Teaching the history of January 6 in local schools

(ABC 6 News) – Many Americans watched the day of Jan. 6 unfold, including educators.

At Austin High School, students learned about the day that will go down in history. They looked at different news stories about this day and photos from the beginning of the rally and the progression of it up to the capitol building being breached and had discussions about it.

"I think this will be a day that will live on in infamy," Rayce Hardy, a Government, Economics and Sociology teacher at Austin High School, said. "We looked at some statistics with regard to the arrests and the charges made by the Department of Justice. Then just some student reactions to those things."

Hardy thinks this event will for sure have its place in the history books. He provided both sides of the story, but the students formed their own opinions about this day in history.

"In my opinion, I think this is a very important thing to learn because it just reflects how 2021 went as a country, as all together. The hypocrisy and just everything about it," Marlea Emverson, a senior at Austin High School, said.

"I definitely think it is going to be put in the history books and it’s going to be one of those days that we look back on every year like we do with 9/11 and Pearl Harbor and those events. I don’t think this will be forgotten for a very long time," Derek Wynn, also a senior at AHS, said.

Students like Emverson and Wynn say it’s something we should learn from.

"I’d say it is something that we need to reflect on as the anniversary comes by all these years just to explain what kind of hole we were in in 2021 with Coronavirus, with racial injustice, with the election chaos. Everything about it, it’s something that I think is important to reflect on," Emverson said.

"There are so many things that need to be thought about with this and I feel like we’ve had a year but this is going to take quite a long time to recover from and fix," Wynn added.

These students are seniors at AHS and will be able to vote in the next election which makes learning about these events crucial to their decision-making for the future of our country.