Shraeya Iyer examines the role of politics in the classroom, looking at how teachers in different countries choose whether or not to introduce political ideas in their teaching.
By Shraeya Iyer; Credit: The Myriad News
What does it mean to have a political classroom?
The misconception of what a “political classroom” is a classroom where teachers push their own political opinion on their students. However, it is much more focused on teaching students to talk deliberately about political topics and ask direct questions. Students learn to weigh fact based evidence by considering multiple competing perspectives. They learn to form their own educated opinions and how to properly share and articulate them, and thus become better at respectfully responding to those who disagree with them.
Through introducing this critical thinking and educating students on respectful political discussions, it is possible to have discussions without involving partisan politics. Students are better able to analyze current events and new policies being suggested, as well as being better equipped to make informed decisions about the world around them. However, politics are naturally furthered in the classroom in many countries. History is dominated by a winner takes all perspective where history is told through the political lens of the victorious country.
The fine line between political and too political
Many schools encourage their students to become involved in politics, but generally the political campaigns that everyone agrees with. Instead of hosting discussions on complicated political policies, they ask their students to clean up litter around the school. Although students learn from this, it teaches the idea that there is one ideal political view, and that competing views have no place in politics. The controversies surrounding modern politics causes heavy debate on its possible inclusion in worldwide classrooms. While teachers believe they have a responsibility to prepare their students to engage in participatory democracy, others believe that the public schools should be isolated from political controversies.
The worldwide winner takes all perspective
The winner takes all perspective is one stating that the winner, the victor in a war or a conquering country, will decide how history relates the events that took place. Although the facts may not be incorrect, they are told from only one perspective to avoid a controversial subject in the classroom. Students are deprived of a fully accurate history through the avoidance of the political classroom. In classrooms throughout the world, history is often told through one perspective without introduction of primary sources or alternative viewpoints. This causes falsehoods and multifaceted issues to become single sided, furthering extremism in studying such topics.
With history being told from the perspective of the victor, many of the other important voices are suppressed. History is the basis for each country and the future decisions made by newer generations. Without the understanding of historical events from many perspectives, students fail to understand the ways in which oppression and freedom have gone unacknowledged. Future generations in every country must learn multiple perspectives of history as it makes them stronger participants in leadership and decision making.
Suppression of perspective affects students in China
In their campaign against the spread of “Western values” in education, China has put mandatory ideological and political courses in place at primary, secondary and tertiary schools. This forces the future generations to be tight socialist agendas, the country’s mainstream ideology and immediately object to anything contradicting the Communist Party. These ideology and political classes force a single perspective on students without providing the opposing argument for each topic. These classes are highly monitored by the Chinese government, the information consumed by students heavily controlled.
Students are encouraged to report teachers who hold “radical” opinions on topics like gender equality, the death penalty and the environment. Teachers professors have been fired for years over comments going against the agenda of the Chinese government. In a form of stifling free speech, certain teachers are kept away from classes to keep them from “misleading” their students. While destroying the careers of these teachers, this effectively eliminates any way students could gain a diverse political understanding through schools. Without being presented with multiple perspectives and evidence to support each, students are unable to make personal and informed decisions.
Youth political expression in Germany
German students have taken their first steps towards bringing politics into their own education. The young generation took the government by surprise as their almost 20 million votes were in favor of the environmentalist Greens. Almost a quarter of the population in Eastern Germany is below the age of 25, and are fighting politically through their votes. For those who haven’t reached voting age yet, they have attended the Fridays for Future climate rallies and further global rallies. Most of the crowd of over 300,000 people were students and school children.
Greta Thunberg, age 16, started the climate movement of Fridays for Future and became a role model for youth influence on global agendas. Students have been increasingly involved in politics, being involved in political talk shows and giving interviews for political newspapers. The increasing awareness and advocacy of students in environmental activism is increasing the number of political conversations happening in schools.
Avoidance of extremism in United States youth
The views of children are shaped by their parents and immediate family. In a study performed in the United States polling students ages 13-17, 77 percent of those voting Republican believed their social and political views were about the same as their parents, 71% of those voting Democratic believed the same, and 61 percent of those planning to remain politically independent believed their views were about the same as their parents. Students have partially developed ideas of social and political beliefs when starting elementary school, and start to equate their beliefs with their own identity. When their beliefs are threatened, they feel their identity is held in question and choose to believe in their views more heavily instead of becoming open to change.
In the highly polarized political state that the United States has, it is imperative that students learn how to properly express their own beliefs in a respectful and productive way. Through education, students acquire tools necessary to participate in democracy with discussions, community projects and safe spaces. Students learn how to justify their opinions while still being entitled to their own beliefs. This need for justification prevents extremist views and keeps children more open to change in opinions based on acquisition of new information.