"Dang it, I'm a liberal."

Fall on Prince of Wales Island

This one is too good not to share.... so the election is over. I made it through a presidential election cycle in Alaska. No easy task. I've been fortunate enough this year to teach middle school social studies and high school US History. I cannot begin to explain how nice it is to be teaching in my content area. This would be the first time since I started this program that I actually have command over the content that I'm suppose to be teaching....compare that to entrepreneurship, math or health....all classes I've been asked teach. Whatever, the point is, I've really been enjoying teaching this semester, partly because I get to teach something that I actually know something about. 

Back to the story.... I've been using my time in middle school social studies to teach civics. We started from the beginning, the purpose of government, the founding of our country, the constitution, etc....leading up to the formations of political parties and platforms. My students were very eager to learn about the political parties and to talk politics but I wanted to make sure they had a sound understanding of the purpose of government before we got there. Any who, the time finally came two weeks ago when it was time to start delving in to the two-party system that we practice here in the US, but before we started this unit, I gave them a quiz that asked them rank themselves on a spectrum from liberal to conservative on big issues facing our country. The five issues were taxes, energy, defense, education and health care. Before I gave them the quiz, I erased the the words left, right, liberal and conservative so that they didn't know which stance was associated with each political party. When I administered the test, a couple of my students were wise to me, they asked which side was republican and democrat. I told them it didn't matter, I wanted them to read about each issue and pick which stance they thought made the most sense based on what they knew to be true.

I was NOT surprised to learn that most of my students (I gave it to two classes, one middle school and one high school) were smack dab in the middle....like the majority of the country. It was a great exercise though because these kids really pride themselves on being super conservative and totally republican, I wanted to make the point that they didn't even know what it meant to be a republican or a democrat and more importantly, that they were actually pretty moderate. 

One of the brightest students I have is also the one who called me out for meditation. As soon as we completed the test, and started learning about the party platforms, he realized that his quiz would prove that he was more liberal (which he totally was, he actually sided more with liberal viewpoints than any of my other students). He kept asking for his quiz back and I kept reminding everyone that I would hand it out when were finished with the unit, any who, one day in class he looked at me and said, "Dang it, I'm a liberal." Me, trying my very best to be nonpartisan, said, "That's fine, why do you think you feel that way?" To which he replied, "If the purpose of government is to protect on natural rights, then how could you be anything but a liberal?"

WINNING! I was speechless, first I was totally impressed that he remembered what the purpose of government is and second was so pleased that he came to that conclusion. I've prided myself on being unbiased and nonpartisan while teaching about the government. In fact (to my amazement) I still have most of my students guessing what political party I belong to. When asked I remind them that this is my place of employment and I don't think that politics or religion belong in the work place, and then I add that it shouldn't matter what I think, that they should think for themselves.

Once we were finished with the unit and I handed back their quizzes, I gave them this lecture:

1. Regardless of where your political views fall right now, they will change and evolve (except I didn't say this word because, you know it's bad word), and that's OKAY.

2. If we're going to be debating politics in this class or any other class, it needs to be based on these questions that we just discussed (the purpose and role of government).  

3. If somebody is a member of a party that is different than the one you associate with, it doesn't make that person bad or evil, it simply means that they have different views on the role of government and how to solve social issues. 

And after explaining that to three different classes. I think that I'm starting to believe it. It was a long road, and kind of a scary one, but I'm really pleased that I was able to teach this unit. And it goes without saying that I was pleased with the election outcome. And for the record, I did vote for a republican for state house here in Alaska. 

Peace in the Southeast