Parents — what do you remember about sedition, insurrection or impeachment from your high school government classes?
Students at Emporia High and other area high schools are getting real-time lessons in some serious Constitutional matters over the past several weeks, starting with concerns about election validity and continuing after last week’s riot at the US Capitol. Emporia High social studies teacher Jamie Dawson tells KVOE News says there have been a lot of buzzwords surrounding the riot in particular. She says her goal is to get through the chatter and teach her students what the Constitution says.
She says the last 10 days have been unnerving from at least one vantage point.
Dawson teaches close to 130 seniors per trimester, and she says her goal is to take out as much of the potential politics as possible. She says her students are “inquisitive” as they try to understand recent events, especially in what the Constitution says instead of the national media. She says students had a framework for the discussions over the past two weeks because they had already learned about the Declaration of Independence, which “outlines our job as American citizens,” and are starting conversations about the legislative branch and its role in federal government.
The lessons will continue next week with President-elect Joe Biden set to be inaugurated Wednesday. Dawson says it’s highly important to give students context to what’s happening, comparing the event to the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, for its national and global significance.
