Politics in the classroom? Okay if teachers can remain impartial

Uoung people today are more informed and civic-minded than any in recent memory. They came of age after 9/11, after all. But they're also less obsessed with race than their parents and more cynical about the world and the ability of government to change it for the better. The Internet has made them knowledgeable about many more things that are going on. Perhaps as many as half of the nation's 3.2 million high school seniors on Nov. 4 were eligible to vote, making discussions in high school classes more urgent.

So political discussions in the classroom isn't merely a civics lesson anymore. It is for real. As long as the teachers do not let their own political leanings be self-evident, I think this is healthy and should be done. The problem could come if the teacher can not stay objective. My two boys became Republican because of a middle school teacher they admired who would explain what Democrats believe and what Republicans believe in a way that said to the students the Republican point of view is the "correct" point of view. Whatever my own political leaning this was absolutely inappropriate in a public school and I thought many times of reporting him to the principal but didn't as my boys requested.