For the nation鈥檚 government and civics teachers, it all comes down to this: The wheels of a rarely used, constitutionally prescribed process鈥攊mpeachment鈥攈ave been set in motion. And now those teachers are on the front lines of helping interpret it for the nation鈥檚 students.
Whether teachers are prepared or confident in their abilities to do so remains an open question鈥攁nd their success in that endeavor could shape how the next generation of civic leaders remembers a potentially formative moment in their civic identity.
Impeachment鈥檚 rarity means that while teachers do cover the topic in civics and government classes, few have detailed lesson plans on it in their back pocket. Online curricula tend to be historical in scope or decontextualized. Major civics education organizations are now scrambling to put teacher resources together, while even enthusiastic teachers are fretting about how to balance the urgency of the moment against the need to teach already-overstuffed content standards and pacing guides.
Making social studies teachers鈥� jobs a lot scarier is the extreme partisanship infecting almost everything about presidential politics over the last 10 years.
U.S. public education is rooted in the belief by early American leaders that the most important knowledge to impart to young people is what it means to be a citizen. If America is experiencing a civic crisis now, as many say it is, schools may well be failing at that job.
To better understand the role of education in the current crisis, Education Week consulted experts, visited classrooms, and conducted surveys. This article is part of that ongoing effort. Look for more pieces from our Citizen Z project in the months ahead.
On edu-Twitter, the chatter among civics and social studies teachers on how to approach impeachment has been relatively muted, probably a testament to all those difficulties. Still, some are persevering: In Minnesota, St. Paul middle school teacher Mark Westpfahl has already taught a three-day lesson, drawing on multiple current news sources, as well as headlines dating back to President Clinton鈥檚 impeachment in 1998. In Puerto Rico, high school teacher Mar铆a Elena Vel谩squez drew parallels between the evolving situation on Capitol Hill and the impeachment threat that drove Gov. Ricardo Rossel贸 from office earlier this year.
And while many of these educators say they understand the impulse to shy away from teaching impeachment, they are united in one belief: Avoiding teaching the topic is every bit as much a political decision as diving right into it.
鈥淢y visceral reaction is: If not us, who else?鈥� said Tyler Murphy, who teaches high school U.S. government and history in the Boyle County, Ky., district. 鈥淎nd the 鈥榳ho else鈥� in this current climate we鈥檙e in is concerning. There is so much potential for misinformation, especially when we look at social media, where a lot of the quote-unquote news is unfiltered.鈥�
In addition, schools have an opportunity to model good civil discourse.
鈥淪chool is where students are first learning how to do the work of citizenship,鈥� noted Christopher Martell, an assistant professor of social studies education at the University of Massachusetts Boston. 鈥淚f a teacher doesn鈥檛 make their classroom a place to unpack and ask and answer critical questions about it, then we鈥檙e doing a disservice.鈥�
Three Lenses
To be sure, the current context poses some uniquely new issues for teachers. While the Clinton impeachment was plenty partisan, it occurred in an age before social media, microblogging, and a contracting, fragmented news landscape. (At the time, Education Week reported, many educators felt most concerned about how to discuss the charges against Clinton without getting into sordid details about his sex life.)
Now teachers face unprecedented scrutiny as they proceed. Already, hyperpartisan conservative news sites have excoriated the two national teachers鈥� unions for . (Unions typically have little control over what curriculum or practices teachers deploy in their classrooms.)
In interviews, civics educators around the country outlined three specific approaches teachers can take, with the best teaching uniting all three of them.
Background knowledge and civic underpinnings. Impeachment feels like a mysterious process to most K-12 students, none of whom were alive in 1998. But they are not alone: The average American isn鈥檛 well-versed in it either. Within hours of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi鈥檚 Sept. 24 announcement that the House of Representatives would pursue an impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump, multiple for the general public on how it works.
Among the most important distinctions for students to grasp: Only the House votes on whether to impeach a president, but then it鈥檚 up to the Senate to hold a trial to decide whether to remove the president from office. Another difficult-to-understand wrinkle: The Senate trial is not a criminal proceeding, so the standard for removing a president is different from convicting someone of a crime鈥攁nd murky.
Primary sources can be a godsend, the educators said. Unlike other hot-button topics that have been a matter of Supreme Court interpretation鈥攍ike LGBT rights, the death penalty, and abortion鈥攖he Constitution is fairly detailed about the impeachment process. (And its ambiguities are even the subject of one of the Federalist Papers, those famous tracts expanding on Constitutional principles, as any student who knows the lyrics to the song 鈥淣on Stop鈥� from the musical 鈥淗amilton鈥� can attest.)
A historical, comparative lens. As a process, impeachment has been shaped by each of the eras in which it鈥檚 occurred. One powerful idea is for teachers to have students examine the articles brought against prior presidents, the media reactions of the time, and even the impeachment agitation against presidents like Ulysses Grant, who never ultimately faced a formal impeachment process.
One of the most powerful artifacts from the aborted Nixon impeachment process, said Emily M. Farris, an associate professor of political science at Texas Christian University, is to the House Judiciary Committee, which was considering articles of impeachment. Not only is it beautifully crafted, often cited as one of the best political speeches of the past century, the address lays out a forceful argument for why the president鈥檚 conduct warranted Constitutional scrutiny. And it was made by a black woman, an important voice to include as teachers struggle within a discipline that has almost by definition been dominated by white men.
鈥淚t is one of the best speeches in American politics, period, and to the extent we need more great speeches and to diversify American classrooms it鈥檚 important,鈥� Farris said. 鈥淏eyond that, her rhetorical power comes from her turning to the Constitution and to the framers, and outlining why this situation is so important, and why this moment really matters.鈥�
There are opportunities, too, to compare the nation鈥檚 process of removing its chief of state to those of its territories or of other countries. The students of Mar铆a Elena Vel谩squez, who teaches at a private K-12 school in Caguas, Puerto Rico, investigated the differences between the impeachment of a U.S. president under the U.S. Constitution and that of the territory鈥檚 governor under its 1952 constitution.
鈥淭he same questions we heard in summer because of the Rossell贸 situation are repeated,鈥� she said. 鈥淗ow does the process begin? What is the responsibility of the House of Representatives and the Senate? Who presents the evidence? What evidence is valid? Is an impeachment process also a criminal procedure? What is the difference?鈥�
A current lens. This is the one that tends to cause the most anxiety for social studies teachers worried that they鈥檒l be slapped with accusations of partisan favoritism.
鈥淢any of the social studies teachers I work with, whether they are preservice or inservice, are struggling with Trump in general, and how to maintain a level of fairness, and how to moderate classroom discussion that can get quite emotional, because he is a polarizing figure, and your politics tend to frame how you view him,鈥� noted Martell, the UMass Boston professor.
Here again, primary sources can help: The whistleblower鈥檚 detailed complaint and the Republican talking points are good fodder for students to investigate, the teachers said.
Taking an approach that deals with the questions of 鈥渉ow鈥� and 鈥渨hy,鈥� and requiring students to focus on evidence, rather than normative questions about motive or whether legislators are making the right call, is one way to keep discussions centered. Teachers can also take steps to alert students to outside partisanship: If teachers want to include media reports, it鈥檚 an important time to re-emphasize news literacy practices, given the vast amount and differing forms of media flying at students, said Emma Humphries, the chief education officer of the civics curriculum provider and advocacy group iCivics.
When students inevitably do start to argue along partisan lines, teachers need to avoid putting their thumb on the scale, the educators said, though striking that balance requires both planning and sometimes considerable finesse.
鈥淭his is one of the things my students struggled with,鈥� said Westpfahl. 鈥淭hey are infatuated with Barack Obama, and so then you say, 鈥榃hat if Obama did what President Trump allegedly did, and they鈥檒l say, 鈥榃ell, he鈥檇 probably have a good reason for that.鈥� And it鈥檚 like, 鈥極h, we鈥檙e using the emotions again.鈥欌��
69传媒鈥� natural curiosity can also put teachers in a tough spot.
The impeachment inquiry came fortuitously for Blake Mazurek, a middle school teacher in the Grandville district in Michigan, who was just beginning a unit on the checks and balances among the branches of government. But after the first lesson, which detailed how impeachment is an example of the legislative branch checking the executive branch, a student stopped after class to ask him whether he liked President Trump.
鈥溾�業t鈥檚 not about me liking the president or not,鈥欌�� Mazurek told him. 鈥溾�楾his is about the rule of law, and it鈥檚 a prime example of how the Constitution is supposed to work.鈥欌��
Finding Curricula
Are most teachers prepared to hit the trifecta of approaches the educators have outlined? In truth, they probably fall on a continuum, they said.
In general, said Humphries, it takes a lot of confidence to scratch previously made plans and develop new ones, and teachers鈥� willingness to do so will be a function of support and experience.
鈥淗ow does a novice teacher walk into a classroom the next day and do that? And she probably doesn鈥檛, is the unfortunate answer,鈥� she said. 鈥淭o me, if you鈥檙e a social studies teacher and not teaching controversial issues, it is educational malpractice. But if you鈥檙e a first-year, alternative-certified teacher who doesn鈥檛 have an undergrad degree in political science and history, I don鈥檛 know if I want you talking about controversial issues without serious professional development.鈥�
In Minnesota, Westpfahl said his colleagues in middle school history have taken different paths. Some have talked about it briefly with students; others plan to bring it up when they get to Andrew Johnson鈥檚 impeachment and the Reconstruction; still others have demurred, pointing to rigid pacing guides, and finally others say they鈥檒l avoid it, unsure of how parents might react. He, too, has noted less sharing among teachers about resources.
鈥淚 would have thought this would be a gold mine for, 鈥極K, how are you teaching it?鈥� But I鈥檓 not getting much of a response,鈥� he said.
But if it鈥檚 done right, this momentous occasion has the possibility to be a revelation, the teachers said.
鈥淲hen you鈥檙e teaching civics and government, it鈥檚 so easy for them to see the Constitution as this stale document behind four inches of glass in a marble building in Washington. But it鈥檚 something that requires all of us to make happen. It鈥檚 still living and breathing,鈥� said Murphy, the Kentucky teacher. 鈥淗ere we see the Constitution being brought to life. And what happens next is dependent on the moves that not just those in power make, but ultimately that the citizens who have the power in a democratic society make, by holding and voting in democratic elections.鈥�
