March 2026 SOLC–Day 5
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We’re lined up in the hallway waiting for the final dismissal call and the official end of the school day.
“Look what I found!” J. yells triumphantly, rising from the ground and holding up a penny.
“Ooooh!” L. enthuses, edging closer. “It’s a penny! Pennies are rare now!”
“Do you know why they’re rare?” I ask.
“Because Trump stopped making them. Trump’s bad!” yet another student offers.
“Well,” I interject, not exactly sure yet what I’m going to say and trying to formulate a response. But then, before I can continue, another student chime in.
“It’s true,” he said, his soft brown eyes looking up at me earnestly. “Trump is bad. He kills people. He does. He made this thing called ice–not like the slippery ice–and they kill people. Like they killed a soccer mom and she didn’t even do anything!”
Some other kids nod.
A moment hangs there, and I’m not sure what to do. What to say.
These are 7 year old kids. They’re talking about the President of the United States killing people. And they clearly have heard a lot. They have details.
How do I handle this? How would you handle it?
For good or for bad, I divert.
“Well, one big reason they stopped making pennies is because it costs more to make pennies than they are worth,” I say.
“Oh, yeah,” L, the penny expert, says, “I heard that.”
And then their conversation moves smoothly along to other topics.
They probably won’t even remember this conversation.
I will.
Nix the comfort zone 
Heavy sigh! Kids can’t even be kids anymore.
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It’s more than a bit worrisome.
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Ugh. I think you handled this well. I overheard a similar political exchange with a few students recently and the teacher diverted after listening. So tricky…and sad that this is the reality we are faced with. As for the pennies my own eight year old asked me yesterday if I knew Pennie’s were “extinct!”
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I love the idea of pennies as “extinct.” Cute!
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These conversations are so tricky! Even here in Canada I am having them with grade 6 students (who know a lot more than the 7-year-olds!) Like you, I sometimes divert and change the subject, but sometimes I facilitate the conversation. I’m always careful to try and keep my opinion neutral in front of students, but they are afraid and I’m not quite sure how to help.
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I do worry about how much information they’re exposed to.
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Straight out of the mouths of babes. I think you handled it the best way – – turning attention back to the scarcity of the penny. I love this:
“Well, one big reason they stopped making pennies is because it costs more to make pennies than they are worth,” I say.
“Oh, yeah,” L, the penny expert, says, “I heard that.”
That’s the best way to end. Some things cost more than they are worth.
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“Some things cost more than they are worth.” #truth
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These are the trickiest situations to find yourself in as a teacher, and you handled it well. Kids hear and know so much—it’s sad to see innocence being chipped away.
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Thanks. I don’t really feel like I could have done much differently with 7 year olds! Still I wonder…
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This is indeed one of those really difficult conversations. I think you handled it well, considering the turn it took.
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Thanks. It definitely wasn’t the time or place to have that kind of conversation anyway.
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How should we handle such a conversation? In my experience, diversion is the best tactic. It is funny how quickly they go from topic to topic when you are left reeling.
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I was definitely left reeling and the reel has been replaying in my head over and over again.
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I started watching and following the news when I was in second grade. Based on the conversation they recounted, the kids do understand, and they are old enough to be interested in the evil around them. Several alternatives to diverting, which is fine, ask: “Would anyone else like to say something?” and “Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I appreciate you.” You don’t have to voice an opinion, but it kind of breaks my heart to see kids not be able to talk about current events when they clearly want to. Then by the time they’re in high school, most so t speak up. Civic engagement needs to start early. It does in places like Finland. There are kids all over the world living in war zones that Trump had either enabled or created. Our kids can show empathy, at the very least.
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Thank you so much for your thoughtful comment, Glenda. I’ve been thinking about it a lot. “…it kind of breaks my heart to see kids not be able to talk about current events when they clearly want to.” Oof. I really appreciate your alternative suggestions and your push to reconsider my response. Thank you!
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I acknowledge how hard this is, even for teachers such as I whose job literally was to teach high school students to have conversations about controversial subjects. One of the things I value most about this community is how I am placed in elementary classrooms where I learn so much. Each teacher’s circumstance is different, so it’s important to think about your own safety, too, these days. Years ago I learned a response from a colleague at another school. When she didn’t want to respond, she’d say, “I’ll have to think about that” or “That’s something to think about.”
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Teaching is the trickiest profession. We have to make important decisions unexpectedly, in the moment. I can still remember 9/11 and knowing in spite of my own fear and uncertainty that I would have to deal with small children when I arrived at work that day. We do the best we can and we are there for the kids. You did that.
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Thanks, Kim. I’m not sure what I would have done in the classroom (rather than in a hallway as we headed out the door), but I suspect it would have been similar. I’m reconsidering that now, but it is definitely tricky.
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I probably would have diverted, too, but I agree with what Glenda is saying. In the right setting (maybe not the moment you’ve described), it would be constructive to let the kids say what they know and what they think. They’re probably going to parrot their parents’ views, but it’s healthy for them to realize that discussing politics doesn’t have to be taboo. Too many adults think it is, and that’s because we don’t really have the skills to discuss differences in a civilized way. I grew up in a time when the president was doing some criminal things, and we talked about it a lot. Teachers rightly tried to stay neutral in front of the class, but a few of them allowed us to report on current events in class, and things like Watergate certainly came up. We often tried to guess what the teachers thought. I think our current times are even more troubling than Watergate, though, and some of the victims are free speech and press.
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I really appreciate your comment and also Glenda’s. It is so important to “discuss differences in a civilized way.” I spend a lot of school time teaching kids how to respectfully navigate through conflicts. Maybe I need to lean on that a little if the topic comes up again. Thanks!
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I think that is the only way you could have taken the conversation.
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Thanks, Celia. In that time and place, I did think this was my only option. But, in retrospect, I could also have thanked the student for telling me what he was thinking, like Glenda suggested.
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Poignant last sentence! You nailed it under pressure!
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This is definitely a moment that I’ve continued to flash back to again and again.
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