Conversation Starter: Talking with Students about the Tumultuous 2024 Campaign -- an Article by Suzanne McCormack

[nbrady]

No matter who wins the Presidential Election in November, there is no doubt the events of July 2024 will be discussed and debated by historians and political pundits for decades to come. If the 2024 election ended tomorrow it would already be memorable. 

I started writing this blog shortly after the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump took place on July 13th. In the two weeks since the horrific events in Butler, Pennsylvania, we have witnessed a sitting president drop out of the presidential race and the emergence of the vice president, a woman of color, as the presumptive nominee for the Democratic Party. Threads of sexism and racism have, predictably,  begun to infect the political discourse.

My reluctance to entertain any discussion of current events has only increased since 2016 and is firmly rooted in both the divisive nature of politics in the US today and social media’s role in worsening that divide. In the classroom political discussions can be civil, or they can devolve into anger and frustration that can carry over week to week as the students continue to meet in the classroom. 

As future historians study the 2020 and 2024 presidential elections they will comb through volumes of video and print materials evidencing an unprecedented level of hate speech. When a Republican congressman called VP Kamala Harris a “DEI hire” earlier this week it appeared that the calls for a softening of rhetoric that followed the assassination attempt have been forgotten in favor of racially-charged politically divisive speech. 

Barring total avoidance of conversation, how do we counter the chaos of the 2024 election in our classrooms? Here are three (simple) guiding principles to use in the next three months until Election Day. 

Keep Discussion Brief – Taking 5 to 10 minutes at the start or end of class to discuss students’ observations of the political rhetoric can lead to greater understanding. Planning a start and end to the discussion is also helpful. I preface all political discussions with a simple: “let’s share observations rather than expressing personal viewpoints.” I ask the students what they’ve noticed: what is the rhetoric, what kinds of sources are they consulting, are they watching/listening to the news or has it become background in their daily lives as part of their social media feeds? 

Explore Concepts and Ideas – Ask students if they understand the political conversations that are happening on television news, in print sources, and/or social media. As familiar as college faculty and administrators are with the acronym “DEI,” for example, many students do not know what the acronym stands for. When politicians use it as a slur the terminology only becomes more confusing. It’s up to us as teachers and historians to create an atmosphere in which students feel comfortable asking questions without being made to feel intellectually inferior or out of touch with current events.

Encourage Continuing Dialogue – Follow up with students at subsequent classes to provide an opportunity to offer new reflections that may have been percolating but were not expressed. This strategy is especially helpful for students who require more time to digest class discussion. Offering students the opportunity to submit questions about current events anonymously before class can also be a useful way to engage those who don’t feel comfortable speaking up in class.

As much as I would love to avoid all in-class political conversation for the next three months, it’s an impossible pursuit. My goal, instead, is to create a model for civil dialogue in the classroom that students can take with them into the rest of their daily experiences.

Suggestions? Please share!