Teaching in an Election Year

A month-or-so ago, a retired teacher in my PLN posted this meme:

I’m seeing a lot of this why-does-everything-have-to-be-about-politics, I-don’t-see-race, we-can-agree-to-disagree stuff from people, which I think is an attempt to shy away from some introspection and tough conversations.

But in this case, I happen to agree. I don’t want my students to ape my political beliefs. I would find it just as disturbing to hear them mindlessly repeating my own opinions back to me as I do when they recite the Pledge in unison like a bunch of zombies.

In my own ninth grade Pre-AP Biology 1 class, Mr. Sh—– spent hours of class time telling us about what an idiot Al Gore was and how George W. Bush was the only man fit to lead our country. He also told us that rap didn’t qualify as “music,” people who celebrated Halloween would go to Hell, and there were some serious reasons to doubt the validity of the theory of evolution. So while I didn’t learn much in the way of biology in the semester that I spent with him before begging my parents to let me drop down a level so that I wouldn’t have to be in his class, I did learn that children shouldn’t be forced to sit through an authority figure’s attempts to sway their political thinking.

I don’t teach government, so I don’t tell my students for whom I’m voting or discuss which party best represents the laws and policies I hope to see in our country. (The exception being this shirt that I wore as a joke in 2016 in response to one of my students, and even now, upon reflection, I think that was a mistake and wouldn’t do it again.)

But here’s the thing; my students still know. So much has changed over the past four years I don’t need to say whom I’m voting for — statements like “racism is bad” and “making fun of someone with a disability is wrong” are now necessarily aligned with a particular side of the political spectrum.

So there’s where I won’t give ground. As a teacher, it’s not just within my scope of professional choice to make my classroom a place where we read about learn about people from different backgrounds, where every student feels safe and valued and respected, where we’re civil and kind in our conversation — it’s my obligation. And if a particular candidate or movement or party defines itself in opposition to those values, the problem lies with them and not me.