Invited to attend a TAH multiday seminar on the Cold War at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, social studies teacher Cade Lohrding was thrilled. Lohrding\u2014born in the late nineties\u2014has no memory of Reagan\u2019s presidency. Yet he feels nostalgia for the decade which culminated in the end of the Cold War, and for the president whose actions helped end it. Although those politically active during the 1980s recall many partisan disputes, Lohrding sees these fights as less acrimonious than those in the years since. He\u2019s concluded that Reagan\u2019s optimistic, good-humored leadership style blunted partisan fights. Reagan was a leader about whom both parties \u201ccould say something positive.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Kiowa County Junior High School in Greensburg, Kansas, provided a substitute teacher so that Lohrding could fly on a Friday into Burbank Airport in time for the seminar\u2019s opening reception and dinner that night. Lohrding enjoyed this time of socializing \u2013 a chance \u201cto talk with teachers from all over the country who teach different groups of kids. Yet we\u2019re all experiencing the same problems.\u201d Lohrding, who is the only junior high social studies teacher at his rural, K \u2013 12 school, has few opportunities to share ideas with colleagues. The next day, he thoroughly enjoyed discussing primary documents with these new friends. \u201cThen we went to the Reagan Library and learned more about the era. In the next sessions we got to relate what we saw to what we read in the documents. I\u2019d never done anything like that before.\u201d<\/p>\n
Contrasting Today\u2019s Partisan Fights with Cold War Unity<\/strong><\/p>\n At the end of the seminar, an older teacher affirmed Lohrding\u2019s sense that after the Cold War, partisan fights in America grew increasingly bitter. Professor John Moser, the seminar facilitator,\u00a0 asked the participants if there were aspects of the Cold War era they missed. One teacher responded, \u201cI miss how united we were.\u201d This prompted Lohrding to tell his colleagues,<\/p>\n I\u2019m the youngest person here . . . . All of my life, it has been constant: one side hates the other. . . . It takes a natural disaster or some other horrible event for us to realize we\u2019re not that different from each other, and that it\u2019s really important for us to work together to get positive things done. We might agree or disagree about what that positive change is, but . . . . what matters is that we all recognize something has got to change. . . . Today, the public discussion . . . is negative, negative, negative. That really bothers me.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Lohrding has seen citizens pull together in the wake of natural disasters. Greensburg was devastated by a tornado in 2007, destroying the homes of Lohrding\u2019s grandparents and aunt and uncle. Ranchers in the area immediately drove pickups into town to rescue those trapped under debris. Once the roads were safer to travel, Lohrding\u2014then an eight-year-old, living forty miles away in Protection, Kansas\u2014and his brothers and sister joined their parents in the clean-up effort. \u201cPeople who live in southwestern Kansas help each other out automatically, expecting nothing in return,\u201d he said. Lohrding did reap one treasure from that time, a photo showing him standing beside President George W. Bush, who visited the disaster site.<\/p>\n Lohrding\u2019s Decision to Teach<\/strong><\/p>\n With ambitions to run for elective office, Lohrding entered Wichita State University as an undergraduate political science major. He switched to 6th<\/sup> through 12th<\/sup> grade social studies education after concluding that politics had grown \u201ctoo ugly.\u201d Today he works to promote vigorous but civil discussion in his classroom. \u201cThere are 60 kids in the junior high, and I teach every one of them, watching them mature,\u201d he says. To sixth graders, he teaches ancient world history; to seventh graders, geography and Kansas history; to eighth graders, US history from early settlement through World War I. Some semesters he also teaches an elective introductory business class.<\/p>\n Following the advice of his mentor at Wichita State, D. J. Spaeth, Lohrding builds students\u2019 interest in social studies by relating lessons to current news and encouraging them to explain their own opinions. Teaching them that healthy politics entails debate, he often responds to students\u2019 arguments with counter arguments. He pushes students to back up their opinions with facts.\u00a0<\/p>\n Responding to Students\u2019 Interest in the Election<\/strong><\/p>\n Yet this fall, as the presidential contest grew rancorous, Lohrding avoided referring to it. His eighth graders protested. \u201cThis is US history happening right now!\u201d they said. \u201cWhy are we not talking about it?\u201d Changing tack, Lohrding asked students to evaluate the candidates\u2019 campaign effectiveness. He showed videotapes of the presidential and vice-presidential debates, asking students to monitor the candidates\u2019 responses to questions about their policy proposals. After a moderator\u2019s question was answered by both candidates, \u201cI paused the video, and asked the students to write notes on what the candidates said. Then I asked them to discuss which candidate spoke most convincingly about their policy.\u201d Before beginning the exercise, he\u2019d told students not to expect either candidate to \u201cwin on every single issue.\u201d<\/p>\n Watching the presidential debate, students saw the candidates deflecting difficult questions and speaking instead about issues they could more confidently discuss. \u201cStudents got so annoyed,\u201d Lohrding recalled. \u201cThey were like, \u2018Just answer the question!\u2019\u201d Later, when they watched the vice-presidential debate, students found the candidates\u2019 responses refreshingly on point. \u201c\u2018Mr. L, is this what debates are supposed to be like?\u2019 they asked. I said, \u2018Yes! The candidates are supposed to be civil, and to base their responses on facts. It\u2019s our job as viewers to check those facts, of course.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Although Lohrding never divulges to students his own political views or voting choices, he shares their excitement at the suspense of a close race. \u201cSo we talked about the polls every day,\u201d Lohrding said. \u201cWe even checked the betting market,\u201d tracking changing predictions on Polymarket.com\u2019s\u00a0 electoral map. Lohrding also showed students maps of votes in the Electoral College since 2000, asking them to analyze political trends. Just before election day, Lohrding asked students at every grade level to predict the electoral outcome. He showed them polls that made district-by-district predictions, then handed out blank maps, telling them to color each state either red or blue. At first, \u201cstudents protested, \u2018All the polls are close!\u2019 So I said, \u2018Use your best judgment. Tell me how the election is gonna go.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cI had one kid get it 100% right. And a lot of them came close,\u201d Lohrding said. After noting on earlier maps the \u201cblue wall\u201d states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, many guessed correctly that, despite predictions, Michigan would vote as the other two states did.<\/p>\n Opening Dialogue Between Students and Parents<\/strong><\/p>\n Later, at a parent-teacher conference, a father jokingly chided Lohrding for encouraging students\u2019 interest in partisan politics. \u201cCome on, man, you couldn\u2019t put off that discussion? That\u2019s all my kid wants to talk about now!\u201d Lohrding said he understood the wish to forestall adolescents\u2019 entry into partisan fights. \u201cBut your kid asked about the election. If they ask, and it\u2019s in my curriculum, I\u2019m teaching it.\u201d<\/p>\n Another lesson plan evoked a positive parent response. To help students understand their own political convictions, Lohrding handed out a chart listing elements of the dominant parties\u2019 ideologies. \u201cThen I said, \u2018Go through and highlight five of your main beliefs.\u2019 There were kids who highlighted three on one side and two on the other. When one student pointed out that there was a donkey above the left column, and an elephant above the right column, the other students said, \u2018Oh my gosh!\u2019 and asked to mark a fresh sheet. I said, \u2018No, you are taking that home to show your parents. Your parents will still love you, whatever you marked. Ask them to mark three of their own beliefs. Then talk with them about it.<\/p>\n \u201cOne parent emailed me to say this lesson led to \u2018a genuine conversation with my kid.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Lohrding hopes to foster \u201cengaged citizens who will register to vote, research the candidates, and find candidates they can support. I hope they develop political convictions they are willing to defend, even to those with different views. I hope they feel, \u2018we can disagree, yet still be best friends.\u2019 Our political opinions shouldn\u2019t define our identities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
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