic are already tracking the importance of these important items, but it’s worth reviewing this list:
- Maintaining and practicing routines: students and staff will all process their emotions in different ways and at different times. The more predictable the school day (and school week) is, the easier it is for each person to find their own safety and set their own terms of engagement. A morning meeting or all-school assembly routine gives a chance of teachers to gauge what each student needs for the week.
- Communication protocols: families could be nervous about what their children are experiencing at school, so regular, informative communication is essential. Make sure this communication isn’t just positive and reassuring since the rhetoric in this year’s election has raised the anxiety of many communities in different ways. Many districts have family-teacher conferences scheduled this week or later this month; these “essential conversations” important opportunities to connect with each family individually and make sure they are all right.
- Talking about feelings: classroom meetings can provide a safe way for students to share how they are feeling about events. Check out the article below by Marc Brackett, creator of RULER, who speaks of using Mood Meter and Meta Moment protocols to help student name their emotions and to practice “being their best selves.” Don’t be surprised if students who are apt to respond with big emotions do exactly that this week.
- Everyone belongs..create a respectful environment: children, just like politicians, will often try to drown out others with loud words, and groups of students can get to chanting very quickly. It’s important to maintain school as a peaceful place where everyone feels safe and respected. Also, classrooms often include students who enjoy proclaiming opinions that are contrary to most of the others. I think of my student who prided himself on wearing a Broncos jersey the day after the Seahawks won the Super Bowl. It’s important for teachers to be prepared to protect those students from outrage from their peers while also not letting a contrarian view dominate or suck all the air out of a classroom discussion.
- Be truthful and informative: students of all ages appreciate being trusted with adult information that is presented at a developmentally appropriate level. Every classroom will have students who have a range of knowledge about the news that they have absorbed from parents, older siblings or media, so it’s especially important in the classroom to establish what the facts are that can be the basis for how the class will discuss the news of the day. It’s important not to give room for gossip, sensational “I heard” half-truths or foreboding “what if” hypotheticals that could raise everyone’s anxiety.
Additionally, here are some useful resources to share with staff who are interested:
- Addressing Election Anxiety (this is a 2016 article that is probably the most comprehensive and useful for teachers and school leaders)
- Helping Young Children Navigate Election Anxiety
- Election Anxiety Is a Thing
- Struggling to Discuss the Election in Class? These 5 Steps Can Help (RULER article)
- Teaching through a Presidential Election
- Post-election advice for the classroom (current, November 2024 article)
And if you have more time, I highly recommend these podcast conversations about fostering political conversations in the classroom.
Podcasts:
Bridging Youth Divides through Morning Classroom Conversations:
This podcast usually focuses on how adults can have less contentious, more fruitful conversations about schools, but my two guests on this episode have plenty to say about the need to strengthen communication and relationships among young people. In fact, Nina Murphy and Kellie Dromboski (along with Maurice Elias) have written a book on the subject called, Morning Classroom Conversations. They show how devoting just 15 minutes each day for genuine conversation can have significant social, emotional, and academic benefits. By creating “brave spaces” for student conversation, students learn how limiting, even damaging, modern day interactions can be. “Without that perspective, many young people’s view of themselves and their future is at the mercy of how their social media communications are made and responded to. As we know all too well, this can take the extreme form of making adolescents hypersensitive to cyberbullying—even to the point of anxiety, depression, of suicidality,” they write.
And to educators who say, “We have so much to cover, especially with the learning loss from the pandemic, that we don’t have time to add one more thing into our day,” Murphy, a school psychologist, says (around the 25:20 mark), “It takes more time when we don’t do it because of the time it takes to recover from all of the other difficulties students are having.” She says high school teachers at her school frequently tell her, “…they’ve had to stop a lesson because so-and-so was crying or because this one would not stop acting out or wouldn’t get off the phone…When you create that classroom community, you’re going to see less and less of those behaviors.”
Their book contains a wealth of resources to help educators integrate morning conversations into their schools and classrooms.
Politics in the Classroom in these Divided Times? Now More Than Ever, says Educator Diana Hess
My guest, Dr. Diana Hess, an educator and researcher who has studied teacher-student interactions, opposes this trend. “I think the job that we have as teachers is to help students understand the political environment in which they live. What are the important current events, what more importantly are the important controversial issues? And I don’t think that we can really have a democracy that’s going to be sustained without that.” She goes on to say that teachers should not only be permitted to discuss politics and controversial topics with their students, they should be required to do so. “I don’t think we can have high quality civic education without current events and controversial issues.”
Gerrit Kischner
connect-edleadership.com
Current Connections in Educational Leadership 