I guess I didn’t hear the call to duty. Too busy in the off season profession of many teachers, scraping and painting my house, and I wasn’t able to help solve the debt-ceiling crisis with 40 of my fellow educators. In case you missed it, on July 27, The Onion reported that an emergency team of 8th grade civics teachers had to be airdropped into the District of Columbia to help our leaders understand basic principles of governance.
Eventually, Washington made its last minute deal but not without damaging our credit rating and leaving many citizens disgusted by the partisanism displayed by representatives sworn to serve the whole country.
It was a gloomy summer for national current events, but what does this mean to me as I get ready to go back to school? Will the events of these past couple of months influence my disposition in the classroom? My students sometimes think I am corny, but as a teacher of history, English, and civics, I have always felt a responsibility to convey a sense of pride in our system of government, culture, and country, and it's not just an act; I do feel proud. In spite of imperfections, our foundational documents, like the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Gettysburg Address, or even the more modern Atlantic Charter, are eloquent expressions of what is good about our core beliefs in equality and the potential for all citizens to participate in governance and enjoy economic opportunity.
Yet our government has messed up a lot in the past, and I am worried about the finances of the United States, the inability of our leaders to reach compromise and consensus, and the burden we will leave to the people I care for most: my students and my children. As teachers, we can’t just be cheerleaders; we have a responsibility to tell the truth about our sometimes-painful history and current state of affairs.
We can’t sanitize the world for our students, nor should we, but we can present content in a way that creates a sense of hope and optimism. We can start with Maya Angelou’s premise that,“[h]istory, despite its wrenching pain cannot be unlived, and if faced with courage, need not be lived again.” We can create lessons that demonstrate the tremendous progress toward recognition of universal human rights the world has made since 1776. We can draw student attention to the many times in history where leaders did innovate and achieve consensus in the face of great crises. We can empower kids with the understanding that they have the abilities to be problem solvers and the types of leaders who will see beyond self-interest.
So, as an educator, I will be energized, not gloomy, as I enter a classroom full of middle schoolers this September, in spite of the dismal summer. I get to be surrounded by hope.
