In government class in high school, I felt like the teachers were always teaching just one side. Like certain presidents, certain events, and historic moments. It felt like they were trying to steer us to believe in one side instead of having our own opinion. My school even had a Young Republicans club, but there wasn’t one for democrats. Even though it was in Illinois, which is a blue state.
I even had friends trying to convince me to be a Republican, but I was never swayed that way. When it came to teachers, though, they thought their views were the right ones. They didn’t say this side believes this, and this side has these beliefs, and encourage us to choose a side we feel most comfortable with.
It was more, these presidents did all these bad things, so you should choose this side instead. You didn’t have a chance to express how you felt about one side or the other. It did depend on who was teaching, though. Teachers will teach what they believe, at least when it comes to politics, because it’s easier to teach what you know. But when it comes to politics, there is no right or wrong side. It’s down to what you think, and there are so many controversial topics that teachers don’t want to go past those boundaries.
I think a big part of it is if a student’s family raised them to be one side or the other, and the teacher is encouraging the other side, it would cause conflict with the parents. That could lead to unnecessary arguments and angry parents. Another reason they don’t teach how to think is that some students may have opinions that other students wouldn’t agree with, and that would also cause conflict between students.
We have to encourage the younger generation to think for themselves and not what their parents, family, friends, and teachers think. They have to be able to figure it out on their own. Children are our future, and if we teach them wrong instead of right, we could be doomed in the future.
