After This Bitter Election, What Do I Expect of Our Schools?

As I start writing this blog, I am sitting at my desk on Tuesday, November 6, 2018. Yes, it is election day, and Deborah and I plan to vote this afternoon. I am ready to see the end of this campaigning season. We have experienced everything from hateful name-calling to the massacre of 11 Americans who were worshiping in their Jewish synagogue. As a history teacher, this massacre greatly troubles my soul. Are we no better than the Nazis during the 1930s?

We are historically incorrect and politically naïve if we think elections in this country were much more civil in the past. As a native of Tennessee, I have often read the story of the election of Andrew Jackson as the 7th President of the United States. Jackson made bitter enemies throughout his lifetime, and they wanted to prevent him from becoming president of the United States. However, it was next to impossible to shake the confidence of Jackson, so they went after Rachel, his wife. She was called the epitome of a profligate woman: a bigamist, an adulteress, and a whore. Their accusations were so hurtful and vicious that she died between election day and the day that Jackson was to take the office of President of the United States. Jackson became so depressed that many of his supporters feared that he would not go to Washington to take the oath of office. Jackson blamed her death on his political enemies, especially Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun. They were Jackson’s bitter enemies until the day he died.

Another presidential election that was filled with name-calling was the election in which Theodore Roosevelt ran as a third-party candidate. Although he had been a friend, Roosevelt grew to despise his hand-picked successor in the Republican Party, William Howard Taft, toward whom he directed his hate-filled speech and name-calling.

To add to our pain, in 2018 we live with the power of technology, especially the Internet and 24-hour news cycles. This means that we cannot get away from the hateful speech and name-calling, as well as the senseless acts of violence.

Regardless, we cannot stand by and not do nothing. We owe our children a response to the civic and political climate in which they are being raised. Yes, I do have a few suggestions for schools.

Suggestion one: Students will be able to define stereotype and give a current example of a group being unfairly judged through stereotype. 

It is unethical to stereotype an entire group of people based on the knowledge one has of a single individual or a few individuals in that particular group. The group could be a religious group, ethnic group or any group different from the dominant group to which I belong. I learned in the early elementary grades at Davis Elementary School that it was not fair to judge an entire group based on this limited knowledge of the entire group.

Suggestion two: Students will be able to define ad hominem and give several current examples of individuals or groups on the receiving end of ad hominem attacks. 

One of the most rejected attacks in academic debate is an ad hominem attack, which can take the form of overtly attacking someone or casting doubt on their character as a way to discredit their argument through personal abuse, personal attacks by name-calling, or refutation by caricature of the person. In a formal academic debate this type of attack would get you an “F”. Too bad that we could not give many of our political candidates an “F” during this past election cycle. This will only be stopped when we refuse to listen to a politician that resorts to attacking the person rather than the ideas of that person.

The National Institute for Civil Discourse has as a purpose to revive civility in our civil discourse. They state that making fun of a political opponent, making disrespectful or demeaning statements, refusing to listen to arguments of different points of view, and making exaggerated statements that misrepresent the truth must be rejected in our civil discourse.

As a teacher in middle school, high school, and at the college level I have concluded that we must rediscover that in our democratic republic all citizens have the right to express their views in the marketplace of ideas. I am required to respect all people even those who have views which I reject. 

As John Dewey argued many years ago, the school classroom should operate as a miniature democracy. In other words, students need to practice civil discourse. If this does not become a priority in our schools, both public and private, I fear the end result for our country.


Bless you my children, 
tls

Dr. Terry L. Simpson,
Professor Emeritus 
Maryville College Educator Preparation Program

Image Source: [Onlin image/logo]. Retrieved November 8, 2018 from https://www.revivecivility.org/