Donald’s Trump election win provides a “hugely rich” opportunity to teach an array of important issues and schools must have the courage to broach it, the head of a citizenship charity has said.
Tom Franklin, chief executive of the Citizenship Foundation, said that no matter how teachers felt about Donald Trump, it would be “a waste” for schools to ignore the election in lessons.
He told TES that schools could use Trump as a way into discussing what qualifications someone needs to be a president, international relations, trade and migration.
It also gave a chance to explore democracy, the electoral system and polling, said Mr Franklin, whose charity works to promote citizenship among young people.
Some pupils, he said, were likely to express fears over the Trump win picked up through the media, such as concern over nuclear war.
But even these could be used as an opportunity to talk about checks and balances, democracy, alliances between different countries and the United Nations.
He said he had visited a secondary school yesterday where citizenship teachers had put the normal study programme aside to discuss the election.
“This is a very big issue and it’s an example of how schools should be thinking about how to use the issues of the day to help develop young people,” he said.
“I would encourage schools to get as much out of this news story as they can, look at different parts of the curriculum such as maths and English.”
Some teachers, he said, might feel “nervous” about raising controversial issues, such as migration, out of fear they may “alarm” pupils or that they did not know enough about the subject. But a balance could be struck, he said.
He added: “I really hope there aren’t schools who don’t want to touch on it at all.
“Whatever people think about the election, it’s a hugely rich opportunity, it’s a waste if these opportunities are not taken but it takes a bit of courage.”
Mr Franklin’s comments come as teachers on Twitter told TES about their approach to the election news in class yesterday morning.
One primary teacher tweeted: “Trump has become a novelty celebrity with my year 5 class. Not sure how to address it and maintain impartiality.”
One teacher said that during the EU referendum vote, staff had been asked to remain politically neutral, but no such rule had been imposed for the American election.
Another said: “I fully expect to spend my economics lesson next commiserating.”
Several teachers had seized the opportunity for learning, including one who said pupils were analysing and comparing speeches by Trump and Clinton to assess their “impact and appeal.”
A number of schools in the UK held mock elections on Tuesday, including New Hall School in Chelmsford, where Hillary Clinton won.
Early this year, TES reported on American research that found some immigrant pupils in the USA were “terrified” of Trump and thought he would send them back to their original countries.
