Prior to the Coronavirus outbreak, The Iowa Standard was receiving an email just about every week from concerned parents throughout Iowa about what was happening in the classroom.
It wasn’t anything in terms of the behavior of children, it was the political preference of professional educators being discussed and promoted in the classroom.
This is something that has seemingly become common in today’s era of education. Whether it is due to social media or 24/7 cable news, there seems to be an increase in teachers bringing their politics into their profession.
One of these concerned parents talked at length about how they had no idea any of their teachers’ political preferences growing up.
And it’s true. Heck, even in my case, and I like to think I’m not that old.
But I really can’t think of many, if any, instances in which teachers in the classroom allowed their partisanship to be on display.
I can speak to this as someone who knows a middle school student and the class had to do an assignment on a strict constitutionalist court and a loose constitutionalist court. They had to come up with arguments about each and ultimately decide which they prefer.
Not one single student chose a strict constitutionalist court. Not a single one.
I could go on and on, but I’m more curious to hear from the readers of The Iowa Standard. What experiences do you have dealing with teachers bringing politics into the classroom? Is this appropriate? How do you suggest teachers leading a discussion on current events in the classroom?
Feel free to send your thoughts and comments to [email protected] or just comment on the Facebook thread for this article.
Thanks!
