A political candidate has recently called for "taking politics out of the classroom", just the latest to do so, and I am sure another such call will be made tomorrrow. This is obviously political, but it is also stupid. It is stupidity or the part of the speaker, or an assumption of stupidity in the target audience, or both. Education is a political act. Full stop. Period. What these people mean is "taking views and/or content I do not like out of the classroom".
Educators and program designers everywhere struggle on what content to include, or more importantly to exclude, and how to present that content. You see in general terms, content is inherently problematic and although some maintain that "facts" are immutable and incontrovertible. They are neither.
Knowledge changes over time. As an example, our lives depend on measurements such as length and time and both have recently been redefined. Knowledge is arbitrary as mountain heights change, as does the origin of the Nile and as will the end of the line.
However, and more to the point, knowledge is also political, Is Taiwan a country? Did Columbus discover America? Who, or what started, WWII? Any pohsition taken by anyone on such questions represents a worldview, and worldview is at the heart of politics especially when it is expressed in terms of what is included in any commentary and what is not.
And yet there is more. I remember years and years (and years) ago being told that it is right to ask students what they wanted to be called, rather than what was in the register or how I thought they should be addressed. Jimmy instead of James, or George instead of Georgette and so on, Today, that is seen as a political act.
I similarly remember asking some female students to carry returned books to the book-store and their protests that I should "ask the boys" while also demanding they be treated the same as the boys. Both asking and not asking the girls is a political act.
And of course today we condemn the government of Afghanistan for their prohibition on education for girls. Educating or not educating girls, at and to any level, is of course political.
Including Shakespeare, Of Mice and Men, Toni Morrison. Political. US Black history, the women behind physics, American actions in Latin America. All political.
I remember arguments over heating in schools. Those for and those against - political. Similar arguments can be today in some states or districts over AC in classrooms. You may find it hard to believe, but so too is the choice of paint in an entrance way, flowers in front of the admin block and reading materials in the waiting area.
School buses for all? Politics. School funding of any amount. Political. Teacher preparation, qualifications, even teacher salaries. All political.
Showing one side of an issue. Political. Showing the "other side". Political. Balance, especially where alternative viewpoints are suspect or fringe or oppressive. Political.
I remember a parent who argued for fewer and shorter breaks because she wanted the school day to be shorter to better fit her schedule. Political, Of course I wanted the two recesses and longer lunch to allow more focus in class, and to cater for the "active" student (which coincidentally included her son). Also political.
Deciding to have any kind of education for anyone at any level, or not, is a political act. While calls to remove politics from the classroom is textbook reductio ad absurdum, it is also stupid. Those who make them and those who agree with them really mean, "only include views and/or content I like" at the moment I say this, and of course, "change what you are doing as soon as I think something else".
**Please leave comments and queries below**
Further reading
What`s wrong with Democratic and Republican positions on education
The failure of Nickleby - again
Parents Want Politics Out of the Classrooms
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