{"id":2391,"date":"2024-08-12T17:00:13","date_gmt":"2024-08-12T17:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/riley\/?post_type=furman-update&p=2391"},"modified":"2026-08-25T17:29:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T17:29:37","slug":"riley-institutes-winkler-contributes-opinion-piece-about-teachers","status":"publish","type":"furman-update","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/riley\/news\/riley-institutes-winkler-contributes-opinion-piece-about-teachers\/","title":{"rendered":"Riley Institute\u2019s Winkler contributes opinion piece about teachers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This op-ed was originally ran on August 12, 2024 in The State<\/a>.<\/div>\n
by Claudia Winkler<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

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When I heard that former president Donald Trump was nearly assassinated, I was in Washington, D.C., at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a memorial to assassinated President John F. Kennedy. I was with a group of high school social studies teachers taking part in Teachers of Government, a program hosted by Furman University\u2019s Riley Institute to enhance civics education in South Carolina. The news that the shooter was just two years out of high school underscored that teachers are on the front lines of preserving our democracy. For days prior, the group had been discussing how to teach youth about government in today\u2019s polarized political and media environments. Several participants felt caught in a culture war because of legislation designed to curb the instruction of certain content, including the history of race in the United States.<\/p>\n

Underpinning such legislation is the implicit assumption that teachers are indoctrinating students. Yet the teachers I met \u2014 representing demographically and politically diverse districts like Richland County One and Lancaster County \u2014 primarily focus on helping students understand and show interest in local and state government, not pushing political agendas. They want students to become engaged citizens who think beyond their immediate context and don\u2019t resort to \u201cWell, my mama says \u2026\u201d as the basis for their positions. Wanting to teach such critical thinking skills is in keeping with the stated goals of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate, developed in 2012 by school superintendents and adopted by South Carolina\u2019s Board of Education, Department of Education, Education Oversight Committee, Chamber of Commerce and others with an interest in our students\u2019 and state\u2019s success.<\/p>\n

If we help teachers provide robust social studies instruction, they can help students develop the ability to think critically and independently. When history is taught effectively and openly, students learn their textbooks are not collections of neutral facts, but stories woven out of primary sources.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s incumbent upon us all as critical thinkers to understand the context in which those sources were created, assess their biases, empathize with the individuals who generated them and ultimately pass moral judgment about whose story we will trust and value more. Critical thinking is also necessary to develop media literacy \u2014 a challenge to teachers because a lack of it is the greatest threat to a functioning, cooperative society. If we don\u2019t allow teachers to help students evaluate information critically and weigh some perspectives as more valid than others, then how do we expect young people to navigate the modern news landscape? They won\u2019t. They will believe everything, nothing (conspiracy thinking), or, given the sophistication of algorithms, only what fits into their worldview. As our week in Washington drew to a close, I stood at the National Museum for African American History and Culture and was struck by the prescience of the inscription in the fountain, a quote from James Baldwin: \u201cI think that the past is all that makes the present coherent, and further, that the past will remain horrible for exactly as long as we refuse to assess it honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019d say we\u2019re due some honest assessment. We owe it to ourselves to teach the history and state of race in this country as a complex construction of social and legal practices, attitudes and beliefs that didn\u2019t just vanish with the end of slavery or Jim Crow. We owe our children an education that helps them realize we all exist within social structures and systems that produce more favorable outcomes for some than for others. This isn\u2019t about placing blame or inducing guilt. It\u2019s about understanding the complexity of human societies and systems and how to navigate them cooperatively. Reflecting on the political violence enacted by Trump\u2019s would-be assassin Thomas Crooks, I wonder: What did he learn in school \u2014 or what wasn\u2019t he taught \u2014 that convinced him not to trust the democratic process and to resort to violence instead? Our country is full of young people who are both impressionable and hungry for information to make sense of the world. We have to trust and support our teachers to provide that education.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I learned of a near-assassination attempt on former President Trump at the Kennedy Center, a memorial to assassinated President John F. Kennedy, The news that the perpetrator was just two years out of high school highlighted the crucial role educators play in nurturing democratic values. Our group had been grappling with how to teach government amid political polarization and restrictive legislation. Despite claims of indoctrination, teachers focus on fostering critical thinking and civic engagement. By supporting educators in delivering robust social studies instruction, we help students understand complex social structures and become informed, thoughtful citizens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2582,"template":"","update-categories":[51,96,12,49,113,53,4],"class_list":["post-2391","furman-update","type-furman-update","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","furman-update-category-applied-public-policy","furman-update-category-civic-participation","furman-update-category-education","furman-update-category-furman-innovation-lab","furman-update-category-media-and-politics","furman-update-category-op-ed","furman-update-category-teachers-of-government"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/riley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/2391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/riley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/riley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/furman-update"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/riley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/2391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4773,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/riley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/2391\/revisions\/4773"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/riley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/riley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"furman-update-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/riley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/update-categories?post=2391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}