Five Lessons from the Election for American Schools

With the close of the election and the apparent transfer of power, the ills of society are figural. Whether you feel vindicated or cheated, it’s clear we have considerable work to do on our evolutional continuum. The ability to differ peacefully and constructively, to value differences even with different values, to recognize and embolden our most oppressed citizens, to decipher fact from fiction, and to balance our morality with the negotiation of ethics and values, are all paramount to both our healing and advancement. With this work emerges a new set of priorities, squarely affixed on the shoulders of our primary and secondary school systems, who will help ensure we prepare our next generation of decision makers.

 Constructive Differencing: Conflict resolution has become antiquated. We can’t simply teach our students to disagree peacefully and expect they will gain the tools needed to bridge the great divide in this country. We need a concerted effort to prepare our educators to be facilitators for the meaningful exploration of differences that keep people connected.

Equity and Social Justice: With implicit and explicit racism fueling social injustice and catalyzing violence, it’s time for our curriculum to reflect this pressing need. From understanding the historical influences of oppression to the current economic disparity, we can’t solve complex problems like food desserts or institutional racism without immersing ourselves in debate on fairness.

Discernment of Information: We are inundated with information from social media making it difficult to root out fact from opinion. Confirmation bias is reinforced by the rapid spread of misinformation making it difficult to filter unbiased data. Schools need to help students learn how to vet sources of information, contrast opposing claims and make educated choices about complex issues.

Ethics, Values, and Morals: Winning at all costs means losing, a lesson we need to learn from this election. If we defend our values without a balance of ethics, we risk damaging our moral compass. Integrity through transparency, honesty, and civility need to guide our process of debate, discussion and dialogue if we wish to maintain unity and order as a society.

Power Balanced with Responsibility: If we want to prevent a Darwinian attitude from igniting our base instincts, we have to remember a simple premise. Those who hold influence must cautiously use it to empower others rather than to amplify their own agenda. This is a difficult lesson to learn in hierarchical systems where students have no agency.

Trauma and Healing: The scaffolding of the pandemic, social justice issues, and an aggressively contested election means both chronic and acute stress on a massive scale. Adults and children are grappling with resiliency to endure without hope for timely relief. Psychosocial emotional learning to begin our recovery is required for any other academic agenda to succeed.

 If schools prepare with this new agenda they can help heal this country from the traumatic effects of the past four years. Violence in cities across the country tell us a tipping point has been reached and we can’t return to the status quo. To move beyond quieting the vitriol to deeper repair, we need to begin with the learning machine that prepares young people to lead.