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 applaud you for exercising a classroom that promotes democracy discussions. I think it is so important for teachers to guide students in learning about the world around them. Children need to be aware of issues that affect local, national, and international perspectives. I had a social studies teacher in high school that encouraged us to keep up with current events. At the beginning of each class, we had a whole group discussion about the news topics that dealt with domestic policies. I think this teaching strategy influenced my interest in watching local and national news programs. I enjoy learning about what is going on in the world around me. The discussion about the position that students took on about the topics is a personal reaction to something meaningful to them. Discussions have to be focused on the issue, at hand. As the facilitator, teachers have to help keep students on track during whole group conversations. It is easy to get distracted to other issues when discussing important subjects regarding life choices. I think you should continue utilizing the activities, but enforce more rules about the discussion process in the classroom. I think students will benefit from these changes during instruction. Good luck!