Excused for Politics

As I was walking to my 11am class today, my mother sent me a text message. Now, this is not something she usually does but she informed me that she was at the Obama Rally happening in La Crosse, WI. She then called and proceeded to let me listen to over five minutes of Obama's speech as I made the trek across campus. I was excited to hear him speak and know that he was reaching out to the people of La Crosse Wisconsin. So what does this have to do with education? Well I came back to my room and naturally went on Facebook. I was amazed to see the number of my high school age friends who had attended the rally and were already posting pictures. I wanted to know how they got away with it because my school is known for its strict attendance policy. So called one of the students up and found out that my principal had formally excused all students that wanted to attend the rally. I was shocked considering he had enforced the rules strictly when the situation occurred in 2004. I then went to the La Crosse Tribune website and was shocked to find an article about the very idea of students missing school.
This brought me back to our class discussion about voicing our opinions and what we are morally obligated to teach our students. Overall, I was proud of the message the area high school students were sending to their students because I believe students should be given every opportunity to voice their opinions and learn from educated sources. What better politics lesson than to hear a presidential candidate make a campaign speech. When I think about moral judgments in relation to the school setting, I think decisions need to made based on the age of the students. Elementary students need know who the presidential candidates are but they do not need to know a teacher's position on gay marriage. Similarly, I think teachers should educate high school students more effectively on politics and not worry about offending anyone as long as they present the information without bias. These students are the future voters and need to understand the importance of such a role.

http://www.lacrossetribune.com/articles/2008/10/01/breakingnews/9obama.txt