How do you find a balance between educating kids about harmful historical events and keeping them psychologically supported? For example, when teaching about the mass enslavement of African peoples in the United States, how detailed do you get into the specific abuses wrought upon the bodies of black people? At what point do you decide a specific fact or story is too gruesome to share with students? How do you know if you’ve gone too far, and how do you help students process this information? Does your approach to this question vary depending upon the race/identity/background of the student, and if so, how do you balance your approach within a diverse classroom? Background: I am currently in a grad-school teacher training program, and an assignment in one of my classes is to ask a “burning question” to teachers who might have the experience to answer it. Responses may be used in said assignment but will be kept anonymous. I would like to become a high school social studies teacher one day, and I am very passionate about history, but as a white, cis, straight male, I want to be conscious of the effects that these stories may have on others less privileged than me.
