Political Impartiality generally means not taking sides in political issues and treating all political perspectives fairly without bias. One of the problems with trying to be politically impartial is that we don’t always seem to agree on what fair treatment of all political perspectives looks like. Before discussing political impartiality, schools have to decide what counts as political and what counts as neutral. This makes the line between explaining a fact and endorsing an agenda so much more blurry.
The issue is that politics has become a lot more sensitive and controversial over the years. And navigating certain issues without “being political” can be extremely difficult for educators these days. Teachers nowadays can face classrooms where basic factual statements can be interpreted as political indoctrination. In a Los Angeles high school, a social studies teacher talked about how political neutrality is complex to navigate because some basic facts, like having to count votes, can be interpreted as “partisan.”
“I feel like the teachers should encourage us to do our own research and let us make up our own opinion,” sophomore Ruslana Shulga said.
Educators shouldn’t be prevented from speaking the truth. I think that they can state their personal political opinions, but when they do, they should point out that this is an opinion and not a factual statement.
Political discussion shouldn’t be banned from our school, but political indoctrination should have no place in any school. Speaking about politics while remaining completely neutral and not catering to any side is very hard, even for people who aren’t into politics or those who don’t care about it, because whether people care about politics or not, politics still affects everyone’s life in some way.
Stating one’s personal opinion on a political issue isn’t indoctrinating anybody; stating a political opinion becomes an issue when the opinion isn’t allowed to be challenged or is stated as a fact.
“I think talking about your beliefs is not always a bad thing, but you have to be very careful about how you’re presenting it, especially in a school setting,” history teacher Jake Hereth said.
Students should be able to respectfully question and challenge their teachers’ political opinions when appropriate. Schools should promote tolerance for differing views so that when students graduate and are sent off into the world, they can be understanding and respectful of the differing views of others.
