A few months ago I sent a note home commenting on how we planned to engage the student community in conversations about the presidential election process, it now seems all the more important to do so as we approach an early start to the general election. While these conversations continue, and will pick up in the fall, it is essential to look at not only the explicit conversations about this election and these candidates, but to look at the themes and content, embedded in the curriculum, that will support the students’ understanding of the issues and the process of this election and, for that matter, of any political contest.
For many of the students in our lower school the election is about the people, and not the issues (similar to the focus of many of the candidates.) For these students for whom the meat of the campaign is likely too sophisticated to truly understand, the real work is found in a focus on the issues that underlie our democracy, that either bring together or separate communities; that promote individual success within communal growth. When wanting to speak with, to educate, young children about the election and the issues it brings to the surface, one need look no further than their work in school on any given day. To give a few examples:
- The Fours home visits have many benefits. Among these is helping our youngest students to encounter lives different from their own and to ponder the questions, “How can we be classmates and have different lives?” “Can we find community even if we are not “the same”? It seems to me that those who aim to govern would do well to struggle with these questions, as well.
- I think about a protest that one of the Kindergarten classes staged. Unhappy with a classroom rule, the students marched on my office, having a first experience with dissent. As American as apple pie, though frowned upon by some of the powers that be.
- First and second graders look at the neighborhood and at New York City thinking about what it takes to make a community. What are the component parts of a community? What services? What opportunities? How do you foster and support this gathering of people?
- Third graders begin to look back in time and to develop the skills of imagining the future through the lens of past experiences. Hugely important.
- The fourth grade’s study of historic and current issues/trends/stories in immigration is quite timely this year and challenges us to think about what it means to be American. Along with the third grade, this study increases the volume of content to which the students are exposed.
How about our older students?
In the middle school:
- Fifth graders participate in a “civilization simulation,” looking at how to create successful civilizations, examining what they have in common and why early peoples came together at all. Clearly an issue in any thoughtful campaign.
- A more specific example from the sixth grade. It has been a pleasure, as a sixth grade dad, to listen to my son’s reactions to campaign comments about Islam, based on all he has learned in social studies. He knows a lot and can apply his knowledge.
- Seventh graders study Colonial America and the beginning of our democracy, analyzing the causes of early political conflict.
- The eighth grade social studies curriculum focuses on the period in American history from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement, a time when the citizenry were actively involved in charting the course of the nation. This program is rife with opportunities to connect with national political issues and to encourage our young citizens to imagine themselves voting in just a few years (election 2020.)
In high school:
- Again, as in the middle school, in addition to underlying values, there is significant exposure to content area knowledge and analytic skills in ninth grade world history and tenth grade American history.
- As you move to eleventh grade and then to twelfth, students can choose from electives in world history, American history, examine American foreign policy since 9/11, study Constitutional law, and, this fall, bring the election into tight focus, for example.
- Our new eleventh grade overnight trip took the juniors to five different sites to study six issues that are a challenge to American democracy—climate change, educational equity, urban revitalization, criminal justice reform, migrant farmworker rights, and how we welcome refugees as our newest Americans.
So, while we will speak about the election with specific focus on the current issues and personalities, our ongoing, progressive curriculum offers opportunities to think about both the underlying concepts, and the specific content that flesh out the core issues in this election and in those to come. It is important to note that I commented solely on our social studies and history curricula. There are additional opportunities—many, many of them—in literature discussions, science classes, cultural studies in language courses, arts experiences, and in assemblies and field trips spread throughout the 14-year LREI experience. When school is connected to the world, in general, and during times, such as this election, that provide so many vivid moments, your child’s experiences in school provide opportunities to develop skills and abilities that will serve them for a lifetime.