For the third time in U.S. history, the Senate is in the midst of an impeachment trial of the president.
For many local teachers, this is a unique opportunity to educate students about the Constitution and how the government works, and that’s pretty exciting.
“I know that I’m currently teaching an historical moment that I will be teaching about far into my career,” said Megan Holyoke, who teaches AP government and politics at Lincoln High School in Tacoma.
Holyoke was only in elementary school when former President Bill Clinton was impeached. Now at age 31, she has the chance to help her students understand how the impeachment process against President Donald Trump demonstrates foundational ideas in our political system. She’s used it to discuss the concept of checks and balances and what the Constitution says about impeachable offenses.
But she said she has to keep the focus on facts and steer the conversation away from students' personal political views.
“I always say when you walk into room 206, we are political scientists,” Holyoke said. “So when they fall into talking about their own opinion, I’m there to remind them, 'Oh, remember, we’re political scientists. Suspend opinion, suspend judgment.’”
Lincoln High School is a racially diverse school where almost 80 percent of students come from low-income families. She said the vast majority of students in her classes think Trump’s actions constitute impeachable offenses, but she tries to make the classroom environment safe for students who think otherwise.
At Graham-Kapowsin High School in unincorporated Pierce County, students are almost evenly divided into those who think impeachment is justified and students who believe “this is basically a hoax,” said Scott Darby, an AP government and politics teacher. In the 2016 election, Trump received more than twice as many votes as Hillary Clinton in the precinct where the high school is located.
“It’s pretty much a microcosm of the rest of America, and certainly those discussions you see in America are brought right into this classroom,” he said.
Darby said he tries to keep the classroom discussion centered on how the impeachment procedures work and concepts such as the rule of law. And he said it’s been interesting to see the House managers reference some of the Federalist Papers, which were written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay to explain key concepts in the Constitution.
So Darby directs the conversation away from hyper-partisan debates, and he encourages his students to read a variety of news sources. Ultimately, he said he wants his students to become informed and knowledgeable voters who can engage in thoughtful dialogue with people who have different views.
“I look at it as the survivability of our republic depends upon it,” Darby said.
