When I started teaching, I had no intention to bring politics into my classroom. I believed that personal politics had no place in the classroom. I thought that a sign that I was doing my job well would be if my students had no idea of my political affiliation to the point that they were incorrect when they guessed my political beliefs.
The first time this idea was shaken up was early in my career in this school. A group of teachers talked about how to teach political issues to show both sides of a debate. The topic of gay marriage came up. We were struggling with the idea of giving space to a voice that opposed gay marriage. One of the teachers remarked, "Gay marriage isn't a political issue. Being against marriage equality is just wrong." I replied how it is a political issue that politicians are talking about and debating. He replied, "it's not political to me. It's about right or wrong."
We have this idea that of balance between two sides of a political argument. There's this fantasy that each political issue has a valid opinion and that both should be discussed and presented equally. And as educators, it's our responsibility to give space to both of these ideas with the same amount of validation. I remember in 4th or 5th grade this playing out when we studied the Civil War.
Our teacher presented the issue of the Civil War about being between two philosophies around states' rights.
The issue at hand was about the autonomy of states, which has two sides that can be debated. The myth of the lost cause made it to my elementary school history book in Seattle. The real issue of the Civil War, slavery, doesn't have two valid sides. One side is about freedom and humanity, while the other side is about racism. If you teach as you should about the Civil War, then the discussion is about the horrors of slavery and how one political party was wrong.
Slavery, like gay marriage, is a moral issue that people have made political. This has continued in recent times. And the politicization of this issues gives people the false sense that there are two equal sides to the debate when often there are not. For example, recently, the rights of trans students have become a political issue.
Critical Race Theory erupted as a political issue, and now the subject of mask-wearing is highly politicized. With these three issues, if you chose the side of protecting rights, focusing on the truth and students' physical and mental health you will side with the Democratic party.
As Republicans have gone after my work as an educator to rile up their base and create boogeymen, it has made it harder to do the already challenging job of being a teacher. For example, it's not a political choice when I validate a student's gender identity and call them by the name and pronouns they prefer. It's a human choice. Others are making our making a choice I am making political.
Bringing the truth to my students and teaching them about oppression, injustice, and identity gives people clues to my own political beliefs. Fine. When an issue has another valid side that I disagree with, I'll give it space. For example, I'm happy to discuss different ideas about how "The Star-Spangled Banner" should be performed. However, I'm not going to counter the fact that the author of the lyrics of "The Star-Spangled Banner" was racist, owned slaves, and included lyrics in this song that celebrated the defeat of slaves fighting for their freedom. His racism is a fact and is indefensible.
There is right and wrong, and there are shades of gray, and unfortunately, now more than ever, our two political parties don't have equally valid sides to an issue. Giving our students an impression of equivalences that don't exist is a disservice.
For some teachers, there is a cost in appearing political, but there is also a cost to a child who is told that it's a valid opinion that they should not be allowed to identify in a way that makes them feel whole and comfortable.
It's a question of right or wrong, and we must always be on the side of doing right by our students, no matter how political that may make us appear.
No comments:
Post a Comment