The Power of Relevance

We’ve all seen it happen: a speaker asks for questions and the crowd goes...silent.

Despite the access, despite the opportunity, despite the potential of the moment, not one person raises a hand, or steps before a microphone, or utters a single word.

Not one person elevates or initiates conversation, and a hundreds of hearts thud through the awkward cloud of disengagement.

Sometimes this disconnection is due to fear or insecurity, but according to Upper Arlington High School social studies teacher, Betsy Sidor, it is often because students don’t know enough to participate in the process.

To combat this, Sidor spends time dissecting the front page of the New York Times with her government classes every day. She has brought in a variety of speakers including a congressional staffer, veterans, legislators, the founder of a nonprofit that encourages political participation, a speaker from Department of Defense and local leaders who facilitated a focus group with her students.

And she prepares her classes for those visits by asking them to research relevant issues, related events, voting records and donations.

Once they learn where to access information, she challenges them to determine where they need clarification or how they could apply what they’ve learned to the speaker. When it’s clear students aren’t accessing or acquiring the content they need, she figures out a different way to get them the information. And once they’re there, she directs them to think about a certain area, and physically write down two or three questions in advance.

By framing it this way, she bypasses the scenario of silence.

She gives them enough guidance to generate smart, well-researched questions, and by bringing in so many outside experts to give students an authentic reason to research, she also gives them plenty of opportunities to ask those questions, and to increase their confidence in doing so.

These experiences have clearly made an impact on students, three of whom showed up for class on the day of the AP exam even though they were not required to attend.

When I walked into Sidor’s room to discuss the preparation and reflection she did for the congressional visit on May 1, with Representatives Steve Stivers and Joyce Beatty, I found her deep in conversation, and I hesitated to interrupt. The students asked why I was there, and when I explained, all three chose to stay. After no more than a minute, it was clear that the preparation and reflection Sidor did with her students happened over and over again with other speakers throughout the year.

It was also clear that it mattered.

One of the students in Sidor’s room that day said that he loves when she brings in speakers because it “feels cool to connect with a person who really knows what they’re talking about. It makes school worth it.”

One of the other students said, “in class, you learn the content, but when you see someone in a profession, it anchors all of the stuff you learn and puts it into reality; it solidifies it.”

And about this particular visit, students shared that seeing their national leaders in person gave them a different perspective.

“It’s a real life interaction,” one of the students said, “Sort of like the difference between being on the phone verses actually talking [in person].”

One of the other students chimed in and said there was also something powerful about seeing two leaders from different parties standing side-by-side.

“It shows we can come together as a community, achieve a common goal and do good for all people instead of just one side.”

When I asked Sidor what her other students said about the visit, she said that many told her that the most powerful part was having the chance to line up, to stand with their peers and approach a microphone, to ask their leaders a question, and to watch those leaders listen to them individually, and respond.

Even the students who weren’t among the first to line up said that the visual itself was inspiring: being able to turn and look at the lines, to see them stretch all the way back, down both aisles, and to listen to students ask question after thoughtful question, and to watch the representatives give each of them an answer.

I asked if lining up made made it more or less nerve-wracking than sitting in your seat and raising your hand, and all three students said they loved the line leading up to the microphone.

They felt prepared and confident, and lining up gave them a sense of order. They could see how many people were in front of them and it “was really cool to see so many stand up and ask a question.”

They also said, “the line grew once everyone saw how Stivers and Beatty respond[ed].” They knew they knew their questions would be taken seriously, and the response to their questions would be delivered “using what [Beatty and Stivers] told us to use: [civility and respect].”

It was clear from where I stood in the auditorium that Sidor’s classes--seated front and center--were deeply engaged in the experience, more so than perhaps anyone else in the auditorium, and I asked her to explain why.

“Speakers need to be more than events,” she said. “You need to make sure students know who they are, where they stand, what they believe.”

Then she told me she spent a significant amount of time allowing students to learn how to navigate congressional websites, how to use Open Secrets to find campaign contributions and how to transfer their understanding of current events to previous and pending issues.

Before they set foot in the auditorium, she asked them to review the powerpoint Stivers and Beatty would present. Then they had to describe the legislation each representative is sponsoring or co-sponsoring in the 115th Congress. She asked them to describe the standing committees and subcommittees on which they serve, find at least four constituent services provided by each congressperson, list the top five largest donors and the amounts given to their 2018 re-election campaign, and she challenged them to make connections between any donors and either the committees on which the representatives serve or the legislation they sponsor.

Before this experience, the three students in the room said, “most people had kind of heard of Steve Stivers but had not heard of Joyce Beatty.” Once they knew the representatives were coming, however, they had more incentive to learn about them individually and about their work collectively.

And once they gathered this information, that’s when Sidor asked them to generate a question.

I turned to the students in the room and I asked them to explain how that happens. We often hear superficial questions when speakers open up the floor, so what does Sidor do differently to facilitate the creation of “smart” questions?

They all considered.

They knew what I was talking about, but at first they weren’t sure how to articulate an answer.

Then one of them looked at me matter-of-factly and said, “if you’re asking a question that affects you in some way, it pushes you to do research and actually care.”

And that was it.

Right there.

People ask superficial questions because they don’t know enough to ask good ones.

Because they aren’t prepared, or connected.

Because they don’t see how it matters.

Sidor prioritized their preparation, participation and reflection. She carved out time for it to occur, she assigned points to every part of the experience so the students knew it was important, and she has been consistent with that practice throughout the year.

Her students don’t just write questions, they spend the time it takes to write good ones, they know the value of putting away their phones and engaging in a presentation, and they understand the empowerment of reflection, of giving planners, speakers and school administrators feedback, of considering what just happened--what they just went through--and what it means in their life.

And this happened because of the way Sidor set up the experience, because of how she empowered students to embrace the why, because she knows how to elevate words off the page.

It happened because she provides chances for her students to engage in a process that allows them to recognize the value of information, of their role in society, of their experiences and opportunities.  

It happened because she not only give students access, she taught them to embrace opportunity, she challenged them to rise up to the potential of a moment, she nudged them to raise their hand, to step before a microphone, to elevate and initiate conversation, and to respectfully, and intelligently, speak.