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I typically try to stay out of politics on this blog, given that I'm trying to work with a wide variety of teachers, administrators, policymakers, and community members to transform learning environments for students. But I also know that many educators woke up Wednesday morning in disbelief about the previous night's election results. Somehow we elected a racist, xenophobic, conspiracist, serial groper of women to be the next leader of the world's most powerful nation. Apparently it didn't matter to enough voters that he has - among other things - mocked people with disabilities, celebrated the use of torture, used coded anti-Semitic language, insulted the parents of deceased soldiers, denied basic science when it comes to climate change, ruminated about the casual use of nuclear weapons, and praised one of the most reviled dictators in the world.

As someone who cares deeply about social justice issues, I was dismayed yesterday to hear a man behind me on the airplane say that he was 'incredibly pumped about the GOP clean sweep - President, Senate, House, and Supreme Court - game, set, and match' and that he was looking forward to rolling back 'all of the BS that's happened over the past 8 years.' 'Game, set, and match': those are not words of unity and togetherness. Those are words of anger and power and revenge, words that I'm sure are frightening to women, persons of color, immigrants, and people of other faiths (just to name a few). Let's be clear: this may be the reality in our country but the vitriolic hate and utter dismissal of basic human dignities that have been major political themes during this election represent the worst of human nature and American society. It shouldn't be surprising that anyone who is not a conservative white male might be a little worried right now. When someone preaches so much hate for so many months, it's an uphill road to now be a unifier.

Many educators are trying to figure out how to respond and what to say to students who are concerned and afraid. Or what to do when the hate comes into the school. Two thoughts come to me during these first days after the election...

First, we must continue to model the kindness, empathy, civility, acceptance, and inclusiveness that are the hallmarks of most schooling environments. Educators know how important it is to honor each and every child, regardless of skin color, religious faith, or family background. The hateful statements and physical violence that have sprouted during the past year are antithetical in every school and classroom that I know. We must continue to explicitly and visibly model for our communities (and the nation at large) how to treat each other with grace, respect, and dignity, particularly when we disagree with each other.

Second, one of the key themes of the election was the insurgence of non-college-educated white voters who feel that they are being left behind by our economy. 'It's about jobs' has been a key mantra. But job growth since the recession has been quite steady:

The challenge is that many (most?) of those new jobs are either very low-paying or in sectors for which a college degree is a foundational requirement. The job prospects for employees who aren't able to engage in higher-level, non-routine mental work have been declining for decades now:

We also have to pay attention to college attendance and persistence. The majority of American workers do not have a college degree, and even younger graduates are not making it through college. For instance, here are the numbers from Colorado, despite our desire that high school graduates " demonstrate the knowledge and skills (competencies) needed to succeed in postsecondary settings ":

74.6% Colorado high school graduation rate, Class of 2009
x
52.6% acquired some kind of postsecondary credential by 2015 (page 22)
x
64% their credential was a 4-year diploma
(approximately; it's probably a little lower than the 2011 rate; page 22)
=
25% of the Colorado High School Class of 2009 has a 4-year degree by 2015

Schools are complicit with other societal institutions when it comes to individuals' economic malaise and the inadequate preparation of our workforce. Research studies consistently show that most students spend about 80% to 85% of their school day doing routine mental work, despite the fact that the only substantive, long-term job growth in America is in professions that require non-routine mental work. Our dogged perpetuation of low-level learning environments helps foster economic insecurity and political revolts. While we continue to emphasize in our classrooms the kind of stuff that can be done in 3 seconds with voice-activated apps, search engines, or software like PhotoMath, our graduates are suffering. Schools are not just about preparing worker bees but they are necessary and vitally important components of our country's workforce preparation pipeline. We have to own this as educators. And we must do better or we will continue to doom millions of graduates to prolonged economic hardship because they don't have the preparation and the skills to do something different.

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Kindness, innovation, and Tuesday's election

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I typically try to stay out of politics on this blog, given that I'm trying to work with a wide variety of teachers, administrators, policymakers, and community members to transform learning environments for students. But I also know that many educators woke up Wednesday morning in disbelief about the previous night's election results.

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To me, the focus needs to be on making sure at the BARE minimum our students feel safe the second they enter our classrooms. No student should ever feel like an outcast or like an "other" when they walk into my class. If they feel this way, I have failed them. Modeling behavior is something we will always do as humans, so I feel it is especially important every teacher is on the same page in stopping harassing/racist behavior immediately and harshly. It will NEVER be okay to treat another person how Trump thinks he can. It will be a hard fight, but the only way to keep this country on track is to follow what this article says and do what we can to enforce how people should ACTUALLY treat one another.

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We also must model for our communities how we as people should be acting. Why anyone would want to act hatefully to another based on physical features etc. I will never understand, but it is happening more and more (especially since this election started). I have seen it more and more in my communities, which brings me to another point made by the author: we must also model compassionate behavior for our communities. Simply doing so for our students is not enough. We never take off our "teacher hats", so we must always be modeling behavior we want to see from those around us, anywhere we are.
---> "We must continue to explicitly and visibly model for our communities (and the nation at large) how to treat each other with grace, respect, and dignity, particularly when we disagree with each other."

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As educators, we need to continue to model behavior we want to see out of our children. Whether you support Trump or not, his campaign thrived on hatred, racism, and so on. And our students saw this and how the country responded. To them, this could suddenly make hateful and racist actions/comments okay in their everyday lives. We as educators need to continue to have zero tolerance for any hateful behavior and have to make sure our students understand this. As some of the most respected and someone our students see almost as much as their parents, we have quite an impact on their behavior and the environment of the classroom and school.
The author says it well: "We must continue to model the kindness, empathy, civility, acceptance, and inclusiveness that are the hallmarks of most schooling environments."

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Although we already talked about the election in class, I came across this article and loved how it was written. The author, Scott McLeod, does an amazing job at giving educators advice on what to do as a result of the election. Whether an educator is for or against Trump, students are scared, particularly minorities. We have to push past our own beliefs to be there for our students and continue to model behavior that is acceptable and encouraged in our society.