Teacher: Goal is to grow 'civic-minded critical thinkers' in lessons about attack on Capitol
Rioters loyal to President Donald Trump rally at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. Credit: AP/Jose Luis Magana
Teaching about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol can be challenging for educators, as two very different political points of view have emerged about that day, educators say.
North Shore High School history teacher Greg Perles said he knows that some teachers may shy away from discussing the attack on Thursday, the anniversary of the event. Nonetheless, the teacher of 27 years said he will walk into his 12th-grade history class and begin that lesson.
"I'm not dodging the issue," said Perles, noting that there are other controversial issues that teachers must address. "You have to teach about climate change in environmental science and evolution in biology."
In the year since followers of then-President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol, the incident has become the subject of two narratives, with many on the political right believing people that day were angry over the theft of the presidential election from Trump, and the left calling it a violent insurrection based on untruths.
New York State standards on education do not mandate teaching about the attack, so lessons may vary among Long Island's 124 school districts, said Alan Singer, a Hofstra University teaching professor.
While students are entitled to their opinions about the event, they must treat one another with respect and critically evaluate the difference between facts and misinformation, Singer said.
"The key role of the teacher is to prepare documents for evaluation, ask questions and moderate the discussion," he said.
The day should be a teachable moment filled with lessons, Singer said. Kids can learn about fairness and community decision-making, the building blocks of a democratic society. Students in the middle grades can learn about the democratic process and civic action. And high schoolers can discuss the Congressional hearings, evaluate media coverage and discuss the implications of the event for the future, he said.
Perles, for his part, said he'll show students some video footage of the attack, when a mob of Trump supporters stormed a joint session of Congress in an effort to overturn his loss to Joe Biden.
He'll ask students for their comments, reactions and questions. He'll raise the issue of whether political violence can be justified. And he'll ask them about what questions they need to ask to research the event and come to responsible conclusions about it.
But he won't explore the issue of whether the election was stolen, beyond citing the court cases, ballot audits and lawsuits that show it was legitimate. Whether the day was violent is also not up for debate, he said.
"Most things in history can be debated, but there are other things. I'm not going to debate whether the Holocaust happened, and I'm not going to have some false debate over whether slavery was a good thing," Perles said.
He said the class discussion will be guided by a classroom culture of "attack ideas, not people," and "cite evidence to substantiate every claim."
In the Plainview-Old Bethpage district, grades seven through 12 will use the day to focus on finding the truth of it, said Maria Carnesi, the district's social studies chair. The importance of such judgment is punctuated in "news literacy" lessons that permeate those grades, which focus on identifying bias and finding credible sources, she said.
She praised those teachers who take on the subject, coming at a time when teachers are being called out over lessons on race, school districts are removing books and angry parents have inflamed school board meetings over issues ranging from mask-wearing to the teaching of diversity and inclusion.
Carnesi said there's concern that lessons on Jan. 6 could create a backlash among some parents and students.
Compounding the stress, the anniversary comes as teachers struggle to do their work amid an ongoing health crisis, landing them on the front lines of both the battle against COVID-19 and the political culture wars roiling America, she said.
"It takes a lot of courage to do this," Carnesi said. "The goal is to grow civic-minded critical thinkers who can engage in this democracy."
Craig Schneider is a Long Island native and Stony Brook University alumnus. He joined Newsday as a general assignment reporter in January 2018 after 20 years at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
