When looking at this topic the thing that first comes to my mind is politics. There is a lot of debate around teachers expressing political views to students. While learning about politics in grade 10, I remember our teacher asking us which party we think we would vote for if we were old enough but refused to tell us which party he would vote for. I understand his decision not to tell us this as politics can be a very touchy subject, maybe not for us as students, but for our parents. People are very sensitive about their political views (especially in our conservative dominated province) so it could’ve caused a bunch of issues if parents believed our teacher was influencing our political opinions. I think teachers must be careful to teach students what is wrong and what’s right without bringing politics into it. Many issues like the oil pipelines, sex ed, etc may be touchy subjects for students parents and have to be approached carefully.
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Hi Julie,
Thanks for your insightful response. I can also relate to learning about politics in my High School classes. I can agree that politics is a very touchy subject and can be private to oneself. I can imagine that the question of ‘who you would vote for’ would make some students very uncomfortable, as well as they may not even know who they would want to vote for anyways. Often, children are influenced by their parents political views. It is a tough topic to incorporate into the classroom in a respectful manner.
Thanks for sharing!
Amber Smith
Hello Julie!
I really like how you talked about your experience in grade 10 as I can also relate to that. I remember having my teacher talk to us about it and then him not explaining what he chose to vote for. I agree that it can be a touchy subject and it may be best to leave it without the students knowing who their teacher voted for. I think one thing you could focus more on would be talking about how curriculum was made as that was a big topic in these articles. I also loved how you brought up teaching what it wrong and what is right, without bringing politics in as I completely agree with this!!
Hey Julie,
I really like your ideas on how politics is currently approached and thoughts on how to approach it in schools. Do you think that politics should be a subject that people feel ‘uncomfortable’ with? Maybe part of a good curriculum would be understanding having students understand different views in politics and try to bring opposing sides closer together than further apart. It may even include teachers and students laying out what their own political views are and why. It’s true that as you said this is difficult for teachers to be able to bring up while remaining unbiased, but it’s an important issue to discuss in the education system nonetheless.