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!) It is good that your students were able to vocalize their opinions. However, you should inform your students that the discourse of the classroom requires respectful dialogue. Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinions, yet students must behave with civility. As the teacher, it is often helpful to be the moderator of the discussion so that students do not deviate too far off course from the intended objective. Instead of allowing the racial discussions to continue, you could have prompted the students by asking a question such as, "How do you think the issues of abortion, healthcare, affirmative action, foreign policy, etc., will affect the outcome of the presidential election?" I do not think you should change your activities because of the debates that ensued. The next time there is an assignment of this nature, students should be reminded of the behaviors and dialogues that are appropriate within the classroom setting.