Dialogue:
A Plan for the 2020 Election
By Kristen Farrington
St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes School • Alexandria, VA
T
he 2020 Election looms large. Months of investigations, Impeachment hearings,
campaign ads, and candidate debates are taking their toll. The 24/7 soundbites,
memes, and tweets are leaving even the most addicted news junkies exhausted. I
love living near Washington, D.C. but these days the air seems toxic, filled with bitter-
ness and despair.
I worry most about my students. At school, we stress respect, responsibility, service,
and being an engaged citizen. We hold students accountable for their words and ac-
tions and yet, I am hard pressed to find a good model for these values among our
elected officials and community leaders. Instead of working to find common ground
on the seemingly intractable issues facing our communities, their rhetoric and actions
seem to be fueling division and polarization.
After talking with colleagues from different schools, it is clear that angst has perme-
ated many of our schools. School administrators are already developing survival plans
for November 3rd. I recently asked a former colleague what her school is planning for
the 2020 Elections. She replied, “We don’t have plans, but I think we should close the
school. The halls were filled with vitriol, crying, and gloating in 2016. Our community
can’t handle that again. We are already so divided—it’s going to be much worse this
time.” My friend is not an alarmist. Her fear speaks to a sad truth. She lacks trust in her
school community to be able to handle sharp ideological differences. She lacks trust
in her school leadership to place a priority on creating a school climate where difficult
conversations can be navigated and ‘heat’ from disagreements can be used to trans-
form the school into a community of respect.
Page 2 Summer 2020
CSEE Connections