For plenty of educators, the question as to whether expressing their opinions in class is appropriate is a complicated subject to approach, especially in a political climate where opinions and beliefs can polarize the country.
By Kayla Hoang
Classrooms are great places to have meaningful discussions by freely sharing ideas because those involved are exposed to different viewpoints. For that reason, teachers should be able to express their political opinions.
The purpose of communication is to bounce ideas back and forth with the people around you. Discussions encourage open-mindedness, which is important regarding politics because they are complex. When teachers express their political opinions, even if they don’t align with the majority of the opinion in the classroom, they are at least encouraging discourse and making students aware that other perspectives exist.
It might be frightening for some students to want to share their ideas, especially when they differ from the teacher’s, but as long as the teacher provides the correct environment and invites peaceful discussion, then they create the comfortable surroundings necessary to express different viewpoints.
Lots of students tend to be stuck on the same route of thinking, so in a school environment, where their purpose is to learn, teachers should take advantage of every opportunity they have to expand their students’ minds. Sure, since teachers are authority figures there could potentially be issues regarding how they choose to spread their ideas, but those who know how to utilize their position correctly would know to make their classroom a place of learning and opportunity rather than a place of limited perspective.
Furthermore, politics are central in many social studies classes, such as United States History and Government. Shying away from political discourse undermines its importance and causes students to not take the topic seriously, thus preventing them from taking the initiative to engage with the material. With major events happening around the world, good or bad, teachers could take this opportunity to relate their students to what they’ve learned, providing them a clearer understanding of their material and broader perspective of the world around them.
Debates are a great way to open students up to discussion, for example, especially when it comes to social and political matters afflicting the nation. It is the teacher’s job to expand a student’s worldview in subjects like History or Government, and providing them a proper environment and platform for that is fundamental for them developing their perspective.
And just as students exercise their right to freedom of speech as they express their political opinions, so should teachers. There is no reason for teachers to not be allowed to talk about their political thoughts to their students. If there is a topic or event that a teacher feels strongly about, then they have the right to address it in class. Not every student may necessarily agree, just like how teachers may not agree with everything a student would believe in, but the space for discussion provides a certain openness in the classroom environment to expose both teacher and student to new ideas and perspectives.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that the teacher should be allowed to impose ideas on students and expect them to think the same way. If a teacher consistently tries to enforce their opinion or alienates anyone for thinking differently, then that’s a problem. Given the influence of teachers in a classroom, it’s also important that they are sensitive and careful when expressing their political opinions, but nonetheless should be able to.
Thus, when a teacher shares his/her perspectives and does not force them upon others, he/she instills a comfortable environment for students to express their own opinions, while also learning to respect the opinion of others.
By Justin Hsieh
Teachers should refrain from expressing their political opinions in the classroom, as it can create a difficult or uncomfortable environment for students with differing views and infringe on students’ opportunities to form their opinions.
An important function of schools is to instill within children and young adults the values important to our society. That’s why we recite the Pledge of Allegiance (to foster patriotism) and teach our students to be kind, practice good sportsmanship and not abuse drugs. We wouldn’t do any of these things if we didn’t think that our teaching environments can influence students’ beliefs and behaviors.
But the reason that teachers have us recite the Pledge of Allegiance or drill these values home is the same reason that teachers should not express their political opinions in the classroom.
Within the classroom, teachers occupy a position of authority in students’ lives, so the things they say in the classroom have an outsize influence on their students.
Using this influence is appropriate to promote relatively clear-cut and universally agreed-upon ideas such as the basic principles of the United States or stances against bullying and substance abuse. But it is inappropriate to apply this same weight to statements of personal political opinion, especially given that modern politics can be so divisive as to automatically result in the villainization or belittlement of those who disagree with us.
Of course, teachers are not any worse at political discourse than anyone else. They have as much right as anyone else to hold their own political opinions and are often better than average, or at least better than their students, at clearly and effectively articulating ideas.
This is also not to say that political discussion is inherently bad. On the contrary, the ability to listen to and engage with a variety of political viewpoints and form independent judgments based on personal opinion is a valuable skill that we should be teaching students. We should not be insulating students from political opinions.
But the reason that it’s inappropriate for teachers to express their political opinions is that productive discussions can only occur when interlocutors are working together in good faith on a level playing field (a position of equal external authority) to investigate or explore an issue.
In a teacher-student relationship, there is an obvious power imbalance. Teachers can say they won’t abuse that power, and won’t punish students for disagreeing with them, but the problem is that for students there are often consequences outside of explicit punishment for disagreeing with a teacher’s political opinion.
Teachers are human too, which makes them susceptible to the same inherent bias that everyone experiences against people with differing views. Students are justified in their fears of incurring implicit judgment or damaging an otherwise positive relationship with a teacher for engaging in a conversation over a polarizing political issue.
In the end, then, what we end up doing is teaching students to suppress their political opinions. The dangers we face by allowing for political discussions to occur in environments of unequal power are forcing students to sit through exhortations in favor of ideas they ardently disagree with or teaching students one-sided, black-and-white views of topics that are inherently nuanced and debatable.
Most of the time, this is not a problem. Teachers are great at limiting their expression of personal political opinions in the classroom, and at being balanced and fair when presenting political topics relevant to class content. But we don’t adopt norms and rules in response to the best behavior; we put them in place to account for the inherent possibilities of bias and abuse of power that are part of human nature.
