How should students be looking at the election and responding?

I think that students first of all need to follow the news cycle in the same way they are following it today. I think that becoming informed is the number one solution to the issues we face or that we might face in the future. I can’t speak for every student because to me it is important that students make their own opinions and interpret things in the way they see fit and to make decisions for themselves, rather than listening to their peers or to their teachers or to their families or to anyone else. I think they should react in a way they are comfortable with. 

How will the election affect the curriculum and history?

The results of the election itself are pretty momentous. I think they have some deep implications for the future of the parties in our country, the futures of the different political coalitions. We saw that Trump support came from the South, pretty usual, but significant support from what we call the Rust Belt in the North. From towns and states that rely on manufacturing jobs, factory jobs, that are listening to the message that Trump has about bringing jobs back to our country, especially for poor white workers. Whereas the Democrats have a little bit of a different picture and they have to formulate some new strategies. They have heavy support amongst minorities. They have good support along the West Coast and along the East Coast, but they also do need to find some additional votes somewhere. I don’t think the Republicans are in great to shape to be perfectly honest either. There is a significant part of the Republican Party that does not follow Trump’s plan or the coalition of Trump supporters; that leans more towards the free market beliefs and the libertarian wing of the Republicans and I don’t think that they are necessarily willing to go along with the vision that Trump supporters have. I think that we could see, which is exciting from a detached perspective, is that the Republican Party could change massively and even split off, and I think the Democrats could be in the same situation. 

Any plans on the curriculum?

We are still very early, considering the circumstances it is really difficult to make changes at this time when we have so many emotions of all involved and when we have had this scramble to make changes in just these last few hours. I do expect that because of how intensely involved people have been in the results of this election, that we could use this election as a learning experience and connect the concepts that we learned in AP Gov to what is happening in real life. But at the same time, College Board does have control over our curriculum to a certain extent and there are certain, specific concepts that we have to teach for the AP Test. So where we are able to fit in these real life applications is unclear.

Any final message for the students?

No matter the results of an election teachers, peers, and staff members will always support you unconditionally. You will always find someone to support your opinion even if others don’t.