Uncharted Territory

By Aleta Margolis , Founder and President

Prefer audio? Listen to this week’s issue on the Hooray For Monday podcast.

Just a few hours ago, President Joe Biden announced he is withdrawing from the race for President, throwing his full support behind Vice President Kamala Harris.

This is truly a historical moment, as only two other incumbent presidents in recent history - Harry S. Truman and Lyndon B. Johnson - did not seek reelection. And in those cases, the decisions were made much farther away from the election than President Biden’s decision.

President Biden's decision is surely sparking lots of emotion: excitement, worry, disappointment, hope, fear, and much more. It is not our job as educators to tell children how to think, which candidates to support, and certainly not how to vote. But it is absolutely our job as educators, as Instigators of Thought, to invite our children to engage in society. If school were in session right now, consider the questions you might ask your students:

• When have you had to make a really hard decision? What helped you decide what to do?
• What makes a president successful?
• What qualities do you think a presidential candidate must have in order to be successful?
• What do you think about President Biden’s decision not to seek reelection?
• What would you have done if you were in his place?
• What do you think will happen next?
• What do you hope will happen next?
• What do you know about how elections work? What do you want to learn?
• If you’re not old enough to vote, what are some other ways you can be involved in an election?
• For students 18 and over: Are you registered to vote? If not, here’s how you can register.
• For students of all ages: What are issues that matter to you in your local community? (Think…bike paths, leash laws, regulations for using athletic fields, noise disturbance ordinances, rules about posting signs on public property, and much more.) How do people make decisions about these issues in your community?
• Who were Harry S. Truman and Lyndon B. Johnson? How did their decisions not to seek reelection compare to President Biden’s decision?
• Do you think the actions of the President of the United States affect you? Why or why not?
• What would make you interested in running for office one day? What do you think you’d need to do in order to become a political candidate?

For my readers who are teaching summer school and/or parenting your own children right now, these are great questions to start asking today. If you won’t be in the presence of children until school resumes, now is a good time to start thinking about what kinds of questions you’ll be asking when you go back. How can you build on this historical moment, and the important moments that will surely occur over the coming weeks and months?

The children in our care today - whether they are elementary students, middle schoolers, or young adults - will be leaders in our communities and in our nation soon enough. In this space of great uncertainty, every day will bring a new teachable moment. And those moments don’t have to be partisan. We are ALL asking big questions right now, regardless of where we stand politically. Modeling that curiosity for our students is an essential part of teaching them how to be active members of a democratic society.

School leaders: what can you do this fall to encourage, and then uplift and celebrate, those teachers who teach students how to navigate, investigate, and interact with the very important historical events unfolding before our eyes? This kind of teaching requires navigating uncharted territory, especially when history in the making isn’t in any textbooks - but strong leaders support teachers in the very necessary work of letting thoughtful inquiry chart a path through the unknown.

My friends who are history and civics teachers have always said: We are living history every single day. On a day like today it’s impossible not to feel that truth. As teachers, we have a sacred responsibility to equip our students not only to live history, but to make it wisely.