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 think it is great that you are establishing political awareness in your students at this age. I think the youth of America is too wrapped up in social entertainment news rather than what is happening around them in their government and society. I think the assignment is a great idea and has the potential to be very beneficial in the learning environment. However, I do believe that you need to set some guidelines for the assignment. Students should understand that facts should be presented in their arguments and the topic of race should not be discussed. I think that the students at this age are very much influenced by peers and that is why it quickly turned into "racial awareness." In the future, explain to the students the importance of respecting other's opinions even when you do not necessary agree with them. Have students list pros and cons to both sides of their topic before choosing a side. Students may then be more open to other viewpoints on the issue.