First, I want to congratulate you on being the sort of teacher everyone wants to have had (and a few of us are lucky enough to have had a few times).

But I don’t have a good response to your kids and their very very reasonable concerns. To be honest, I see us going into an increasingly dark period of dysfunction. The fact that it looks like the most hated man in America is going up against the most hated woman for the Presidency — and that both of them are massively pro-war, pro-surveillance and pro-big business candidates — it’s hard not to despair, and if were young, I have no idea what I’d do, and if I had a class of students, I don’t know what I’d say.

I do read a lot of history, and one thing I have learned is that when we’ve been faced with grave challenges to our whole society, heroes have indeed stepped up to save us.

I think you need to teach these kids not to expect miracles and to defend themselves — but also never to lose hope and always to expect and plan for change.

Indeed, this society seems balanced on a knife-edge — dramatic change seems like a certainty in the lifespan of your kids, and even during “stable” periods, change is one of the few constants in this world.