Politics in the Classroom

The first presidential election that I remember is Bush vs. Gore, and to this day I’m impressed that we got all the way through that year of civics without anyone being able to discover what party our eighth grade teacher supported.

Looking back on it, I think it’s quite possible that she truly was a moderate, and that made it easy for her to stay neutral. I remember how horrified she was by how polarized our class was and how much energy she put into making us think about the election issue by issue instead of relying on the party line.

In 2012, I pulled off the same trick. I had half my journalism class convinced I was voting for Romney simply because I made them analyze both candidate’s platforms.

This year, I found it impossible to stick to that line. I told all my students that I wanted them to feel free to express whatever political opinion they held. I encouraged them to play devil’s advocate. I also told them I simply couldn’t stay neutral – not in the face of a candidate who was willing to throw away all the rules.

I told my students I couldn’t affirm their identities and also stay neutral while Trump denigrated Mexicans and Muslims. I told my students that I couldn’t stay silent when a presidential candidate refused to disavow sexual assault. I told my students that journalists are trained to stay neutral, but that we also have a responsibility to aggressively fact check anyone who feels like it’s OK to outright lie to the American public.

I worried a lot. I worried my students would think I was biased. I worried that someone with a dissenting opinion would feel unwelcome in my classroom. I worried that I was being lazy – taking advantage of the fact that I am currently teaching in one of the most liberal states in the nation, offering me the security of knowing pretty much everyone in my school community already agreed with me.

I worried that I wasn’t teaching students the really hard lessons about how to respectfully debate with those who hold opposing opinions. I grew up in a community that was politically diverse. I learned early on how to talk politics with friends who were on the other end of the political spectrum. I want my students to have those skills.

I also want my students to know that it’s OK to speak out when someone crosses the line. Even when that person is a powerful political figure. I don’t want them to feel silenced or intimidated. I want them to have the words to express their outrage.

I believe in the power of words. Hearing Donald Trump call his endorsement of sexual assault “just words” was the low point of the election for me. I was honest about that. I was more honest about my political beliefs this election cycle than I ever have been in the classroom.

I still don’t know if I did the right thing. I know I’m not alone. I listened to my colleague, Lissa Thiele, who teaches Sociology of Law say, “ It is important for teachers to express their true selves,” and I agreed.

I listened to Ms. Thiele say, “I don’t think they should hide what they are feeling or doing. It’s vitally important for students to understand where their teachers are coming from,” and I believe she has a point. I think my students this semester know more of my authentic self than any other group of students has in the eight years I’ve been in a classroom.

I don’t think that means I opened more minds. I vividly remember what it felt like to stand in front of a classroom of students in Oklahoma, knowing many of them heard openly homophobic language regularly from their parents and their pastors, and teach about tolerance. That felt like a learning moment. Pointing out Trump’s lies in a room full of liberal California students feels a little more like group therapy.

I believe it is important to both challenge and affirm students while they are struggling with identity formation. I believe it is important to teach students to be responsible citizens and empathetic human beings. Sometimes that means being the person in their life who is willing to challenge their ingrained beliefs. Sometimes that means being the person in their life who is willing to confirm that their frustration is justified.

Either way, I don’t believe we gain anything by not talking to each other. Politics has a place in the classroom because it has a place in our lives. Whether or not my students can vote, their lives will be affected by the results of this election.

Teaching Tolerance, a project from the Southern Poverty Law Center, surveyed 2,000 teachers and discovered that the presidential campaign is “eliciting fear and anxiety among children of color, immigrants and Muslims; emboldening students to mimic the words and tone of the campaign; and disrupting opportunities to teach effectively about political campaigns and civic engagement.”

You can’t fight back against those trends by staying silent. Teachers have a responsibility to stand up to bullies, whether they are found on the blacktop or behind a debate podium.

Sometimes teachers pay a price for engaging in this fight. The News & Observer reported that a teacher in Hillsborough, N.C. resigned after a student recorded a lesson in which the teacher compared Donald Trump’s rhetoric to that of Adolf Hitler, arguing that both politicians used pathos to manipulate listeners’ fears.  

I talked to Ms. Thiele, who also teaches History of Holocaust, the day after that story broke. We both shivered a bit at the idea that censorship could prevent teachers from pointing out important truths about the world.

I talked to my students that day too. They confirmed what Diana Hess and Paula McAvoy found in their book The Political Classroom: Evidence and Ethics in Democratic Education. As Hess explained in an interview with NPR, students are sensitive to teachers who do not enforce a culture of fairness in the classroom. “What we learned from students when we interviewed and surveyed them is that they make a really clear distinction between a teacher sharing his or her own view and a teacher trying to push his or her own view,” Hess said.

My students expressed that same hesitation. They said it sounded like that teacher was telling students who to vote for. They said it would have been better if she had used speeches from both candidates to teach that lesson. It was a useful reminder in how difficult it can be to structure class discussions in a way that allows students to make up their own minds.

It is important to me to speak the truth in my own classroom. It matters to me that students feel safe speaking their own truth. This year, that truth often hurt. It is painful to acknowledge that politics can cause real harm. Not acknowledging it, however, is a dangerous endorsement of ignorance.

I will continue to discuss politics in the classroom because I want my students to be informed citizens of the world. I do not believe that classrooms are silos. We should teach the way we want to live, and I want to live in a world in which we do not stay silent in the face of tough truths.