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 do not believe you should change the activity. Students of this age tend to make most topics personal. They have a tendency to take any topic presented to them and make it about themselves. Many students find a way to relate just about anything to race. As you walk the halls of any high school you can here students referring to the "black girl" or the "white kid" in their normal conversations with each other. Discussing an academic topic is no different. In order to keep order in the classroom during this activity, it may be helpful if you limit the topic choices and set more specific parameters for the assignment. Holding discussion prior to the activity stating your expectations for the assignment may eliminate some of the discussions that caused the assignment to get out of hand. It is important to allow your students to express their voice and opinions. It is these qualities that will allow these students to express their voices and opinions as adults.