A mandatory assignment given to students at Nathan Hale High School in Wisconsin required them to answer questions about varying views within the political spectrum. The assignment contained several quotes, and students had to decide which quote was most directly associated with a certain political party: Communist, Liberal (Democrat), Moderate, Conservative (Republican), or Fascist. The first quote stated "We should not help the poor, it's a waste of money." A junior attending this school put the incorrect answer for this quote because he had no idea what to do. When his mother found out, that his answer was marked wrong, she told her story online. The "correct" answer was Conservative/Republicans, which shows the teacher's explicit opinion of how this party consists of citizens that are not willing to help the poor.
When the son was picked up from school on Thursday, he questioned his mom about the assignment, particularly the first quote. "He asked, 'Mom, where would you say this went on the political spectrum?'" She said '"Nowhere, I don't know any political party that espouses not helping the poor."' The mother was infuriated about this assignment and contacted the superintendent of West Allis-West Milwaukee School District to reveal her concerns; however, he still hasn't contacted her. Not only did this assignment have quotes about each party, but on the bottom was a link that students could visit in order to determine where they "stood on the political spectrum."
This entire assignment was absurd. Political parties have had a long history in America, and extreme tension caused by differing ideologies between certain parties is a sensitive subject. This can be seen with how deeply rooted the issues between the whigs and democrats were in the 19th century. These two parties dominated America during this era, and their antithetical opinions of the ideal nation constantly caused an issue of power. I feel as though implicitly labeling certain political parties with negative connotations is something that shouldn't be allowed at school. By doing this, heated debates can begin and slowly expand into unnecessarily enormous arguments.
Source: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/02/09/republicans-described-as-unwilling-to-help-poor-in-classroom-assignment-parent/?intcmp=trending
This is crazy. There are honestly so many stereotypes about each political party and it's ridiculous. I just wish there wasn't such a division in parties and that people could just vote because they believed in a topic not because their parents claim to be a certain party
ReplyDeleteThis is why it's not allowed for teachers and students discuss their personally beliefs in politics. It can cause tension, even a bias towards students and teachers.
ReplyDelete