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Should politics have a place in the classroom?

Categories: Kids 5-7, Kids 8-11, In the news, Media, Education

As the air is getting colder and November is on it's way, even my second graders are coming to school curious and opinionated about the current political race. They hear snippets of news; overhear their parents talking. They have questions. They want answers.

In social studies we're investigating our local community. As a part of the study we've been exploring the purpose of rules, and the roles of leaders within the community. Naturally, the president has come up a fair amount, because, well, to someone who is eight the president is pretty much in charge of EVERYTHING IN THE ENTIRE WORLD.

According to second graders, the president is the boss of everyone. He makes all the rules (including the speed limits, and the consequences for jay-walking) and he tells everyone what to do.

Just imagine their surprise when our local friendly police officer came to do a presentation and informed them that it's actually the elected members of the legislature who make the rules, and not so much the president.


What then, does the president DO, they wanted to know?

Well...


The second I open my mouth the class is bristling with ideas. Suddenly every kid is repeating exactly what his or her parents have said.

Like every other classroom in , mine has a bunch of kids whose parents are avid Democrats and bunch whose parents are staunch Republicans. I try to be as utterly neutral as I can in answering their questions: framing my answers in a way that eight year olds can understand. But it gets dicey when a kid lobs a question directly at me: "What do you think teacher?"

Um.

Apparently some teachers are taking a lot of heat for expressing their political opinions lately.

I've personally walked into middle school classrooms where signed posters of McCain and Bush hang boldly on the wall, and none of Obama or Clinton are in sight and I've wondered... Should teachers really be allowed to present only one half of the picture--even if they are social studies teachers and the class is studying government? Especially in middle school and high school where children are so dramatically influenced by their teachers ideas-don't teachers have a requirement to, at the very least, present both sides equally?

But then I wonder, is neutrality really possible? Even my carefully constructed answers must harbor some hint of tone, some bias. And in the end, the world is full of opinionated people--who differ dramatically in how they view things. Isn't this also a valuable lesson for children to be learning?

What do you think? Do politics have a place in the classroom? Should teachers state their views or avoid politics entirely? Does it even matter?

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