Do politics have a place in the classroom?

5 comments

September 11, 11:29 AM

by Julia Yugel, CU Examiner

 

 

I was sitting in class, not paying attention, on Monday when my professor let out this doozy of a statement. "I don't know what is going through the Democrats heads these days," he started. "I don't understand how they can sit back and let John McCain run when they could just have him disqualified."

My head snapped up. That had certainly gotten my attention. Someone raised their hand. "How could he be disqualified?" t hey asked.

"Well, he wasn't born on U.S. soil and that is one of the main requirements for being president," My teacher replied. "He shouldn't be allowed to run and I don't know why the Democrats aren't using this information. What kind of corrupt country is this?"

A stunned silence fell over the class. No one really knew what to say at first. I was taken aback. I knew that there was no way that was true, but at the same time, I didn't know what to say.

Was this a political science class? Was my teacher just trying to get us all to think critically? Not exactly.

In fact, this happened in my modern literature class where we were reading a book about Pakistan. My teacher was in the middle of trying to explain character relations.

Someone did raise their hand to correct him and tell him that being born on a military base still counts as American soil. Because, as my mom pointed out, "Otherwise no one would ever be able to go anywhere."

The moment passed and everyone went back to texting or sleeping as my teacher talked.

On Wednesday class got even worse.

"So then the main character decided that the people he hung out with were bad and changed his lifestyle," said my teacher. "The company you keep is important. Kind of like how Sarah Palin hates Jewish people. And that is your Republican candidate for vice president."

I just stared at him in disbelief. Obviously, this was not the first shot he had taken at Republicans, but it was definitely the most direct.

I didn't know what to do. I didn't say anything, but I wish I had. I Googled it when I got home. Sarah Palin does not hate Jewish people. A man came and spoke at her church saying anti-semitic things. She wasn't there to support him, she was just at church. Palin's camp later released a statement saying that she hadn't known he was going to be there and didn't say anything against Jews herself. I wish I had know all of this a few hours earlier in order to take a stand. But I didn't.

This is a literature class. I shouldn't feel like I need to prepare for class by being prepared to defend all of my political beliefs. I shouldn't dread going to class because my views are consistently mocked and attacked by my teacher.

And now I don't know what to do. I read through the harrassment and discrimination policies for the universities. Gender, race, age and religion are all addressed. Political views? Not so much. My question is how much is too much? I know that politics are ingrained in most aspects of life. That's just our culture, but I just feel like it isn't right for a teacher to be spreading blatant lies to a classroom of students.

Am I overreacting just because I don't agree? Or is this legitimate harrassment?

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