During a recent civics class a student asked me why protests were happening around the country. This student wasn’t being partisan or argumentative. They were just trying to understand what is happening in our democracy right now.
When it comes to teaching civics through current events, the hardest part doesn’t involve breaking up disagreements. Rather, the hardest and incidentally most valuable component is helping students develop meaning from situations as change unfolds on their social media feeds in real time.
As a civics teacher, I am in a unique position to help them make sense of what’s happening in their community and in our nation. And in this current situation, as a teacher who specializes in Homeland Security and as a former immigration lawyer, I’m in an especially unique position.
But my role is the same as any and every teacher in this country - to present current events without advocacy. My legal background provides opportunities to develop civic lessons grounded in sound law, even as current events seem to press legal limits. My lessons are designed to help students develop their own opinions based on reliable evidence and factual information. And because I teach high school, it’s my ongoing responsibility to help students become responsible citizens through developing civic empowerment.
We need meaningful civics education that motivates the next generation to engage leadership roles and public service. Students today, however, won’t simply accept opinions first. They expect clarity. And providing clarity in contemporary civic learning is complex, because there are so many potential distractions. Social media especially holds an increasingly tight grip on students. Moreover, students enter the classroom with a wide range of backgrounds, beliefs and challenges.
My role is to identify where students are and then provide lessons that further the growth of reasonable civic thought, reflection and connection.
As partisanship divides us and adults seem to yell even louder, purposefully teaching civics in the classroom is about developing skills as opposed to pressing an agenda.
My role as a responsible civics teacher today is similar to being both the prosecution and defense attorney in the same first impression case with closing arguments that favor neither side. I focus on being a resource for students driven to develop their own reasoning abilities rather than to accept personal educator bias. My students are motivated to know what Constitutional rights exist, what limits exist, and how legal authorities make decisions. They need to be able to separate truth from fiction, develop arguments based on evidence and documents, and learn how to become responsible citizens. Valuable civic education is not about what to think – it’s about how to think.
A commitment to strong civic education is really the only sustainable solution to ensuring the US will always remain the greatest democracy in the world. Purposeful civic education teaches students how to problem solve within that democracy – and how to work together. Students need civic-focused reasoning to separate systems from sound-bytes. They must realize social media swipes in the present are not nearly as important as civic understanding over the long-term.
In my own classroom, civic learning extends beyond discussion and into meaningful action. This year, which is both the 250th Anniversary of the nation’s independence and the 25th Anniversary of 9/11, my students are organizing an inaugural 9/11 Flags of Remembrance Project for our community. We hope to have 2,977 US Flags sponsored and displayed at our school, one for each innocent victim of 9/11 - a dynamic symbol of the impact of that horrific day. The Project is about remembering and understanding why certain moments must continue to shape our civic life.
Our nation depends on civic-focused projects, engagements as well as lessons that resonate with students. Civic Learning Week (March 9-14) is an annual recommitment to civic-focused education, providing an ideal opportunity to remember democracy depends on informed participation. Civic Learning Week helps signal to students that their questions matter, supports teachers doing this difficult work, and encourages schools to prioritize civic literacy.
A student several months from graduating asked me how to register to vote, a simple question tied to arguably our most important civic responsibility. Such a question brought a smile to my face.
We need the next generation to appreciate that democracy isn’t taught once – it must be engaged with throughout entire lives. If we want informed citizens, we must be committed to valuable civic education. After all, while teaching the present may be challenging, a commitment to civic learning guarantees we teach it responsibly and prepare the next generation of citizens.
Adam Edward Rothwell is a tenured public high school Homeland Security teacher in Baltimore County, Maryland, and a licensed attorney. The views expressed are his own.
U.S. President Donald Trump boards Air Force One on August 14, 2026 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. Trump is traveling to Long Island to tour law enforcement facilities in Nassau County and rally support for local Republican candidates ahead of the upcoming midterm elections
Travel Far Enough, You Meet Yourself
Is it possible that our President has simply not traveled enough?
Born and raised in Queens and attending Fordham University in the Bronx, Donald Trump has no record of traveling outside New York until he was over 20, when he transferred to a college in the neighboring state of Pennsylvania. Were his formative years amiss, then, in his learning about other places and other people?
Is his view akin to the famous New Yorker cover by Saul Steinberg, an illustration of the United States with New York City as the epicenter of the country and the Hudson River the border of the known world? We can now at least add Washington, D.C., and Mar-a-Lago to the map of “the realm.”
Our President has now traveled some, but what we recommend is another kind of travel. Not a state-sponsored trip or a venture to scout locations for future Trump Towers. This would be a genuine travel experience, enriching and eye-opening, showcasing other cultures and ways of living.
It will extend far beyond viewing military parades, hobnobbing with such “understanding” world leaders as Kim Jong Un, or taking tea with the King.
WHERE, then, should the President go? As Elon Musk’s Starship spacecraft is not yet ready to take passengers to Mars, perhaps he could explore our own vast country?
Maybe he could travel to “flyover country,” the farming states, where his ying-yanging tariffs and trade restrictions have played havoc with rural economies. Or possibly to California, number one in homeless U. S. citizens, and while there, regale homeless veterans (approximately 32,500 nationwide) with tales of his brave exploits invading and bombing foreign countries.
Or he might tour the Great Lakes, and rename the other four?
WHEN should he go? This will be tough, as he is very busy building his ballroom and renaming bodies of water.
How about a trip in early November, around the midterm elections? Despite the long-discredited accusation of widespread voter fraud, it would be reassuring to know he might be so caught up divvying out ladles of soup in a soup kitchen somewhere that he wouldn’t remember to deploy the military for “election security.”
HOW will he travel? He should definitely not take his Qatari-donated, newly renovated 747, especially after last time, when he had to be smuggled off clandestinely in a catering truck. It’s unlikely any traveling companions, like the Secretary of State or of the Treasury, are going to fall for the ruse a second time. Besides, we may need those people. No more decoys!
Perhaps the President could fly commercially, although this likely would expose him to undue suffering. Without gold bathroom fixtures and maple wood floors, the trip will be no “Luxury Experience.” If only he still had his “Trump Shuttle,” bought with a massive loan he later defaulted on, saying then, “I’m smart. I got out at a good time.”
Considering the potential pitfalls, maybe it’s best the President travel incognito, disguised perhaps as an elderly woman wearing a lot of bronzer.
Wherever, whenever, however: our President needs a vacation.
Moreover, we need a vacation from him.
If the President refuses our travel suggestions, here’s another idea:
Let’s get him a pet! He has never owned a pet. As we know with our children, pets teach essential life lessons: compassion and empathy; they instill a sense of responsibility. There is a well-established connection between those who can care for a pet and those who can care for people.
So, which pet should we choose? A puppy? A kitten? A boa constrictor?
Imagine, the President may even decide he likes having a pet. After all, what is more obedient than a well-trained dog, besides possibly the Cabinet? And what is more docile than a sweet kitten, other than plausibly the Supreme Court?
The President may even become more mellow with a pet afoot and less likely to slap tariffs on our allies, or attempt to annex our neighbors, or bully our Congress. (Realizing, of course, a bully requires active participation from the bullied to maintain his status.)
Maybe we should do both: get the President a pet and devise a travel plan for him. (Do you think we could possibly convince him to leave his phone at home?)
Let’s go for it! After all:
Travel far enough, you meet yourself. (David Mitchell)
And for our President, that would likely be the most profound discovery of all.
Amy Lockard is an Iowa resident who regularly contributes to regional newspapers and periodicals. She is working on the second of a four-book fictional series based on Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice."