Blog #14: Utopias and Political Activism

After reading through the last article by Mathison and Cauthen, I thought back to all the times when current or political issues were brought into the classroom setting. I think as a student I always felt uncomfortable because I didn't know what to say or what was the correct response. I was afraid because I knew I was ill-informed. I didn't want to sound like an idiot. The only teacher I know that handled politics deftly was my high school History teacher, Ms. Jones. Incidentally, she also taught me how to write, or at least she sparked my awareness in regards caring about what I write. Although I try to stay away from politics in my SI workshop class, this semester I have a few politically interested students that move discussions towards ethical and social questions. Inevitably, their question is always, "Miss, what do you think?" In these moments, I am always in a state of awkward and discomfort. Why? Because I don't want to push my ideas and thoughts onto theirs. I want to answer their questions, but I always frame my response as in this is how I see it, but what do you think. While I think the idea of politics and current issues is rife for discussion in any class discussion, I think there are too many pitfalls too for the inexperienced. Because current issues do incite passions, I don't think it's easy to always manage the wave of commentary. Also, I don't feel that any discussion regarding politics or ethical issues will spark a whole class of 20 or 40 to affect change in their environment. In this regard, I think this type of curriculum which serves to be a broad spectrum is actually narrow and specific.