our history teachers (plural) led us in spirited discussion of Nixon, the Vietnam War, the Pentagon Papers, and Watergate. You couldn't avoid criticism.

Last edited Mon Mar 11, 2019, 08:04 AM - Edit history (1)

Don't know a lot of parents that want their kids to grow up and be stupid idiots.

in the classroom, are completely different things.

If you ban students from wearing MAGA hats at school events, you have to ban ALL display of political alliances, and that gets sticky.

Unless of course you go the route of claiming MAGA hat is more like a Nazi armband. I don't think the courts are there yet.

displays of political opinions are allowed or they're banned.

The teacher is there to do a job.

The students are there because they have to be, they ARE the job.

If the teacher's job doesn't include current events and politics, she shouldn't be introducing it into the classroom. If her job does include it, teach it in a balanced, critical thinking way.

For students: I strongly support a school uniform policy (hate me if you must). But those need to be subsidized or provided for low income students so that it doesn't become a barrier. Let's ensure availability of laundry services while we're about it. A school uniform policy can eliminate a whole bunch of problems with kids' attire, as long as it's a good policy and doesn't introduce new problems. And yes, this could include excluding MAGA hats but would have to also exclude other political symbols. I'd support that, at least until the last year or two of high school (when kids SHOULD start getting politically engaged.)

unless it was part of a display being used specifically to discuss current national political events involving Trump and "the resistance". In that case there should have been other gear displayed with different / opposing messages, to represent the spectrum of opinion.

Trump is horrible beyond words but the teacher is there to teach her subject, and to teach kids how to think critically in that subject and beyond. Not to wave her own political position around.

Would it be okay if she'd done similar with an anti-Obama shirt? What about an anti-Democrats shirt? Or Trump2020?

I don't think so.

This stuff is easy. I don't know why so many conservatives, and at times even liberals, have problems with it.

A) no politics in the workplace unless it is directly related to the work being paid for.

B) when in doubt, substitute the opposite party/candidate. It can't be okay to do it anti-Trump if the same thing anti-Obama is not okay.