I had the pleasure of interviewing Todd Smith. Mr. Smith taught at Southern High School in Harwood, Maryland for 26 years. He just recently moved schools and is now teaching AP US History at the new Crofton High School in Crofton, Maryland. We have gone through a polarizing year. I was very interested in how you include current events while teaching social studies. The reality of life today is that there are always major events occurring almost daily. It is important to not avoid these subjects while teaching social studies to your middle school and high schoolers. “We can’t prepare children for living in a rich, diverse democracy if we don’t expose them to the controversial topics inherent in our democracy.” (Gosner,2020). He explains that in most of your AP classes you do not have any extra time to add in current events or extra teachings during class time. You are cramming in so much information in a short amount of time. You have to get the kids to make the connections themselves while teaching a historical concept. I had asked him how he went about teaching the January 6th Insurrection on the US Capitol building and the current impeachment process. He said he got lucky. While all this was happening he was teaching about the Civil War/ Reconstruction era and the impeachment of Andrew Johnson. He was able to talk about the south not abiding by the election and refusing to accept the results and taking action against the government. The kids were able to make the connection of what they were discussing to what was currently happening in our society today. If the kids are able to make those connections THAT is the purpose of history. In a study about understandings and practices for teaching “controversial issues” in a high school history curriculum the results found that all participants agreed that “controversial issues should be taught in school” (Iglesias, Aceituno,Toledo, 2017). If we are teaching students to become adults who can understand the world, we have to be able to teach them our current history as well.