Reopening Our Schools

Be clear about what classroom discussion is. What administrators and parents worry about when politics comes into the classroom is that teachers will simply talk at students by “standing on their soapbox.” This is not a classroom discussion.

Discussion is a specific classroom activity in which students are talking to each other about a question that is open to interpretation. Discussion involves giving reasons and responding to the views of others. It also requires participants to be open to having their views challenged by new information and the perspectives of others.

During a discussion, the teacher must share authority in the classroom so that students feel like they have some ownership of the conversation. But sharing authority does not mean that the teacher abdicates responsibility. Discussions should be designed with intention, so that educational goals are met, learning is deepened and students improve their discussion skills. Perhaps most importantly, teachers must regulate the discussion.

Differentiate between “campaign talk” and “classroom talk.” Free speech in the public sphere is quite different than speech appropriate for a classroom. In the public, candidates and their supporters may engage in belligerent chants, yell over people, make biting partisan jokes and call people names. In public, speakers may distort the facts, ignore evidence and disparage groups of people. All of this could fall under the label of allowable (but far from ideal) “campaign talk.” None of it is appropriate for a classroom.

Classroom talk strives for a much more disciplined version of democratic engagement. In the classroom, students become a mini-public, seeking the best answers to pressing issues. To that end, students must listen to one another, evaluate evidence and claims, give reasons, ask questions, and respectfully disagree.

Discussion also helps to build relationships among students. They learn about each other and come to recognize that others may experience the world differently. But, in order for that outcome to be realized, students must learn that classroom talk is attentive to the emotional aspect of discussion — how we express our differences matters.

The purpose of classroom talk is not to beat opponents or make others in the community feel unwelcome. Instead, students seek to investigate differences with the intention of remaining friends.

Be unconditionally supportive of students. In the past 27 years, I have taught every grade from first through graduate school, including 10 years as a high school social studies teacher. From the very beginning of my career, I had students discuss topics like “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the war on terrorism and Roe v. Wade.

As one might expect, I’ve heard students make comments in discussions that were racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-religious, classist, ageist and ableist. These were often subtle, unintentional offenses. Sometimes they were quite blatant and meant to be hurtful. These instances are always difficult, and no one wants to have students leave class feeling hurt or angry.

When an offense occurs, a teacher may be tempted to punish students for violating the discussion norms — and in extreme cases that is appropriate. But, in my experience, these are most often the comments of emerging political thinkers. High school students are at the very beginning of a long journey toward figuring out how society works. As a result, responding to them as novices, and not experts, is often the best approach.

I vividly remember this point coming out in a professional development I ran for teachers a year ago. I was concluding a workshop in which I had participants deliberating about whether they should let students know their political views.

After, an English teacher came up to me and said, “I live in a small, conservative town and everyone knows I’m the resident lefty. There’s no hiding that. And I have students discuss and debate all kinds of issues — abortion, racism — you name it.”

I asked, “If students know your political views, do they ever resist participating or question what you’re doing?”

“Oh no,” she said waving my question away with her hand, “I’ve taught there for 20 years, they all know that I love them.”
In a polarized democracy, there can be no better political lesson than helping students to learn, “We may disagree, but we can still work together.”