Politics in the Classroom
By Dan Norland La Jolla Country Day School • San Diego , CA
In the ten years since I became a teacher , I ’ ve often heard parents , teachers , and administrators grapple with some form of this question : “ Do politics belong in the classroom ?” I don ’ t love the question , because it rests on the false premise that it ’ s possible for a classroom — or any room — to be apolitical .
Let ’ s say I overhear a student say “ that ’ s so gay ” to another student . I think it ’ s incumbent on me to tell the student , in no uncertain terms , that it is unacceptable to imply that people who are gay are “ less than .” When I tell him that , am I bringing politics into the classroom ? You could say that I ’ m just standing up for basic human decency — but what counts as basic human decency has often been the subject of heated political debate . As long as there are politicians who oppose equal rights , standing up for equal rights isn ’ t apolitical .
But what if I don ’ t say anything at all ? Isn ’ t that silence , itself , a political statement ? What message does that send to a gay student who hears the exchange and witnesses my silence ? What message does it send to the student who said “ that ’ s so gay ” in the first place ? Whether I speak or not , I am saying something loud and clear about power and privilege and personhood . Similarly , if a history class happens to be studying the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment on the day after the murder of George Floyd , doesn ’ t it send a message if the teacher doesn ’ t mention the murder just as much as if they do ? We can ’ t be apolitical when we teach any more than we can be a-gravity when we skydive .
Page 2 Summer 2021 CSEE Connections