Sometimes I wonder

With the upcoming election a lot of my students, even the young 7th graders, have been asking about politics. I've been trying to give my students an unbiased opinion about both candidates, but sometimes my liberal beliefs leak out. I don't know how many of them have noticed that I'm not a republican but so far I've dodged the topic successfully. But enough about me, back to my main idea..my students interested in politics. Most of my students, I'd say about 95%, are republicans and I'd venture to say that they are this way because of their parents. My junior high students are constantly saying "my dad says Obama is a terrorist" or "my mom says only republicans go to heaven" or the best so far "my dad would beat me if I ever said I was a democrat". It makes me angry when my students say things like this because I really want them to think for themselves, but it's very hard to tell these kids their parents are wrong. (I also don't want parents to come screaming at me) It also irks me that my students take these radical ideas about Obama or even McCain as the truth. We all know Obama isn't a a terrorist, McCain isn't a super conservative republican but my students won't believe that what's on TV is a lie. Am I even making any sense here?

I just want my students to be well-informed, well-educated; whatever you want to call it, I want them to be intelligent voters and members of society. Even if they can't vote in this election, they will have to vote someday.


Funny of the day:
One of my 7th grade students, as innocent and cute as she is turned to me during a discussion about politics and says:
"Ms. Tutwiler are you even allowed to vote? Aren't you too young?"

Aah, my students think I'm under 18, I just hope this face keeps looking young for the rest of my life.