As Waldorf educators, particularly those working with our oldest students, we are continuously striving to help them develop the capacity to form independent judgments. We work hard to ensure our students are free from the tyranny of our particular bias and that our political judgments do not impede the process of our students learning to weigh and sift the facts before arriving at their own conclusions. We worry about "being political" in the classroom.

And yet, our high school students do need support in understanding the world, the good, the true, and the beautiful, as well as the many times when society falls short of these ideals. How do we help create brave spaces in our classrooms where our adolescent students can reckon with the most difficult of events without growing cynical, shut down, or too frightened or confused to act?

How can a soul life be nurtured that is able to breathe freely between self and world, bodily experience and spiritual ideals?

And what about when the world is scary and dark?

The phrase, "I can’t breathe," became a slogan of the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States. These were the last words of Eric Garner, who was killed in 2014 after being put in a chokehold by a NYC police officer. A number of other Black Americans, including Javier Ambler (2019), Manuel Ellis (2020), Elijah McClain (2019), and George Floyd (2020) have said this same phrase during similar encounters with law enforcement. The New York Times reported in 2020 that the phrase was uttered by over 70 people who died in police custody. The phrase is now used in protests against police brutality and racial inequality in the US.

While the Federal government can declare "woke" to be dead, true educators must continue to strive to help our adolescent students make sense of the world. How to support moving through the horror to understanding, compassion, and resolve?

As a teacher of high school history, civics, government, and the US Constitution & Bill of Rights, I felt giving students real tools was at the heart of what was needed. Helping students contextualize and make sense of what might otherwise seem like random and overwhelming violence and chaos allows for classroom discussions that can bring meaning.

Steps to Creating a Brave Space in the Classroom

• Clarifying ground rules for classroom discussions and debates that allow for freedom of opinions as long as they are not intentionally hateful or consistently singling out a particular person/group. Ideas include: "Controversy with civility" where varying opinions are accepted; "Owning intentions and impacts," in which students acknowledge and discuss instances where a dialogue has affected the emotional well-being of another person; "Challenge by choice," where students have an option to step in and out of challenging conversations. All are encouraged to find their growth edge and expand; “Respect,” where students show respect for one another’s basic personhood; and, “No attacks,” where students agree not to intentionally inflict harm on one another. Critique the idea, not the person.

• Bringing context: Students need help understanding the larger historical, societal, and cultural background for specific issues. In the example in this essay, students need to understand the history of policing in the US, racism, and historical trends that have led to higher rates of fatal encounters between Blacks and police as compared to other racial groups.

I truly believe that if more people knew what was in their foundational documents– if more Americans knew what was in the preamble to the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, they would far better understand the various crises we are living through right now.

• For North American students: Teach that the American story has never been a single story. While people in one region of early America wanted democracy and believed all humans were created equal, others believed in a hierarchy based on class, race and gender, where, with apologies to George Orwell, all Americans are equal, but some are more equal than others. It is important for students to know this country has had multiple stories run through it from the start, that these opposing visions or origin myths have threatened to tear this nation or federation apart.

There is the image of All Men/All Humans are created equal from July 4, 1776. And there is the story expressed by Alexander Stephens, Vice President of the Confederacy in his March 21, 1861, so-called "Cornerstone Speech."