Psychologist weighs in on de-escalating heated political discussions in classrooms

JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. ( KDVR ) — In November, the country will go through another presidential election, and psychologists said the polarizing rhetoric is only going to get louder in the coming months.

Kim Gorgens , Ph.D., a professor of psychology at the University of Denver, recommended a way to handle these discussions among students. For upper-level students, politics or government are a part of what they learn in the classroom. But where’s the line between an educational conversation and a divisive discussion?

In July, a Jefferson County School District elementary teacher was called out online after screenshots of a post appeared to show the teacher talking about former President Donald Trump’s attempted assassination . In the post, the teacher allegedly agreed with a commenter who was upset the shooter “missed.”

Jeffco responded to the concern saying, “Please know that Jeffco Public Schools does not endorse violence of any kind. The district has social media guidance that encourages our employees to conduct themselves in a professional manner and refrain from posting inappropriate content on personal social media channels. While our employees are entitled to their own perspectives, please know that when they share those perspectives, they are not speaking on behalf of our district.”

Psychologist weighs in on political rhetoric in the classroom

Gorgens spoke about de-escalating these types of conversations when they get heated in a classroom setting.

She said sometimes you’re curious about someone else’s point of view, but sometimes you’re going to feel overwhelmed. Gorgens said it’s important to know when to stop a conversation.

“It is bullying. It’s a kind of bullying when someone doesn’t give you airtime and isn’t sharing a conversation. If someone’s agenda is to talk only about their perspective, that’s not a conversation,” said Gorgens. “You got to have that bubble that when you feel uncomfortable, you get to leave and the de-escalation at that point might be, I can see that, this is getting really heated, I’m going to take a walk, we can come back to this later. I’m going to call this a wash and let’s agree to disagree.”

She said it might help bring the intensity of emotions down when you acknowledge the other person’s feelings.

Gorgens said social media is an echo chamber. The algorithm feeds you content that mirrors the things that you’ve liked or that you’ve already watched, so you’re getting more of the same opinions you agree with. She adds sometimes it can be really helpful to do a quick reality check with another opinion. Having conversations with kids about different opinions would help too.

“As an educator, we have an almost phobic avoidance of bringing politics into the classroom unless you happen to be teaching a class about politics,” Gorgens said. “So, this is true also for parents who are going to avoid that conversation. But kids are hungry for it. Kids want to hear those perspectives. Kids are certainly going to become stewards of the community that we build, but more importantly, they need to be exposed to those kinds of really logical, learned calm conversations that might make it less scary for them out there in the world.”

Gorgens said it’s really important to remember that politically motivated violence is a very rare event, and parents and teachers should reassure kids that that’s true. One of the ways they can do that is by engaging in those non-threatening, non-violent, calm conversations themselves.

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