Why Senate Republicans Would Not Pass My History Class
By Gina Daniels, American history teacher, Licking Heights High School, Ohio
As we pass more than 70 days without a hearing for Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland, it gets harder and harder to tell my students here in Ohio that our government is working at full capacity. How do I justify to my students inaction in the face of increasing criticism from historians, scholars, and even Supreme Court Justices like Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg?
Our students are frustrated by what they see in politics today.
Throughout history, our country continually has become more democratic. Through amendments, we include African Americans, women, and 18 year olds in the voting process.
At a time when they should be proud to walk out into the world and begin participating in this democracy, they instead ask me, “What’s the point?”
My words can only go so far with students. Actions speak much louder. As we teach them to work together, they see partisan fighting that tells them otherwise. As we teach them that their most important job is to stay informed and participate in democracy, they see their own Senator — Senator Portman — not participating, not doing his job, not allowing our government to work the way it’s meant to work.
The end result is our future tuning out and feeling like there’s no reason to participate.
Is this really the future we want to create? I encourage my students to go out into the world and make it better. They need to create the changes they so desperately crave. Don’t respond to frustration by shutting down, respond by rising up to this challenge. Young people catch a lot of flack for being slackers, entitled, or unmotivated, but the reality is there are many young people who will change this world.
These students will create a better example for the future. These students are tomorrow’s role models not because of what they see in government today, but in spite of it.
I would ask Congress no less than I ask of my students: Do your job, stand by your work, always seek to leave the world a better place than it was when you got here.
Can Congress say they are living up to the same expectations as 16 year olds? I’m not sure they’d pass my class at this point.
