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!) Unfortunately, so much of our presidential elections (or at least those that have occurred the most recently with President Obama) are geared towards racial awareness. What frustrates me so much about politics is that it is not about the politics at all, but rather the color of their skin and who they ultimately represent. If I were you, I would have first discussed the two candidates running in the race and tried to take out all divisions or barriers that might interfere--whether it be race, gender, wealth, etc. Students need to be able to decipher between these and determine the actual qualities. Assess your students on a rubric (even with your discussion) that highlights this importance so that when it does get out of hand, refer them back to the rubric and address the root of the issue.