Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/726969
respectfully. And like most teachers, she refuses to tell them whom she will vote for ; she wants them to make up their own minds. "ey may be young, but I want them to understand their opinion matters." CONNECTING THE PAST WITH THE PRESENT "One of the things I try to impart to students is that events happening now may have already happened throughout history." Andy Gibson, an AP U.S. history teacher at Sonoma Valley High School, thinks students who are aware of the past can better understand the present. For example, the candidacy of someone like Trump — a wealthy, hotheaded and sometimes crude celebrity — is thought to be unprecedented, but it's not. Andrew Jack- son, the seventh U.S. president, was also a celebrity from his role as a major general who won the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812, and he was also considered crude and barbaric. Trump champions mass deportations; Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act. Trump has called Mexican immigrants "drug dealers and rapists," bring- ing to mind Gov. George Wallace's 1968 candidacy, which also tapped into bigotry and fear. Wallace, a segregationist, was a "firebrand like Trump" and "unapologetic like Trump," comments Gibson, who belongs to Valley of the Moon Teachers Association. (Wallace carried five states and received 10 million votes as the candidate of the American Independent Party.) Trump's threats of a solo campaign — and some Republicans' attempts to dump him — inspired Gibson's revised lesson on the split "I try to find sources I trust to bring out 'aha!' moments in class. They may be young, but I want students to understand their opinion maers." — JASMIN BROWN, Lynwood Teachers Association 25 September 2016 Like most teachers, Jasmin Brown refuses to tell her students at Chavez Middle school (top right) whom she intends to vote for; she wants them to make up their own minds. Among the presidential candidates portrayed at Kennedy High's mock debate are, from left, Jill Stein, Hillary Clinton, Jon Huntsman and Donald Trump.