• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Advertising
  • Write for Us
  • Job Board
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
    • Consulting
    • Advertising
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Shirts

The Educators Room logo

  • Start Here
    • Impact Statements: Teacher Expertise
    • Newsletter
  • Browse Topics
    • Content Strategies
      • Literacy
      • Mathematics
      • Social Studies
      • Educational Technology
      • ELL & ESOL
      • Fine Arts
      • Special Education
      • Popular Topics
        • Teacher Self-Care
        • Instructional Coach Files
        • Common Core
        • The Traveling Teacher
        • The Unemployed Teacher
        • The New Teacher Chronicles
        • Book Review
        • Grade Levels
          • Elementary (K-5)
          • Middle (6-8)
          • Adult
          • New Teacher Bootcamp
          • Hot Button Topics
            • Menu Item
              • Principals' Corner
              • Charter Schools
              • Confessions of a Teacher
              • Interviews
              • The State of Education
              • Stellar Educator of the Week
            • Menu
              • How to Fix Education
              • Featured
              • Ask a Teacher
              • Teacher Branding
              • Current Events
  • Podcasts
  • Courses
    • Practicing Self-Care to Avoid Teacher Burnout- An 8 Week Course
    • Becoming An Educational Consultant
    • Teacher Branding 101:Teachers are The Experts
    • The Learning Academy
    • Books
    • Shirts
  • Education in Atlanta
  • Teacher Self-Care
  • The Coach's Academy
menu icon
go to homepage
subscribe
search icon
Homepage link
  • Advertising
  • Write for Us
  • Job Board
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
    • Consulting
    • Advertising
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Shirts
×

January 6, 2022 Instruction & Curriculum

Opinion: January 6th is Not Up for Debate

  • About the Author
  • Latest Posts

About Ruben Abrahams Brosbe

Ruben Brosbe is a former elementary school teacher. He currently facilitates professional learning for Teaching Lab, Ramopo for Children, and the Center for Racial Justice in Educaton. He is passionate about social justice oriented project based learning, and finds that young people make the best activists. He is a co-founder of Teach Resistance, an online community for social justice and anti-bias elementary educators. He is also the founder and host of Teachable Moments, a live storytelling event featuring stories by former and current educators.
  • Florida's MAGA Approach to Civics is Dangerous to Democracy - July 19, 2022
  • 7 Picture Books for Earth Day That Aren't The Lorax - April 21, 2022
  • Teaching Was Never Sustainable - March 11, 2022
  • Opinion: Fighting Fascism from Our Classrooms - January 31, 2022
  • How to Quit Teaching in 2022 (Part 2) - January 17, 2022
  • How to Quit Teaching in 2022 - January 11, 2022
  • Opinion: January 6th is Not Up for Debate - January 6, 2022
  • Using Rituals to Survive Remote Learning - January 8, 2021
  • Teachers: Stop What You're Doing - October 12, 2020
  • Ending White Supremacy is a White Educators' Fight - August 4, 2020

Stephen Colbert famously said, “Facts have a well-known liberal bias.” The satirical statement doesn’t feel as funny in the current era of rampant misinformation and The Big Lie. A year ago today, January 6th, a violent attack on the United States Capitol happened. It was a result of a toxic stew cooked up by Donald Trump, social media, and conservative media. In the year since, the same actors are trying to minimize, apologize for, distort, and outright erase the events of that day.

January 6th is Not Up for Debate Click To Tweet

As educators, we have a vital role to play in the defense of our democracy. It is essential that we make it clear that the facts of January 6th are not up for debate.

Teaching Facts is Our Job

Educators are always told our job is to “teach kids how to think, not what to think.” I’ve noticed this rule seems to come up mainly when we’re discussing politics or historical events. I’ve never had anyone take issue with me correcting a student when they tell me 7 x 7 is 50. At the end of the day, part of my job was providing feedback and helping students recognize incorrect information. This is true across subject areas as well as social and emotional learning. It must be true when teaching about January 6th.

It’s also worth noting who are the folks telling us to “shut up and teach.” These are the people who manufactured controversy over critical race theory in schools. The same people crying foul about cancel culture are banning books by LGBTQ+ and BIPOC authors from libraries and classrooms. When we examine who’s demanding “unbiased” teaching that avoids “controversial” topics, we see it is generally wealthy, white men. It is in their self-interest to obscure facts about history and present day systemic oppression. 

This orchestrated outrage is all too successful in silencing teachers. We are living at a time when this silence is more dangerous than ever. The cloud of fear hanging over teachers today has been a decades-long project. The pressure to appear unbiased and focused on “how to think” can lead to some flawed teaching. To avoid an attack, some teachers rely on debates and open-ended questions that don’t address the role of racism and other systems of power in our country’s history and present. 

The Dangers of Open-Ended Questions and Debates

Imagine a well-intended social studies teacher planning to assign a writing or discussion prompt such as, “The January 6th protestors called themselves patriots. Do you agree or disagree?” This teacher might be hoping to draw attention to the contradiction between some of the insurrectionists’ language and their actions. They might hope students draw comparisons between patriots from U.S. history and the violent mob who attacked the Capitol last year. They may or may not be successful in these goals. But either way, approaching January 6th in an open-ended fashion carries tremendous risks.

The events of January 6th aren’t history yet. But we have already seen the way GOP elected officials, Trump, and others are trying to falsify our national memory of that day. We cannot let what happened on January 6th, become yet another topic of debate. In the same way, the right is trying to erase the evidence of slavery from U.S. history, they are trying to rewrite the meaning of January 6th.

Teach the Facts of January 6th

If you choose to have an open-ended conversation with students about January 6th or other difficult topics, a general framework I have been taught is the following: 

First, open up the conversation. "Today is the 1 year anniversary of January 6th. What do you know about what happened last year?" Be ready to correct misinformation. "What do you remember? How do you feel about what happened?" The Morningside Center is a great resource for conversations like this.

If you want to teach directly about January 6th, ground the learning in facts. While we don’t yet know the long-term impact of January 6th, or whether the insurrectionists will try again, there are many things we do know. It is important to establish these facts, precisely because the insurrectionists and their political allies are trying to hide them. 

There are many facts you could use to launch a task in practically any subject area. For example, you might present students with information about:

  • how many people stormed capitol, how many people were arrested, the racial demographics of the insurrectionists, the cost of property damage, how many deaths and injuries happened, the definition of insurrection, the text of Donald Trump's speech or other speeches, the timeline of the day's events, or the presence of white supremacist language and images at the insurrection.

From these facts, there are many open-ended tasks that can follow. But whatever the task, they must be based on the horrifying facts of January 6th.

The right is trying to disarm educators. They know that educators represent a crucial defense against authoritarianism. Do not let them hide the truth of January 6th. Students need to know what happened that day. In a small way, it might just help us stop the next insurrection from succeeding.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Related posts:

Save the Turtles: A Lesson in Teacher Excitement! [Opinion] If You Are a Quality Educator, You Can't Be Pro-Trump Microaggressions to Misbehavior: How School to Prison Pipeline Begins The Implications of 'Surviving R. Kelly' in our Classrooms
« An Analysis of Why You Should Teach The Deeper the Roots by Michael Tubbs
10 Books That Changed My Teaching Practice »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

The Educator's Room was launched in 2012 to amplify the voice of educators. To date, we have over 45+ writers from around the world and boast over twelve million page views. Through articles, events, and social media we will advocate for honest dialogue with teachers about how to improve public education. This mission is especially important when reporting on education in our community; therefore, we commit our readers to integrity, accuracy, and independence in education reporting. To join our mailing list, click here.

What we do

At The Educator's Room, we focus on amplifying and honoring the voice of educators as experts in education. To date, we have over 40 staff writers/teachers from around the world.

Popular Posts

  • Educators Need Safe Spaces Too
  • It's Time to End Elitist Music Education
  • My Question to White Teachers: Why Are You Here?
  • An End of Summer Reminder: Just Breathe

Featured On

Buy Our Books/Courses

How to Leave Your Job in Education

Practicing Self-Care to Avoid Teacher Burnout

Using Your Teacher Expertise to Become an Educational Consultant

Check out our books on teaching and learning!

The Learning Academy

Footer

↑ back to top

About

  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Accessibility Policy

Newsletter

  • Sign Up! for emails and updates

Contact

  • Contact
  • Services
  • Media Kit
  • FAQ

 

Copyright © 2021 The Educator's Room.