Should Teachers Express Their Political Views In School?
When I was studying to become a teacher, we were taught to never, ever express our political views in front of students. I’ve always tried to follow that rule, as difficult as it may be – especially during George Bush’s presidency.
When I first came across this story about The Virginia Education Association e-mailing its members and urging them to participate in Obama Blue Day by wearing blue to show support for the Democratic candidate, I thought to myself “How irresponsible.”
We may not realize it, but we teachers have a tremendous influence over our students and we have to be very careful not to allow our personal views to seep into our teaching.
Or do we?
The more I thought about it, the more I wondered where we have to draw the line between political preference and standing up for what is right. If we see corruption and challenges to democracy, don’t we have a responsibility to say something?
Of course, experienced educators have ways of bringing students’ attention to issues which are important. Yet, it’s one thing to bring the issue to the students’ attention and letting them make up their own minds and quite another to tell them exactly what we may feel is right.
Still, what happens in societies in which democracy shuts down and despotic influences take over? Do the teachers stay quiet? Wouldn’t they be considered irresponsible in hind-sight?
I don’t have the answers to these questions, but the story about the teachers in Virginia is really making me think.
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This is going on in NYC right now with Klein issuing a letter. I too have mixed feelings. I have seen certain organized groups (parties) that spend a lot of tiem working with their students in high schools and either activating or politicizing them depending on your point of view. At a demo at Tweed one high school student read a statement condeming capitalism using so much of the lingo of a certain party that quite a few teachers are involved in. The student may believe that but to what extent did the teachers influence the student? And is it wrong? My teachers were mostly anti-communist and taught from that perspective. I was shocked to read in a history course in my junior year in college that there was another point of view. And the assignement came from a Hungarian teacher who had been condemned to death by Stalin and certainly was anti-Soviet. But he had us read all sides and draw our own conclusions.
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I consider it highly ironic that Sunday school preachers and youth leaders can opine away and “guide” the young with their opinions, even if they believe a superhero created the universe with a few words and “know” that evolution is “just” a theory, that gays and other abominations will burn in hell alongside other non-believers, etc.
Parents, like preachers, require little qualification, study-wise, to reproduce, yet they can “teach truth” to their kids to their hearts’ content. Half of these parents are going ape-shit over a moron with boobs for vice president who blows kisses to world audiences of grave political events.
Finally, the media can opine all day long. I heard yesterday that “Palin is now a serious contender for the White House in 2012 because of this debate performance.” CNN spouted this bullshit on primetime TV as kiddies probably watched while shoving happy meals down their throats.
And teachers – you know, people who generally read a few more books than the rest of us (and especially preachers, who are lifelong devotees of one ridiculous book), care about kids (sometimes) and ideas (sometimes) – can’t fact-check this declining American culture? Please. If that’s true, where do I sign up to quit teaching? (Oh wait, I already did that last year.)
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On a calmer note, I team-taught a world history high school class a few years back. My partner teacher was FOX to my DemocracyNow!. When we covered the history of Cuba, he and I had serious disagreements in front of the class about every flashpoint of the Cuba/US conflict. So we argued quite often.
The students loved it.
I invited a missionary to join me in debating the merits of atheism v. theism during a religion unit I was teaching. He was very self-assured about his theological intelligence. But when he came into the Moodle forum wherein free dissent was allowed about his dogma – some of it my own questions – he spent two hours reading the forums, and never got back to me. So it was hard to find a defender of his faith willing to defend that faith against a true free-thinker.
Anyway, let me close by saying I enjoy your posts. Nice to see another voice in an otherwise fairly sleep-walking educational discourse.
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I’m not enthusiastic about what the VEA is doing, in fact I think it is a huge error and sets a bad precedent. I have never been a teacher, but I have memories of feeling deeply alienated by teachers who made their political views clear. It was a difficult time in Virginia, just after desegregation.
Students are a captive audience, so it really isn’t fair to bring politics into the classroom, even at the discussion level. And Gwad knows what Chancellor Potty Mouth might do with such a precedent.
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I have just read a similar post over at NYC Educator, whcih you may be interested in looking at. My opinion is that school, or indeed any place of work, is not where we should be voicing our political opinions. We are not there to promote one political viewpoint over another and I do think that the key word is PROMOTE.
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I don’t think there are any easy answers. One of the things that I try to do is to provide students with material that I feel is relevant to the times in which we live.
I had to get Orwell’s 1984 out of our back book room because it hasn’t been taught in so long. The pages crumbled as the kids turned them, but I think it’s a very important book to be read, especially now.
My schooling was very one sided also. Our history books and class lectures mentioned nothing which cast the United States in a negative light. A bit like brainwashing really.
I was never even taught that Japanese Americans were placed into internment camps during World War 2. The only reason that I learned about it was that I liked to read and found the book, Farewell to Manzanar in the school library. I was pretty shocked.
Thankfully, the Social Studies teachers in our school seem to provide both sides of issues and much less is hidden from the students.
It’s tough to know what to do when so many lines are blurred between schools, churches, politicians and businesses.
This is where I think you and I differ the most AVIW. I think it is very important (in the upper grades) for students to hear what their teachers believe if it is done in discussion rather than in lecturing. Why? Because they (students) don’t have these discussion with their peers. They don’t talk politics very often and when they do it is only to regurgitate what their parents or celebrities have said.
My students knew that I disapproved of Bush’s policies. They also knew that I believed that Democracy is in danger in this country. Does that make me a bad teacher? To some yes, but at the end of the year, I knew that my students were better off for having an adult engage them in discussion that allowed them to formulate their own opinions and to question those of their teacher.