Guest Blogger: Heather Bennett
November 8th 2016, a day
that will live in infamy. We elected Donald
Trump as our next president. While some celebrated, many people were terrified. For months the world watched as Donald Trump reduced
races of people to negative stereotypes, marginalized many minorities and
women, and indirectly promoted hate amongst American citizens. For many, the election of such an individual
to the most powerful position in the country brought about fear and
terror.
For many of my students, 60% of
them international students, 98% of them women, and all of them African
American, the election of Donald Trump instilled a deep fear, anger,
disappointment and an overall lack of confidence in the workings of our
government. My students seemed a little more discouraged the day after the
election when they walked into class. It seemed awkward not to mention the
election, as I could clearly see that my students wanted to discuss what they
were thinking. I was hesitant to open up for discussion such a sensitive topic.
I did not want lecture time to be consumed with discussion on the presidential
election or the topic to lead to a hostile environment. However, I did not want
to minimize their feelings, or fail to acknowledge the validity of their
emotions. Simply not mentioning the election, I felt sent a message that I did
not care how my students maybe feeling. I wanted to give students a safe space
to share and elaborate on these feelings of fear and disappointment. I also
wanted to encourage and support them. I
decided to address the “elephant in the room” and encourage students to disclose
their feelings. I asked for students to take a few minutes and to quietly write
down what emotions they were feeling after learning the results from the
presidential election. I then left it
open for students to share, if they felt comfortable, their feelings with the
rest of the class. I stressed that students must be respectful and listen to
their classmates. I challenged them to try to understand each other’s views.
After sharing, I had students ball up the paper with any negative emotions and
throw them like a snowball at the front of the room. I then challenged the
students to share how they could use these negative feelings for something
positive. The activity only took 15 minutes of class time and several students
thanked me for giving them an opportunity to voice their feelings. One student
said prior to my class no teacher had mentioned the election results and it
seemed as if no one cared how the students may be feeling or perhaps they too should
just get over it.
For many of us our performance on
any task is tied to our emotional well-being. As an educator, I think it is
important to realize that our students will be greatly affected by what may be
happening in society. We must learn how
to engage students in meaningful discussion and try to understand how the
emotions of our students may influence their learning. I am curious, how do
more experienced educators discuss difficult and sensitive topics in the
classroom? What are some techniques or strategies teachers use in the classroom
to help students handle emotional topics?
