National Public Radio and ABC News warn, “teachers are on the front lines in Jan 6 culture war.” Depending are where they work, teachers experience different political pressures about how to discuss with students the events that took place at the United States Capital Building one year ago.
For younger children, important themes are community decision-making and fairness, the building blocks of a democratic society. In middle levels, grades 5 through 8, students learn about democratic processes, voting, civic action, fundamental rights and responsibilities, but also injustices. Current events lessons and references to illustrate important principles should include what happened on January 6, 2021 and the follow-up, but a specific lesson on January 6 itself may not necessarily be important.
In high school, either as current events or as part of the curriculum in United States history, grade 11, or Government, grade 12, students should be following the Congressional hearings, evaluating media coverage, and discussing the implications of events for the future of the United States. For these grades, the anniversary of January 6, with expanded media coverage, offers a teachable moment for more in-depth analysis.
While students and teachers are entitled to their opinions about the implications of the events, discussion in class has to be respectful, people have to listen and respond to each other, and speakers have an obligation to support their statements with evidence. The key role of the teacher is to prepare documents for evaluation, ask questions to student speakers, and moderate discussion.
A responsibility of a teacher is to guide students through multiple sources with different perspective so they can formulate their own questions, evaluate the sources and information, and arrive at conclusions supported by evidence. This process does not include deciding whether the events of January 6th happened, they happened; or whether it was an insurrection trying to block certification of the Presidential election; it was. This is documented in Congressional hearings and was established in numerous legal proceedings. The key questions for students to address are why the insurrection happened, whether President Trump and other members of his administration share legal or moral responsibility for the invasion of the Capitol Building, and what are the impacts of these events on the future of American democracy?
I recommend preparing a document package and the lessons can take more than one day. One difficulty will be partisan divide. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey found that despite widely viewed video footage, sixty percent of Republicans who were interviewed claimed that the attack on the U.S, Capitol was not violent or only somewhat violent. Offer students the opportunity to suggest additional documents for you to review for possible inclusion and discuss with them why you either decided to include it or leave it out. If students continue to press the claim that reports about the insurrection are exaggerated, let the class review and discuss the footage.
As a starting point, there are established facts about what happened on January 6, 2021. FACTS.
Over 700 people were charged with a variety of criminal behaviors on January 6, 2021 when a mob broke into the Capitol Building and attempted to prevent the certification of the 2000 Presidential election. The Federal Bureau of Investigation estimates that approximately 2,000 people were part of the mob that marched to the Capitol from a pro-Trump rally where the President and other speakers repeated unsubstantiated charges that the election was stolen. 140 law enforcement officers were injured during the attack, one died, and there was over a million and a half dollars in damage to the Capitol Building. The New York Times documented the lingering impact of the assault on the Capitol Building on Capitol police. Criminal charges include assaulting and resisting Capitol police officers, using a deadly weapon during an assault, violent and disorderly conduct, obstruction of justice, entering a restricted area, and demonstrating inside the Capitol Building. Over 160 of the rioters entered guilty pleas in exchange for lighter sentences. Seventy defendants have been sentenced. Thirty-one were jailed and eighteen received home detention. The longest prison term so far is five years. About 100 of the defendants have ties to recognized extremist groups. The FBI is continuing to collect tips about suspects at fbi.gov/wanted/capitol-violence, 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) and tips.fbi.gov.
During the attack on the Capitol Building, prominent Trump supporters including Fox News hosts and conservative commentators Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and Brian Kilmeade texted White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows imploring him to convince President Trump to stop the chaos by his supporters at the Capitol. Hannity texted Meadows “Can he make a statement? Ask people to leave the Capitol.” Ingraham texted that Trump should “tell people in the Capitol to go home." Donald Trump Jr., the President’s son, texted Meadows, “He’s got to condemn this [shit] Asap.”
At a noon rally near the White House, President Donald Trump told his supporters "We will never give up. We will never concede" and said he would march with them to the Capitol Building, which he didn’t do. At 1:30 PM Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell (Rep-KY), publically declared, "Voters, the courts, and the states have all spoken — they've all spoken. If we overrule them, it would damage our republic forever." At the same time protestors broke through police barricades at the U.S. Capitol and at 2 PM protestors forcefully broke into the Capitol Building. At 2:20 PM the Capitol Building went into lock-down.
The President tweeted numerous times that afternoon. At 2:24 PM he attacked Vice-President Pence, accusing him of lacking “the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!” It was not until 2:38 PM, more than an hour and a half after Trump supporters first breached the Capitol Building barricades and more than a half an hour after they stormed into the building to disrupt the election certification, that the President tweeted to his supporters to “Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!” A tweet at 3:01 PM asked his supporters “at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!” At 4:17 PM President Trump tweeted a video where he told his followers, “I know your pain, I know your hurt. We love you, you're very special, you've seen what happens, you've seen the way others are treated . . . I know how you feel, but go home, and go home in peace." That evening, President Trump tweeted, "These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long." He never condemned their actions.
Mitt Romney, a Republican Senator from Utah, called what happened on January 6, 2021 “an insurrection, incited by the president.” On Fox News, Liz Cheney, a Republican member of the House of Representatives from Wyoming, stated, “There’s no question the president formed the mob. The president incited the mob. The president addressed the mob. He lit the flame.”
The New York Times published useful lesson ideas to aid teachers. It also recommends consulting the websites of Learning for Justice (formerly Teaching Tolerance), Facing History and Ourselves, and the Anti-Defamation League. The Times package include documents with questions sorted into the following themes: Understanding what happened and reacting to it; Investigating President Trump’s responsibility; Exploring why democracy requires a peaceful transfer of power; Examining assertions of a law enforce ‘stark double standard’; Understanding the roots of the riot; Considering the role of the news media and the power of language; Scrutinizing how social media can facilitate insurrection; and putting January 6, 2021 into historical context.
Follow Alan Singer on twitter at https://twitter.com/AlanJSinger1
