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!) First, I would have a list of rules to help ensure orderliness during the debate. Include in these rules that students need to be polite and respectful of others. Also include a protocol for taking turns so that students are not talking over each other or interrupting each other. It may also be good to have students take the time to help create the rules that will be used. Then I would grade students on their participation in the debate. I would create a rubric to use that includes following the rules so that there are consequences for them. However, I do not think I would restrict them from mentioning race as some other posts have suggested. I think asking them to suppress their thoughts and views on race is not going to be very productive. Instead I would challenge them to explain why they feel the way they do and try to get them to understand why someone else might feel differently. Maybe even have students try to debate the OPPOSITE of what they really feel and believe so that they are taking time to consider why others might feel differently.