Resources for Teaching the January 6 Capitol Insurrection
The Missouri Council for History Education is dedicated to the national organization’s goal of more history, better taught. The insurrection on Wednesday, January 6 has reminded the wider public of the vital necessity of humanities and civics education. To that end, we recommend the following resources for teachers and encourage teachers to dedicate class and community time to a discussion of the insurrection.
The American Historical Association has resources on U.S. elections and the peaceful transfer of power and international comparisons here and an ongoing list of resources is available here.
Resources for teaching students how to handle the material that they are encountering online are available through the Stanford History Education Group’s Civic Online Reasoning Curriculum and Teaching Tolerance’s Framework for Digital Literacy. Ask students where they are acquiring their information. Apply the tools from the Civic Online Reasoning and Digital Literacy accordingly. Remember to source by asking the questions: Who produced this source? When? For what audience? With what intention? In what genre? We know that a meme is not as valuable a source as an article printed in a reputable newspaper written by a historian. Let’s guarantee that our students do too.
If you discuss the insurrection itself, your class might find it helpful to have a shared vocabulary of key terms like “incite,” “terrorism,” “insurrection,” “coup,” “putsch,” “fascism,” “storm,” “treason,” and “sedition.” Have students look up the terms in a dictionary and agree to those definitions. Provide historical examples such as Tiananmen Square and ask what is the same and what is different between last week’s events and the examples that you’ve provided. Should the summer 2020 Black Lives Matter protests come up, this article, which provides statistics, and this article, which provides context may be helpful. High school students also might find it useful to make a timeline of triggering, short-term, mid-range, and long-term causes of the insurrection. This resource might help that endeavor.
Bear in mind that some students (even older students) could be disturbed or frightened by imagery related to the events of January 6. The questions: “What do you notice?” and “What do you wonder?” can give students an opportunity to share their fears. The resources here and here can help you discuss what occurred. Remember that silence might be how students process difficult information.
We strongly encourage teachers to follow up. A single discussion is unlikely to instill the habits of civil discourse. Provide lines of action for students such as discussing their concerns with peers and teachers outside of class hours, contributing to healthy media discussions, and writing local papers and elected officials.