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 the lesson must continue to be taught because it is important that students learn how to take a stance on the issues they feel strongly about. However, the fact that the conversations and debates always turn into a racial issue is something that certainly needs to be dealt with. I think that as a teacher, it is our job to monitor and manage the direction of the conversation so the real issue stays as the focus. When students start to veer in the direction of racial discrimination, the teacher must point out the true focus of the conversation and bring it back to the forefront. We cannot simply discontinue these lessons because they are uncomfortable. Instead, students need to learn how to disagree while at the same time, be focus on the issue and respectful to those they disagree with.