Home | How It Works | Stats Login | Register         Case: Politically or Racially-Aware I believe in democracy. As a high school social sciences teacher, I strongly believe in democratic education and political awareness. I want my students to be aware of what is going on around them locally, nationally, and internationally. I require my students to keep up with news. Everything they learn from newspapers, magazines, and television becomes substance to use in my lessons. Before the presidential elections, I asked my students to watch all the debates, try to see the different perspectives, and how those perspectives may lead to different courses of action and to different implications for people. As part of this effort, I gave students a "persuasive writing" assignment. I gave them a list of topics from the debates, such as abortion, healthcare, affirmative action, and foreign policy. Students were to take a position on one of these issues and write a persuasive essay. When it was time for students to share their writings in class, things got out of hand. Every single topic we discussed along with the essays turned into a discussion of race. My Black and White students took opposite perspectives on every issue and during the discussions, they were not civil. I felt like my efforts for democratic education were not producing anything good. Should I change my activities? How come the political awareness I wanted develop in my students actually turned out to be racial awareness? Some guidance please! Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!) I believe the key to activities like this is to have open, respectful discussions. Students need to learn that it is acceptable for them to disagree with one another if they do it in the right manor. Students need to learn how to respectfully debate with one another by using phrases like, "I understand where you are coming from, but..." or "You make a good point, but..". It is important for students to learn how to respectfully disagree with one another, and I think this is a great assignment to create discussions. Although race seems to be a divider, I do not think this has to be used in a negative way. When students make their claims and arguments, it can be a great teaching opportunity to show students how society disagrees on certain issues. I do not think it is necessary to change the activity, but it is necessary to have an open mind when being the referee between the debates.