Should teachers in public school be conservative or liberal or leave politic at home?

Question

Should teachers in public school be conservative or liberal or leave politic at home?

Answer 1

They should leave it at home.

Answer 2

They should leave politics at home! I hate it when I hear teachers going on and on about hating George Bush and the military. My kids would have to listen to it. Their dad is in the military and they feel like it's saying something bad about them. I'm not saying I agree with what is going on in the world but politics belong OUT of the classrooms.

Now, a discussion of all different politics is ok but not downing one side or the other. Children need to be able to make their own opinions about what is going on and need to be informed.

Answer 3

They SHOULD leave it at home. However in school I was fed so much liberal propoganda that even I, who at the time had no political leanings could see I wasn't getting the whole story.

Teachers inability to leave politics at home is one of the reasons we homeschool-my kids get to participate under a variety of teachers with various leanings with a variety of students this way, and not just learn under PS teachers who is this area are largely liberal and can't seem to keep their OPINIONS off their LESSONS.

Answer 4

Teachers should help students learn to think for themselves, which is why I put my kids in public schools.  It's important for kids to see how ALL people live, not just me and my wife.

Answer 5

If they cannot teach morals or religion, why should they be able to teach politics?

I think they would need to be neutral.

Answer 6

It's impossible to leave politics at home, even though teachers should be neutral.

Take these two interpretations of the Whiskey Rebellion:

a: "In 1791, farmers enraged by Hamilton's punitive whiskey tax rebelled against economic oppression. President Washington declared martial law in Pennsylvania and sent a massive force to put down the relatively small uprising."

b: "In 1791, farmers angered by Hamilton's whiskey tax rebelled against their new obligations to the federal government and began violently acting against the tax. President Washington took the appropriate measures to restore peace."

Both are historically correct. Which one is neutral?

The first is from a more libertarian perspective, the second from a statist perspective. The first doesn't like Washington, the second does. The first promotes rebellion, the second condemns it. The first is anti-tax, the second pro-tax.

Again, which one is neutral?

Answer 7

Actually I think it depends on the class. I'm a middle-school English teacher, and there is no reason for me to bring up my personal beliefs in class.

However, a political science teacher should probably be upfront with any biases they might have. If they leave it at home, kids might think they are getting the whole story, when their teacher is really being biased towards a particular political belief.

Answer 8

They should leave it at home but it isn't always their fault. Teachers have a cirriculum to follow. I've had to unteach the whole guns are evil and we are killing all of the polar bears c**p a few times.

Answer 9

They can have politics at school with fellow teachers and administration, but their particular position should not be taught in class.

Answer 10

Leave politics at home.