Teaching the 2020 Election: What Will You Do on Wednesday?

The Summer issue of Teaching Tolerance is available online! In addition to these stories, this issue highlights expert voices on teaching about American slavery and Reconstruction, asks three young gun violence activists about the future of the resistance, and much, much more. It also features one of our all-time favorite One World posters (available in both English and Spanish!).
This week, a photograph of a math assignment asking fifth graders to set prices for enslaved people went viral. Assignments like this are clearly harmful. But students can learn about slavery in ways that recover the lives and histories of enslaved people or dehumanize them; celebrate their resistance or erase their agency; recognize how slavery shaped our nation or ignore it completely. Educators can teach this hard history—and teach it well—in any discipline, to students of almost any age. Here are a few examples of how.
Voter suppression is not a thing of the past. It’s essential that students learn to identify it in history—and in this current election cycle. Including insight from Carol Anderson, John Lewis and others, these resources can help you teach about the Voting Rights Act, the historic back-and-forth fight for voting rights, the ways voter suppression manifests today and the ways young people are demanding better of the democratic process.
The same day a Black man and a Jewish man were voted into the U.S. Senate, a mob toting Confederate and Nazi flags attacked the U.S. Capitol. As you teach about Martin Luther King Jr. ahead of his birthday observation, acknowledge the link between the racism he resisted and the violence we witnessed at the Capitol. These resources will help foster related discussions within the context of U.S. history.
The Spring issue of Teaching Tolerance magazine is here, and we can't wait for you to read it. Our brand-new collection of features tells stories about the creative ways schools are stepping up to fill equity gaps and improve anti-bias education practices. Learn about menstrual equity, demystifying mental health, voter suppression, threats to Title VI, our new reading groups guide and much, much more!