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Politics has a place in the classroom

Jonathan Zimmerman teaches history at New York University and is the author of "Campus Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know" (Oxford University Press), which will be published in September

Jonathan Zimmerman

teaches history at New York University and is the author of "Campus Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know" (Oxford University Press), which will be published in September

In 1938, the philosopher Alexander Meiklejohn called on America's schoolteachers to address controversial political issues in their classrooms. Teachers should not shy away from discussing unemployment relief, labor unions, or other pressing questions of the day, Meiklejohn wrote. But neither should they impose their personal views on students, who must remain free to come to their own conclusions.

Fast-forward to Donald Trump, the GOP elephant in the American classroom. Many teachers around the country are avoiding any mention of the Republican candidate for president, whom they view as too divisive for proper discussion. And other teachers have ridiculed students who support Trump, which echoes his mockery of his opponents.

Last spring, the Southern Poverty Law Center found that nearly half of surveyed elementary school teachers and more than one-third of high school teachers were "hesitant" to discuss Trump in class. Many teachers reported that their minority students feared being deported if he won. They also noted that minorities faced Trump-inspired threats and bullying from their white peers, like the repugnant Indiana basketball fans who shouted "Build a wall" at a game against a mostly Hispanic high school in February.

But the same survey also reported that other kids were taunted for favoring Trump, especially in heavily Democratic school districts. And there are scattered reports of teachers maligning pro-Trump students, including a 15-year-old Maine boy who was brave enough to wear a "Make America Great Again" hat to school in April.

One teacher said he was glad the student couldn't vote; another took the Trump hat off the student's head during a discussion about uninformed voters, evoking laughter from his classmates. "My dad is a teacher, and I know for a fact that teachers are supposed to be, like, not involved," the student said. "They don't have to agree with me. They just have to bite their tongue and not comment on it."

That's not quite right, either. Just like anyone else, teachers should be free to express their political opinions in school. But they also have to make it clear that their opinions aren't the gospel truth, and that students aren't required to follow them.

Most of all, they need to set a tone of mutual respect in their classrooms. At a moment when American political discourse has descended to almost unimaginable levels of snark and invective, we need our teachers to model a better way to discuss our differences.

Some of them are doing exactly that, as the Southern Poverty Law Center report also shows. Seizing upon the 2016 elections as the ultimate teachable moment, they are conducting debates that allow students to examine the candidates critically and reach informed judgments about them.

But other teachers are ignoring the election, which denies our future voters a crucial learning opportunity. Some teachers have been ordered to avoid the subject by nervous administrators, who fear chaos inside schools and complaints from angry parents outside of it. Other teachers say that they want their classrooms to be "safe spaces," where minority students can find refuge from the bigotry and bombast of Trump.

That condescends to our young people, all in the guise of defending them. They already know that the country is bitterly divided about immigration, criminal justice, and much else. What they need are adults who can explain and explore these divisions in an informed and reasonable manner.

That means letting students come to their own decisions about Trump, even if they depart from the teacher's. I realize that there are some teachers who do not believe that an informed, reasonable person can or would vote for Trump. But if that's what they think, they shouldn't be teaching about him. And in some cases, they probably shouldn't be teachers at all.

Let me repeat: Teachers have every right to criticize Trump, inside and outside of school. They're political beings, as Meiklejohn reminded us many years ago, and it's absurd to ask them to pretend otherwise. "No one can teach an art which he is forbidden to practice," Meiklejohn wrote. "Slaves cannot teach freedom."

But teachers abuse that freedom when they insist that students echo their own beliefs about Trump or anyone else. "Our teachers must be advocates, but they may never be salesmen or propagandists," Meiklejohn cautioned. "The very existence of democratic schools depends on that distinction."

As our schools prepare to reopen over the next few weeks, we need to keep that distinction in the front of our minds. And we need to make sure that adults of every mind let our kids make up their own minds.

jlzimm@aol.com