(Untitled)

[duckay]

When it comes to a teacher's political standpoint, how much is too much to introduce to a primary school/elementary school class? Is their political standpoint re: what other countries are doing more, or less acceptable to tell the class about than their opinion of what is going on in their own country/the country in which the class is taking place

Comments

[zeldazonk]

Children need to be learning basic geography at the elementary stage, and some introduction to peoples/culture of the world. They do not need to be getting political.

Students should never know a teacher's political leanings. I'm a teacher and I keep quiet about it, but I do encourage interest in the current political issues.

[abattoir_blue]

ia. Keep it to yourself.

[failstoexist]

I definitely don't think elementary school kids need to know a teacher's political leanings.

by high school I can definitely see it coming up, as long as the kids don't feel like they'll be marked wrong for disagreeing. I had a great teacher who would use his own research from his dissertation to teach us about the civil war, so it was very in-depth but also clearly a bit biased with his opinion...but people who disagreed with him intelligently were not penalized. it was the most interesting class in high school, really. And it's pretty hard to keep a bias completely out of certain issues, so as a student, you'll probably know anyway at that age how the teachers feel.

[raving_liberal]

This, at least on an elementary level. I think a high school student can handle hearing about his teacher's political views.

[cece00]

I really dont think its neccessary for a teacher to share their political opinion with children @ all.

Thats not to say there can never be discussions about politics in school, I just could not care less what my kid's 1st grade teacher (or even 5th grade or 10th grade) thinks about politics- they arent there to teach my kids about what THEY think about a topic....

[loveberry]

I will say under high school age the teachers should not be sharing political opinions and leanings. I know with my friends' children, if they ask anything much deeper than what party I am registered as I refer them back to their parents.

[boobalah]

School is an inherently political institution. What is more wrong--the teacher's political opinion or students learning from a textbook which teaches a very specific mindset for the purpose of developing a political populace?

[cece00]

teacher's political opinion

[boobalah]

Why is that more wrong than Harcourt-Brace's (major textbook publishing company)?

[cece00]

they arent paid to hand out their political opinions (or opinions on anything, really) at school.

also bc I disagree w/ your "textbooks teach a very specific mindset" theory...

[loveberry]

Just thought I'd throw this pout to the group as it relates to the textbook discussion...

http://www.edutopia.org/textbook-publishing-controversy

[boobalah]

Yes, Texas is all-powerful.

I bought a government textbook used on Amazon. I got the Texas-specific edition. I jokingly referred to it as the "red-state version." It has 4 supplemental chapters at the back that were little more than "rah-rah" flag waving.

[loveberry]

I find textbooks in general just, not that great. I homeschool and I pull from lots of different sources, trying to get facts and material the boy can relate to. So far no textbooks and it seems to be working well!