During my third month as a student teacher in Los Angeles, four police officers were acquitted for the video taped beating of Rodney King, and the resulting rage set the city on fire. Many of my students lived within a few blocks of the conflagration, and I found myself unsteadily trying to help them understand what had happened and why. I wasn't sure I had anything worthwhile to say to them, but I tried. I have been trying ever since ‒ to help the kids I teach make sense out of a world that feels unsafe and unwelcoming.

Whenever blood spills on or near our campus, I try to convince them that their own demise is not inevitable. On the morning of 9/11, I offered reasons to doubt that our school would be the next terrorist target. In the spring of 2020, I tried to help kids have faith in the future as we were saying goodbye for a year of COVID-19 pandemic madness. These “teachable moments” are outside the curriculum and often constitute the most important lessons, though I’ve never felt entirely competent at them.

That was especially true last Wednesday.

Students were unusually quiet in class. Their glum faces stared up at me. One of them asked what I thought about the election. I tried one of those generic educator responses: "I think the American voters have spoken."

Some kids expressed dismay at the outcome. They looked scared. I had a hunch their reasons might be personal. I also didn’t want to assume everyone felt the same way. I told........

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