this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2025
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That I was a republican. The teacher gave out this political alignment quiz that was incredibly biased asking things like "do you like lower taxes or higher taxes?" and "do you like more freedom or less freedom?" All the questions basically lead you to the same answers. So the entire class basically had the same result.
This was in middle school so I wasn't even politically engaged yet. I didn't realize how crazy this was until years later.
the quiz:
Seems like the teacher was ahead of their time, or way behind it depending on whether they drew inspiration from Moms for liberty or Adolf Hitler.
That's funny. I had a teacher do something like this but in the other direction. All the questions had answers that pretty much forced you right into the blue. Shit like "do you think homeless people should be given assistance or should homeless people be shot and dumped into the sea?" Or "I think everyone deserves to find love vs gay people are the spawn of Satan".
It is worth noting that I went to a very left leaning and notoriously "hippy" private school (against my will). I eventually managed to get expelled for smoking weed and not snitching on all my friends.
I don't think teachers really should be pushing their political or religious agendas no matter what. School is for learning core basics in various categories.
n many countries, including the United states, the core studies are taught through the end of Junior High School. And that's when mandatory education ends. So you should expect to see a lot more variety in high school.
As a teacher myself, I don't try to tell students what to believe, but I certainly don't run away from talking about political issues. If you're teaching English or science or social studies or foreign language, and you are working hard to avoid politics, you're doing your students a disservice.
For example, suppose you're teaching high school economics right now. Would you honestly not talk about the Trump tariffs? That would be the most ludicrous idea imaginable. Clearly the students want to know what's going on, they hear it on TV, they read it in the newspaper, and you're the expert so you should be telling them what's going on. Right? And if you're going to talk about them, you're probably going to be critical of them with good reason.
But anyway, I've heard people express views similar to yours over the years, and essentially many people with that view think that school could be or should be talked entirely by mindless robots. I don't think that's a great way to teach kids, I'm happy I didn't grow up in such a system, but if that's what you want then more power to you.
It's less that I don't want them mentioning anything that connects to politics and it's more about wanting them to just present information without any additional spin.
So "Trump has put tarrifs on x countries for x amount" vs "Trump has stupidly put x tarrifs on x countries because he's a hateful tyrant" or whatever. I think you get what I'm trying to say.
I have absolutely no problem with talking about politics as it's pretty much impossible to mention anything in history without it, but it can be done so in very different ways. I would prefer that teachers remain as neutral as they can while presenting only factual information on whatever political topics comes up.
Kinda how I wish the news would go back to facts first reporting as opposed to this current "rush the story out before we fact check anything and make the headline as polarizing as we can to generate maximum clicks. Who cares if we have to issue a correction later on page 97 in .5 size font (or at all) we just want clicks!" Type of "news" we have now.
I blame Reagan.
Political alignment tests have a serious case of intentional sampling bias
Ironically, I have read that there was a study that found that the most gullible kids in elementary school grow up to be republican. I'm not kidding.
I donβt think that would surprise anyone. The GOP has been a giant grift since at least Reagan. A loooot of people out there canβt tell when theyβre getting scammed.
Itβs one reason why educated voters tend to be further left on the political spectrum.
I hated this so much in high school.
There's essentially no difference between reps and dems tbh
"Essentially no different" is overselling it. "A lot less difference than there should be" is better.