Politics in the Classroom

ucsd_ucla_dad
Mon, 25 Aug 2008 23:15:26 +0000

I’d prefer, and expect, option B - keep your politics to yourself. You may have to work extra hard at this since you admittedly have a more extreme alignment than most. Besides, you know that teaching one perspective and throwing in a lot of personal bias isn’t actually ‘teaching’ at all. Note also that some students will go home and regurgitate whatever you say to their parents - especially anything controversial in their minds. This could lead to problems for you as an employee when parents insist that their kid be switched out of your classrom.



I once convinced an entire class of gifted students that all clocks stopped at 2 p.m. to adjust themselves to the atomic clock. I did it as a little joke – told with all seriousness – because one student interrupted my fascinating lesson to blurt out that the classroom clock had paused. They bought my story completely

That’s funny and a telling experiment.



WHat would you prefer be said on the first night of school and at PTA “Meet the Teachers Night”

I’d expect you to indicate your background - i.e. new teacher with an x degree from y college. I’d also expect you to give an idea of how you plan to conduct your class, the basic material you’ll go over (5 minute version), your expectations regarding HW, tests, and attendance, how to reach you if there are issues, etc. This is all very objective.