Politics in the Classroom in these Divided Times? Now More Than Ever, says Educator Diana Hess (Ep. 24)

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It’s April 2024. Polarization in America is at an all-time high, and another highly contentious election season is fast approaching. Fears about teacher bias and the undue influence they might have over their students has raised suspicions among parents and has led several states to restrict what teachers can discuss with their students — like “divisive concepts” or subject matter that might cause students to feel anguish or discomfort because of their race. In response, many teachers now avoid controversial topics for fear they might be fired or lose their teaching licenses. Some have even quit because the restrictions and the suspicion about their motives has made their already challenging jobs even more difficult.

My guest, Dr. Diana Hess, an educator and researcher who has studied teacher-student interactions, opposes this trend. “I think the job that we have as teachers is to help students understand the political environment in which they live. What are the important current events, what more importantly are the important controversial issues? And I don't think that we can really have a democracy that's going to be sustained without that.” She goes on to say that teachers should not only be permitted to discuss politics and controversial topics with their students, they should be required to do so. “I don't think we can have high quality civic education without current events and controversial issues.”

Hess believes that if concerned parents and policy makers actually spent time in classrooms observing how the vast majority of teachers approach politics and controversies with their students, they’d be pleasantly surprised. “What we know from a lot of empirical evidence,” Hess says, “is that a teacher’s goal…is not to have students adopt their perspective. That is not why people go into teaching…When people go into teaching, they tend to say, ‘I really want to make sure that my students understand what's happening and that my students know enough to form their own views on the political issues of the day,’”