Get Schooled

By bearcasey

October 8, 2008 10:26 AM | Link to this

Laura, I hope you will not take this as a personal attack because it certainly isn’t meant as such However, simply put, you are incredibly naive.

I was an A.P. American history teacher at Northview high school in 2004. My students really got into the election so I inserted a mini-unit on “political spin” into the curriculum. It’s what is called a “teachable moment” with a great group of students. Fair and balanced with procedures followed.

The next thing I know, KATIE REEVES, North Fulton’s hybrid of Karl Rove and Sarah Palin, is attacking me by name in the media without ever having spoken to me about my lessons. Reeves was and is a Fulton Co. school board member. Luckily for me, my principal, Peter Zervakos, checked out the details and supported my instruction. Reeves had to slink off with her tail tucked between her legs.

Laura, you are naive in that you don’t seem to realize that North Fulton school board members are simply republican wives of wealthy men who use their board positions to move up the electoral hiierarchy. Karen Handel is the poster child. Reeves has topped out though I’m sure she fantasizes about being Palin.

By L.King

October 8, 2008 10:54 AM | Link to this

Teachers should love election season. These are “teachable moments” that instills democracy in the classroom. The difficult part to this equation, is not infusing your political views during class. The students naturally will ask about your political views and you have to decide how to deal with that question without being bias. I say gather accurate information about candidates and discuss all views and let the students decide which positions suits them personally. In social studies you hit on the objectives and you are relating the issues to real world. I am sure you can figure out how to incorporate the election in other classes as well.

By Jeff

October 8, 2008 11:04 AM | Link to this

During the last Presidential election, I was teaching a problem solving unit in an 8th grade class as part of my pre-Student Teaching practicum class.

On the morning after the election, the talk on all the news channels was all about Ohio and how if x number of people voted one way or the other, the election would be determined.

So instead of the problem I had lined out for that day, I switched it to the one that the news was talking about - the math was fairly simplistic, nothing 8th graders couldn’t handle.

I was able to teach them problem solving using a REAL ‘real world’ scenario. (I had developed my own problems for the unit, all based on my own ‘real world’ experiences, but this was the first that the kids were able to share in.)

At the end, I was able to tell the kids “Congratulations, you’ve just arrived at the exact same conclusions that PhD level mathematicians have.”

I list track of that group of kids about a week later when my time with them was over, but I like to at least THINK that MAYBE some of them became at least SOMEWHAT more interested in math because of that lesson. I know - because they told me - that the overall unit made some of them see that math wasn’t the extremely difficult subject that they had been TAUGHT to see it as. (Another pet peeve of mine, and many math teachers. Math is the single EASIEST subject to master, yet because many ES - and even MS - teachers don’t TRULY understand it, they think of it as far harder than it actually is, and they pass this WRONG thinking on to their students! ARRGGHHH!)

As far as policies are concerned, I tend to stand by “Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech…

By DB

October 8, 2008 1:31 PM | Link to this

“But I’ve also heard from some teachers who are nervous talking about politics. They don’t want students to know their personal views and they worry about students attacking one another’s beliefs.”

If they are unable to carry on a basic civics lesson without it denigrating into a free-for-all, they probably aren’t terribly good teachers to begin with. What do their personal views have to do with anything, any more than their religious views or their any other personal views!? It should be entire possible — if not REQUIRED — to be able to teach and discuss various viewpoints without getting into a spitting contest, if for no other reason than to teach kids to be able to listen and respect other’s opinions (no matter how wrong they may be!)

It is entirely possible to discuss the platforms of the two candidates without a “pro vs. con” attitude, and presenting it in an informative, factual context. Are you telling me that there are teachers who feel that this is beyond them? It should be REQUIRED to teach the voting process, the Electoral College, etc., etc., so that students have a good understanding of what it means to be able to vote in this country. It starts disintegrating when teachers start to playfully identify students as belonging to one or another political party, and when the kids identify strongly with one party or another. It’s a “teaching moment” to insist that no personal attacks will be tolerated due to another person’s differing beliefs, and it should be required that people come to class open-minded and leave their political affiliations at the door. A teacher should be able to teach about elections without anyone having a clue as to what the teacher’s political views are, and if asked, the teacher should respond, “My views are my own, and will stay that way. My job is to teach you to understand how the process works, not to influence you one way or another.”

By jim d

October 8, 2008 3:29 PM | Link to this

LOL DB,

How many do you know that could say not my job to influence you one way or another. I’m afraid that isn’t in many of them.

By catlady

October 8, 2008 4:03 PM | Link to this

Here is why I have some concerns: at our school the “gifted” kids have made posters asking kids to vote for the Presidential candidates on the day before the elections. Just so happens, ON ALMOST EVERY SINGLE POSTER, the words McCain/Palin are in LARGE print and the words Obama/Biden are in much smaller print. Also, on quite a few of the posters, Obama is MISSPELLED. I may be overly suspicious, but the teacher of the class is an avowed Republican. Just makes me wonder…..

I am very cautious talking politics or religion in class (although sometimes the students ask), and I tell students to talk to their parents and get their views rather than mine.

By AJ in Hall

October 8, 2008 4:56 PM | Link to this

bearcasey: Interesting story! It is awesome that your principal was able to stand up for you like that. Any principal who stood up to one of our board members like that up here in good old Hall County would soon be looking for a job or demoted for some ‘unrelated’ reason. Way to go!

By Lee

October 8, 2008 6:00 PM | Link to this

I guess you can thank your lucky stars you’re not teaching in Missouri. Seems some local prosecutors are interjecting themselves into the political process and going after those they feel are “spreading untruths” about their boy Obama.

Khrushchev would be proud….

By Old School

October 8, 2008 7:06 PM | Link to this

Even in my high school ED&D class, students want to know how I plan to vote. I have always just smiled and responded: “By secret ballot.” That satisfies most but often one or two want to push a bit harder. They’ll ask FOR WHOM will I vote. I will answer that question with a very quiet, “For the candidate of my choice.”

With that they realize I’m not going to name names and class can continue.

By DM

October 8, 2008 9:37 PM | Link to this

My students have asked me a number of times who I plan to vote for, and I’veocame right out and told them that I have decided to vote for Obama. They asked and I told them. If they ask me why, then I just say “because this is who I’ve decided to vote for” and I don’t let it go any further. There is absolutely nothing wrong with me admitting my preference. I do not attempt to convince them of anything. And if Joe teacher down the hall wants to admit he’s voting for McCain, good for him. At least we are showing our humanity in the classroom and are modeling the importance of participating in the election process.

By Meme

October 9, 2008 6:07 AM | Link to this

I am an old fart and my policy has always been not to discuss sex, religion or politics with my students.

By jim d

October 9, 2008 6:54 AM | Link to this

Meme,

along with age it is nice to see wisdom was gained as well. :-)

By Northview Teacher

October 9, 2008 9:31 AM | Link to this

Unfortunately, Bear Casey is dead-on in his analysis of the climate in North Fulton schools. The School Board is dominated by wives of Republicans, and you can only imagine what a chilling effect that has had on education in our area. I’m glad to see that Peter Z was supportive of Bear, but that was not his approach across the board: my experience was much less positive. I’m not surprised that Peter is retiring, and I feel sorry for whoever replaces him at Northview.

What gets lost in these discussions, I think, is the disservice to students that figures like Katie Reeves insist on and perpetrate. Really, does anyone think that Katie and her girls have any idea what they are doing? Now that Dr. Loe has her hand on the tiller, I expect things to get much worse. She is truly one of them.

As bad as Katie Reeves is, I don’t think she is the most egregious member of the School Board: that would have to be the utterly and completely loathsome Ashley Widener. If you want to see the depths this woman will stoop to, I urge you to look at windener-associates.com. Here you will see a panoply of right-wing special interests proudly displayed. Take a look and ask yourself what the word might be for someone who will literally do anything for money.

I’m cautiously optimistic that the times might be changing with the national election this year. Perhaps Republican stupidity, the only truly infinite force in the universe, might be passing into the sunset. I sure hope so.

By jim d

October 9, 2008 12:12 PM | Link to this

Northview teacher,

All i have to say about that is “Better y’all have Cindy than for her to still be in Gwinnett” :-)

By TeacherMom

October 9, 2008 2:09 PM | Link to this

I don’t share my political views with my students except to reveal that I’m nonpartisan and still undecided as far as this election goes. I’ve been pressed for details, but I’ve turned the discussion around to my students and asked them to research their own questions rather than parrot my opinions.

Although I’m not a social studies teacher, I’ve found that elections are perfect opportunities to study persuasive technique and speech writing. This year, we’re taking the nomination acceptance speeches of both parties and analyzing them for rhetorical strategies of repetition, parallelism, rhetorical question, etc. The most entertaining part of this is searching for logical fallacies. We’ve found plenty of those in both parties.

By lovemy4kids

October 9, 2008 4:33 PM | Link to this

Have your students view this documentary. Then ask them WHY they should vote at all?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dmPchuXIXQ&feature=related