ROCHESTER — Seth Luedtke projected a series of headlines onto the smart board at the front of his government class on Thursday afternoon at John Marshall High School. One story from The Guardian read “Republican senators break ranks to call for investigation of Signal leak Scandal.” Another from the New York Times read “U.S. to end vaccine funds for poor countries.”
Together his class was reviewing the news of the week. As each headline flashed onto the screen, an individual student would explain why they selected the story they did, what the facts were, and whether they noticed any bias in the story.
In an era of extreme political polarization, Luedtke is one of Rochester’s teachers helping his students navigate the rapid-paced news cycle, as well the mechanics under the hood of the government machine propelling it all forward.
“It’s harder to remain neutral, for sure,” he said about teaching government in the current day. “It used to be really difficult to get kids engaged … (Now), they can see really clearly how things that are happening in government impact their lives.”
Staying neutral is just part of the challenge. Another is the fact that long-held precedents are being challenged, debated and reinterpreted on the federal stage. But to the extent possible, Luedtke tries to add context and clarification to help students make sense of what they’re reading and how it fits into the broader legal background.
That’s what the class was sifting through Thursday morning. When they were discussing the article about the United States cutting off foreign aid, he told his students to reference two different sections of the U.S. Constitution.
Those arguing against cutting of foreign aid, Leudtke said, base their case on Article I, Section 9, which speaks to the role of Congress in federal funding appropriations. On the other hand, those who say the president can end foreign aid, Leudtke said, rely on the “Take Care” clause found in Article II, Section 3.
And yet, he added, that turns out to be complicated by the Impoundment Control Act of 1974.
How will it all pan out in the end? That’s yet to be seen.
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“There are multiple court cases going on right now that we’ll continue to watch,” he told the students. “You need to understand — the Constitution and how we interpret it is what’s going to make that decision. In the end, the courts will rule how this turns out.”
When they moved on to the story about the leaked Signal messages and how they detailed the bombing campaign in Yemen, Luedtke, once again, gave the class some broader context about how the situation should be evaluated. Specifically, he was speaking about the possibility that there could be legal ramifications for those who were involved who leaked information.
“You may see rumors about the Espionage Act,” Luedtke told the class. “The odds of something happening with that in this investigation are minimal. In order to use the Espionage Act as it’s been employed every time in history, there would have to be intent. They would have had to do it on purpose.”
After the news of the week, the class broke up into multiple stations, which the students would then rotate through. In one, Luedtke was using the “crab theory” to explain the system of checks and balances among the three branches of government. The theory goes that a crab will be able to pull itself out of a bucket if it's in there alone. If more than one is in the bucket, however, the other crabs will prevent any of the others from being able to scramble out.
In another group, students were doing a deeper dive into more news, discussing how the facts were portrayed and whether the coverage was representing a left-leaning stance, right leaning-stance or somewhere in between.
So far, the class is still working on building their foundational knowledge, such as what the Constitution outlines and how the branches of government relate to each other. Later in the semester, they’ll move on to issues like civil rights and tackle subjects like abortion, immigration and gun rights.
“We look at all the most contentious issues of the day,” Luedtke said. “Morality’s a great cause to do something, but we need to talk constitutionality.”
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While Luedtke was leading one of the groups, his student teacher, Alexa Heimer, was floating between the others, giving guidance and answering questions. She explained that it’s the philosophy of the classroom for the students to be able to listen to their peers, rather than just drown them out with objections.
John Marshall Senior Roarke Condos said that class culture helps to foster more constructive conversation.
“It’s a safe environment; we’re all sharing our views — we’re all listening to each other,” he said. “It also encourages you to ask questions.”
Even though students may be more politically engaged in the current era than they used to be, some of them are nonetheless entering the world of government for the first time.
But regardless of whether they’re coming to class with a pre-existing understanding of the content, they’re still in the process of forming their own opinions. According to Luedtke, that allows them to really engage with the content.
“I think the biggest misconception is that we don’t appropriately understand how capable they are,” Luedtke said about students. “They don’t have all the preconceived notions; they don’t have all the baggage. So they just look at it sincerely.”
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The Trust Project
