Teaching in Polarized Times

Eight complaints. In the fall of 2020, administrators at my school—North Syracuse Junior High—received eight complaints about a lesson I taught in the run-up to the presidential election. Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was. I had taught this lesson in 2008, 2012, and 2016 without any controversy. But by 2020, something had shifted in my purple New York county. Not only were there eight complaints, but not a single parent contacted me. Not one asked about the purpose of my lesson, how the students interacted, or what they could learn through participating. No curiosity. No dialogue. No chance to explain. Still, I am fortunate: I have very supportive administrators who didn’t want me to change a thing.

What was this complaint-worthy lesson? It was a project using iSideWith.com. On a Google form, my eighth- and ninth-graders anonymously stated which presidential candidate they would vote for. Then they took an iSideWith survey that asked how they felt about prominent issues, which generated an iSideWith report about which candidate they most closely associated with and thus should vote for. Back in the Google form, they anonymously reported which candidate iSideWith suggested. The last step was a group discussion noting trends, exploring issues, and considering how many students’ initial responses were different from iSideWith’s suggestions. Despite this all being anonymous and me never revealing my political affiliation or voting intentions, eight parents claimed I was indoctrinating their kids.

In the midst of this, I received a survey from the AFT about teaching civics, and I poured out my frustration and concern. I wanted to help fix the problem of increasing polarization, not by expecting people to agree but by teaching them to disagree in a civil, respectful way. When an AFT staff member invited me to join a team to create civics professional development from scratch, I was thrilled. Over the next three years, I worked with five other extraordinary secondary educators to develop, pilot, and refine Deepening Civics Skills Through Classroom Dialogue. The experience reinvigorated me—and because of this professional development work, my district is allowing me to create a civics elective for this fall.

Behind the Scenes

Early on, my teammates and I struggled with what this professional development should include. We knew we wanted it to be a set of ideas, skills, and strategies that teachers could adapt for a wide variety of courses, but we had far too many ideas and priorities, and all of them seemed important. Corralled in a hotel convention center, we put sticky notes on the wall with everything we wanted to include. Once we started grouping them, suddenly it turned into the road map for the course.

The course starts with why civics matters and moves quickly into creating safe and brave spaces where students feel comfortable sharing their opinions. From there we have a segment called “What Is Truth?” about vetting news sources and spotting misinformation in social media. In our pilots, that media literacy content really grabbed teachers—it’s a problem many educators are grappling with. Next up is an exploration of whether it is or can be acceptable for teachers to share their political views. When we started building this part of the course, I was a firm no. But through several fascinating discussions, I’ve come to see that it can sometimes be appropriate—especially with older students who understand that no one is trying to sway them. The remainder of the course is a series of discussion strategies that progress from heavily supporting students to expecting students to lead.

I regularly use the media literacy and discussion strategies in my eighth-grade US history and ninth-grade world history courses. For example, in eighth grade, when we get to yellow journalism and the Spanish-American war, I take time to ask, “What does this look like?” I do the media literacy piece almost exactly like we present it in the professional development course, engaging students in vetting news sources. Sourcing documents for AP World History with my ninth-grade students is another parallel, as we are looking for bias in primary sources.

I’ve used all the discussion strategies, but I really love Philosophical Chairs and Harkness. These are the two ends of the spectrum in terms of supporting students.

One of my favorite Philosophical Chairs lessons with my eighth-graders starts with two articles, one on W. E. B. Du Bois and one on Booker T. Washington, that explain their views on civil rights. I divide the class in two, arranging the chairs in two rows facing each other. One side represents Du Bois, the other Washington. Philosophical Chairs works great for this because it’s not a debate; it’s a controlled discussion with each side taking turns. An essential feature is that there is no right answer. I give students sentence starters that require them to summarize what the other side just said, and to maximize participation I make students wait three turns before they can speak again. I step in as needed to keep the discussion on track, and at the end I wrap up what we learned.

Harkness is on the other side of the spectrum, with students leading the discussion. I haven’t tried it with my eighth-graders, but it’s amazing with my ninth-graders. I give them a reading and a couple of basic discussion questions. Then we make a big circle. I don’t sit in the circle; I sit at my desk and record how and where the conversation is going. In preparation, I make a list of things that I hope students talk about; if they don’t, I cover them afterward. It’s very hard the first time you use this method because you’ll want to fill the silences, but you have to let them happen. The silences make students uncomfortable, but then someone will make a comment that sparks another. Each year, the first time I use this method, it’s a debacle. By the third time, it’s dynamic.

One Harkness discussion we had this year was based on a reading about the rise of monotheism and Greek rationalism in second-wave civilizations. My prompts were very basic: “Talk first about the birth of monotheistic religions. When you’re done with that, talk about Greek rationalism. Then, compare and contrast them. Do they fit in the same category?” The students’ discussion was awesome. First, they talked Judaism and Zoroastrianism and eventually touched on Christianity. When they transitioned to Greek rationalism, they realized that it was totally secular—it was the basis of science and the scientific method. That’s something I could have told them, but it’s far more powerful for them to come to this realization together.

Now that my ninth-graders are accustomed to Harkness, they can circle up and discuss anything. They even talked about the Second Amendment after a Jon Stewart clip related to a school shooting caused a buzz in the school. Of course, we had to build up to this type of civil discussion. I encourage quiet students to participate and help outspoken students learn to listen. During these discussions, I often draw a circle and write students’ names in it to represent where they are sitting. As the discussion unfolds, I draw lines to track who has spoken (and how often) and who has yet to contribute. Especially the first couple of times we try Harkness, I have students who are too afraid to speak up. By the end of the year, nearly everyone participates.

Education, Not Indoctrination

Teachers are struggling with divisive and polarizing issues nationwide, and I fear it will only get worse as the election nears. If this new professional development supports teachers in helping students learn to discern fact from fiction and to engage in civil discussions, I’ll feel like I have contributed to the good of my profession.

Today more than ever, I’m committed to helping children communicate openly and respectfully in a safe, brave space. And even more than in years past, I am emphasizing fact-checking—especially for things they see on social media. Some parents claim that learning to fact-check is indoctrination, but it remains essential to my courses. Learning to find the truth is necessary for becoming knowledgeable citizens. If you intend to change your students’ minds, that’s indoctrination. If you intend instead to educate them on how they can find the truth themselves, and also find what is important to them as a future voter, that’s education. My intention is to teach students how to think, how to find the truth, and how to communicate civilly. Our civics design team hopes this professional development helps our colleagues across the country do the same.

Tim Krueger, an educator with 20 years’ experience, currently teaches eighth-grade US history and ninth-grade world history at North Syracuse Junior High School in Syracuse, New York, and is a member of the North Syracuse Education Association. A West Point graduate and army veteran, Krueger’s love of civics and deep knowledge of US government is evident throughout his career.

[Illustrations by Sophie Escavy Lim]