Yo, Miss! (No. 39)

Teaching About January 6th

It is hard to believe that the January 6th Insurrection was three years ago.

I was interviewed by Olivia Waxman for her article for Time Magazine about how teachers are discussing January 6th with their students.

It is crucial that we teach the truth to students and that includes making sure they understand how close we were to losing our democracy that day to an insurrection of Donald Trump supporters who fell for and embraced the Big Lie. It is terrifying that there are some teachers in this country who fear discussing the fateful day with their classes or don't even feel comfortable calling it an "insurrection"

This was an assault on our democratic system. We came very close to mob rule suppressing the results of a free and fair election. If students just evaluate the primary sources from the day and the testimony compiled by the January 6th Committee, they can easily come to the same conclusion.

I really hope that teachers find a way to teach this truth. It’s crucial that we continue to teach about this attack on our democratic system and frame it in a way where Trump and MAGA distortions of what happened on that day are not included in the annals of history.

It starts with teaching honest history by sharing the truth about that day. January 6th was not the first time in United States History when a mob of mostly white Americans tried to suppress the rights of others.

It takes all of us to protect our nation and to continue our long fight to achieve a true multiracial democracy.

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Two years ago, I wrote an article for Parents.com about how to teach about January 6th:

This year I added on to the lesson by using some resources from PBS NewsHour Classroom’s lesson about the January 6th Committee Hearings.

It was really interesting to teach about this recent historical event today.

My students are currently juniors in high school, so they were in eighth grade (in zoom school) on January 6, 2021.

I started today’s lesson by playing Trump’s speech at the Ellipse on January 6th, scenes from the ensuing insurrection, and then the speech Trump finally gave hours into the MAGA attack on the Capitol. Most of my students hadn’t really studied the full timeline of what happened that day. They all knew that Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, but they did not know the extent of it.

The majority of them (if not all) were shocked that Trump is not in jail (especially after I shared with them who had already been convicted, etc) and they could not understand how he is still able to run for President. Many kids remarked that what those people did that day was anti-American. They were also horrified seeing the Confederate flags everywhere, including INSIDE the Capitol. We had just finished studying the Civil War. They know the cause of the Civil War was slavery so they also understand what that flag symbolizes.

It was tough to watch the January 6th footage all day today with my students. It is disturbing every time. However, we must not let people bury the truth of what happened three years ago. If you truly love this country, or the potential of this country, then there is no way to view January 6th as anything other than an attack on our democracy.

Trump and other MAGAs will be celebrating the three year anniversary of January 6th tomorrow. Trump says he wants to pardon everyone who is in prison for January 6th. This is horrifying and we must do everything to make sure we don’t let Trump & his willing executioners of democracy win in November.

That includes not just educating and reminding young people about what happened on that day, but also the adults.