Gradness Madness

I’ll admit I was pretty shocked at this recounting of a classroom situation that involved recruiting students for a political campaign.  I try very hard to remain politically neutral (and religiously neutral, culturally neutral, fill in the blank) with my students, because I believe my job is to teach them how to think, not what to think.  

But I know that some profs feel otherwise, and use the classroom as a bully pulpit (one extremely religious and conservative former colleague comes to mind).  I also try to keep political posts off my Facebook page, as I’m “friends” with colleagues and others in my discipline.  There are some things they just don’t need to know about me.  And my students, especially, don’t need to know.

I agree with this sentiment from the article (link below):

” … the college classroom should be reserved for the subjects that the students signed up for, not for the political enthusiasms of their teachers. The student who enrolls in first-year English composition ought to be learning to compose essays, not campaign fliers.”

http://chronicle.com/blogs/conversation/2012/08/28/beware-of-partisan-politics-in-the-classroom/

What do you think?  Is there any place for this sort of thing in the classroom?

- Flynn