Rohan Dalal ’25
On November 8, Pennsylvania elected John Fetterman (D) as the new state senator and Josh Shapiro (D) as the new governor. In the Senate, the Democrats currently hold a 50 to 49 majority, which depends on the Georgia runoff on December 6, and in the House, the Republicans hold a 220 to 212 majority. EA history and social science teachers have been trying to incorporate issues surrounding the midterm elections into their class curriculums to spark thought and discussion among the students.
Damon Kuzemka, AP World History and AP Human Geography teacher, believes that the issues of gerrymandering and the bipartisan divide need to be addressed. He states, “The gerrymandering that has happened over the last several decades has contributed significantly to the hyperpartisanship [in America]. And I think the best way to address that and to bring both sides back to the middle is to have more cases where it’s necessary to win the middle voter.”
Kuzemka will discuss these particular issues in his AP Human Geography class. “Our first unit after the holidays is on political geography, and gerrymandering itself is a major part of that. [We will discuss] what that means, federal government versus unitary government, how we ended up with the style we have compared to other places around the world. So, certainly, within that context, we will talk about the bipartisan divide in America,” he remarks.
Ashley Kim ’23, a student in Kuzemka’s AP Human Geography class, supports Kuzemka’s plan to discuss how the midterm elections relate to the issues included in the political geography unit. Kim adds, “I think it’s important to cover these topics in our class curriculums because we’re not necessarily exposed to it outside of school. And, it’s important for teachers to convey these political current events from a neutral perspective, so we can come up with our own opinions.”
Meanwhile, AP US History teacher Charles Bryant believes that the extensive curriculum of AP U.S. History may hinder the ability to devote class time to these issues. “Whether or not I wanted to [teach about the election], I just don’t have much time to do that. I have a responsibility to my students to get them ready for the AP [United States History] Exam,” he says. Emi Enakhimion ’24 shares Bryant’s sentiment regarding the APUSH curriculum, stating, “[The curriculum is] dense, making it harder to keep up in class. Teachers only have a set amount of time to get through information.”
However, Bryant thinks that his in-class teaching will help students gain transferable skills, such as how to research candidates by themselves outside of class, so they make well-informed decisions. “Teaching about [the election] implies taking a certain position, and I don’t think it’s my role to tell students what to think. I think it’s my role to help them learn how to think, but it’s up to them to figure out what to think,” he explains.
Bryant concedes that the midterms may come up in his class, though only through drawing modern parallels to the kind of precedents from that past that Upper School History teacher Kris Aldridge mentioned in her Chapel speech on November 14 when she emphasized the value and applicability of teaching the humanities. He reiterates Aldridge’s point that “we do not live in unprecedented times.”
Bryant continues, “The way I would approach [teaching about the election] is to talk about similar times in history, what makes them similar and then what makes them different. To me, that’s a more appropriate way than carving out a time to talk about a current event in great detail at the expense of all of the other stuff that I not just need to get through [in the curriculum] but to get kids to understand where we are today.”
Gaeli Keffer-Scharpf ’23 echoes Bryant, saying, “In AP classes, like APUSH, there is so much material to get through in a limited amount of time, which makes it difficult to have flexibility in the curriculum and dedicate time to discussions about topics outside of what the AP requires you to know.” However, she adds, “But, I also think that it’s crucial for students to become more aware of the current geo-political situation. I think that it would be cool if EA offered a course that was kind of like civics and AP Gov with a much larger emphasis on current events, like elections and gerrymandering. It’s important for us to have a grasp of the context that we’re living in so that we can develop well-informed political opinions, especially as we’re preparing to enter the world as adults.”
Photo courtesy of whyy.org