Michigan history teachers say they are incorporating the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack and its aftermath into advanced placement U.S. history classes, using the lesson to connect textbook topics to current events and to build students’ skills in evaluating evidence. The approach is being used by East Kentwood High School teacher Matt Vreisman and Whitehall High School teacher Brian Milliron, among others, with the broader goal of strengthening students’ civic understanding.
Vriesman said the key is to connect what students have seen in real life to the historical material they are studying. “By connecting the present day event that kids literally saw to the stuff in their curriculum it helps them understand why we have a peaceful transfer of power and the negative effects when we don’t,” Milliron said.
Teachers in Michigan say they began weaving the Jan. 6 episode into their lessons months earlier, including while teaching advanced placement units tied to the American Revolution, the establishment of the Constitution, and the contentious presidential election of 1800. The lessons then turn to an “anomaly” after the 2020 election, when then-incumbent Republican President Donald Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden and violence erupted at the U.S. Capitol building as members of Congress met to certify the election results.
Milliron said he starts with what junior and senior students remember from Jan. 6 and then fills in the gaps about what they do not know. He uses that structure to link the contemporary episode to the broader lesson about how democracies handle political transitions.
Vriesman, who was the 2023 National History Teacher of the Year, said he asks students what they know about Jan. 6 and then shows them a PBS documentary about the day. He also said he discusses democracies that have failed throughout history and has students write a reflection about why a peaceful transition is important to a democracy.
“Connecting historical content to current events gives students authentic practice evaluating evidence, recognizing different viewpoints, and disagreeing respectfully about the most relevant issues of today,” Vriesman said. He added that he regularly weaves in major events that occurred during his students’ lifetimes to connect them to different parts of American history, arguing that those current-event links help.
“Our goal as social studies is to create informed citizens who are ready to engage in matters of substance. And current events hook students so much more,” Vriesman said.
Nick Orlowski, executive director of the Michigan Council for History Education, said Michigan’s most recent curriculum standards, issued in 2019-20, became less prescriptive on topics teachers are expected to cover. He said that makes it likely many history and government teachers are incorporating Jan. 6, while also noting that the standards still require covering wide time frames.
Orlowski pointed to an American History Association report that he said showed teachers are teaching from a neutral stance. “It showed that teachers are teaching from a neutral stance,” he said, adding that many teachers use inquiry: students are presented with a historical question, gather sources, and reach their own conclusions rather than having a teacher “bring[] their own politics into the classroom.”
Orlowski said teachers are using inquiry-based approaches in part because students need practice working like historians as they analyze contemporary issues. For Vriesman, that effort is also tied to resources for other teachers: he said he launched a nonprofit, Empowering Histories, in November that provides free, inquiry-based history lessons to teachers across the country.
Vriesman argued that scholarship about how race, racism and slavery shaped American institutions is being reframed in some communities. “Historians and the public are not having the same conversation,” he said, adding that within the academic field, certain truths about the past are “not up for debate,” while in many communities those same truths are treated as controversial.
He said that disconnect has consequences in classrooms, leaving teachers without support and students without tools to analyze evidence and evaluate claims in ways that support democracy. “It leaves teachers without support, and students without the tools they need to analyze evidence, evaluate claims, and make informed contributions to our democracy,” Vriesman said.