How teachers talk about the election with students in Philadelphia-area schools

As a government and economics teacher at Great Valley High School who brings up the topic of dictatorship in his class, Gerry McGrath felt compelled to tell his students about comments that emerged last week from former President John Kelly Donald Trumpchief of staff, describing his former boss as a fascist.

However, McGrath didn’t want any of the students to feel uncomfortable based on their political views.

So instead of having a discussion about Kelly’s recording interview for the New York Times, he mentioned the article and showed the hallmarks of fascism on a screen in the classroom “so students could make up their minds.” He also spoke about the characteristics of communism — in light of Trump’s accusations against the vice president Kamala Harris he is a communist.

“It might be a little bit radioactive,” McGrath said.

As Trump and Harris continue to bombard Pennsylvania with campaign stops and political ads ahead of Tuesday’s election, local educators are also fighting an uphill battle and are doing their best to provide students with facts and context while avoiding any accusations of bias.

Teachers say they want to educate students about the election and encourage them to think critically, but not influence students who are still forming their own opinions – all while acknowledging the different partisan leanings that may exist in their classrooms and therefore goes, in their homes. This task becomes more difficult due to the intensity of the political climate, including the conservative movement accused public schools of indoctrinating students.

Teachers are afraid to say “anything that would make people feel uncomfortable” or could be misinterpreted, said Pamula Hart, director of curriculum and equity for the North Penn School District. “They don’t want to make a mistake.”

“It’s a difficult issue these days.”

Even those who teach about the election, as they have in years past, say they are aware of the rise in tensions. “I’m very, very aware of the divide and how sensitive I have to be and how absolutely neutral I am,” said Megan Kabatt, who talks about the election every day while teaching Advanced Placement government classes at Phoenixville Area High School – Track polls, analyze “horse race” journalism, and compare Trump and Harris’ platforms.

Kabatta whose class includes students identifying as Republicans AND Democratsshows “both sides of every issue.” Still, she said: “It’s very difficult to walk a tightrope these days. Invariably, someone will be upset no matter what you say.

Citizen EdWeek Research Center Survey conducted this summer found that 58% of elementary and middle school teachers did not plan to talk about the election. Although most of these teachers said it was unrelated to the subject they taught, more than 20% said they were afraid it would lead to complaints from parents. An additional 20% said they felt students could not discuss the topic with each other “in a respectful manner.”

Ben Lebofsky, a seventh-grade social studies teacher in the Council Rock school district, said the elections don’t mesh well with the world history curriculum he teaches, so he doesn’t include them in his lessons.

But he is also mindful of administrative directives to “exercise caution” when discussing the election, given partisan divisions in the government Bucks County district.

“Some of my colleagues are very concerned about being talked about in public,” Lebofsky said. He tries to build trust with parents by telling them at night when they return to school that their children will likely come to school with political issues and that his job is to provide a historical perspective.

Administrators like Hart say they don’t want teachers to avoid election conversations. “The worst thing we can do is ignore it,” Hart said, pointing interview at Harvard Graduate School of Education in which lecturer Eric Soto-Shed argues that teachers have a key role to play in restoring Americans’ faith in the democratic system.

“I feel a little nervous”

Hart said that to help prepare teachers, the North Penn district holds biweekly meetings where they can get feedback on lesson plans. “Everyone starts with, ‘I feel a little nervous,’” Hart said. Administrators suggested that teachers could use elections as a tool to teach various skills, such as media literacy and data analysis.

In the Pennridge School District – where in 2021, teachers were instructed not to talk about the January 6 insurrection with students — Social studies teachers this year participated in six hours of professional development on the election and “had difficult conversations” in the classroom, Jenna Vitale, the district’s K-12 social studies curriculum director, said in an email. Part of the training included role-playing to prepare for “spontaneous conversations,” Vitale said.

Vitale said teachers include the election issue “in the classroom where appropriate,” including studying Electoral College and Supreme Court voting decisions. “It really depends on the course content and the appropriate schedule.”

» READ MORE: Pennridge is terminating its contract with a former Hillsdale employee who promised an “ideology-free” education.

Central Bucks, another school district which survived intense partisan divisionsreleased last month guidelines specifying that teachers “should refrain from expressing or in any way taking a position on controversial issues, whether political, religious or ideological, while on school premises or during school activities.”

Steven Yanni, the district’s new superintendentsaid in an interview that employees “are free” to discuss the election “as long as they do not express their personal position.”

“We don’t want people to be afraid to talk about the election,” Yanni said. “We just want to make sure everyone stays within the bounds of what is acceptable.” He said the rules also protect staff, so “if we hear from an upset parent, we can say, ‘Here are the guidelines we’re following.'”

Ideological debates

Kabatt, a teacher in Phoenixville, stated that she does not try to share her own ideology with students. Some colleagues disagree, believing teachers “should be transparent,” she said. But “I don’t want my ideology shaping their ideology.”

Students in Kabatt’s classes generally know where their peers stand, in part because kids share their views on social media. “They’re not shocked when one of my liberals says something and then one of my conservatives says it,” she said.

IN Downtown At Jacob Haarlander High School, in an American government class, students are allowed but not expected to share their political beliefs, which “can be quite difficult,” Haarlander, 16, said.

Although the class included the election—students watched clips of the presidential and vice presidential debates—some topics were left out of discussion. For example, the item to be selected from the list of campaign issues to analyze did not include abortion.

Haarlander said that although he is not old enough to vote yet, talking about the election in school gives students the opportunity to “at least immerse themselves” in politics and understand how it affects their lives.

Ian Rosenzweig, Sr Haverford at school, he said that students largely fueled the conversations about choices he had in his classes.

“Discussing current events is never something we will shy away from,” said Rosenzweig, 18, whose history classes discussed the differences between democracies and dictatorships, as well as fascism and Marxism – topics that have come up during the presidential race – although he said the discussions in class were “very theoretical.”

“I think it’s important to have these discussions in an environment that is intentionally civil,” he said.

Some teachers said they noticed that classroom conversations about the election were less heated than they expected. Students are “so connected to social media that they’ve already kind of filtered themselves,” said Don Morabito, who has taught social studies at Great Valley High School for 32 years.

He noted that in 2020 and during the attack on the U.S. Capitol, juniors and seniors were only seventh- and eighth-grade students. “None of this is shocking to them,” Morabito said.

Like other teachers, he told students that election results might not be known quickly and said he was “mentally prepared” for the uncertainty.

Hart said North Penn is planning another visit the day after the election to provide teachers with a “safe space” to express concerns and ask questions.

“You can’t say, ‘We’re not going to talk about this today,’” Hart said.