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 believe that your lesson has such value to our high school students, I would hate to see you change your activity. But, you could add a discussion that sets very strict guidelines, such as used in debates, so that each student understands how to respond to fellow classmates. Even in the youngest grades, we are trying to teach our students how to respond to others when they disagree with something said. This would give them insight into what each candidate has to do to prepare for the debates that you are asking them to watch as well. Learning to listen to others perspectives, even when you do not agree with them, and being able to find something of value in what is being said is a skill that each student will need going forward. I think it is wonderful that you are helping them learn these skills in your classroom. This is the true lesson.