To have gently told her she was wrong

[Calyrical]

Awkward one: about politics (sorry) but only indirectly.

An inexperienced teacher in my department announced brightly at lunch she had told some year 8s the party she was voting for and that's the one 'they should also vote for.' She listed the reasons she had given them.

I interjected and quite nicely but also firmly told her that she was wrong to have done so. I said it was unlikely anyone would complain but if they did her actions would be difficult to justify as we are in an influential position.

However I got quite a lot of grumbling and muttered 'well it's true!' remarks from other departmental members.

I'm 99% sure I was NOT BU.

But I will leave it to MN to decide.

I'm a primary teacher in Scotland in my region anyway that's against the code of conduct. Particularly during the neverendum we had to been seen to be impartial.

YANBU I genuinely believe that children should be able to make up their own minds without biased from anyone including their parents. I know friends DCs at age 9 or 10 talking about strong political views which reflect those of their parents, they are not the child's views clearly.

Even with my own DCs I am honest about who I vote for and give them my reasons however I have also explained why other people vote differently and that it is our opinions and no one is right or wrong.

I don't often agree with Piers Morgan but I liked how he was discussing the outcome early this morning and he said his children voted, one of them one way and one of them the other bit he was pleased they are using their vote for the party they believed in.

You are right!

Well...i guess she CAN share her political views with anyone she likes HOWEVER I do think it's a bit questionable to be pushing her views on students. As a teacher she is in an influential position and the potential for backlash in the form of angry parents just wouldn't be worth it to me if I was her. I don't think pointing out that it wasn't the best idea was unreasonable as long as you weren't rude about it

I think it was ok to say who she was voting for and why but she shouldn't have told them that was what they should do. She should have emphasised that they were her beliefs but that not everyone agrees with her and explained democracy. What would have been more interesting and educational would have been to get them to research the different political views and then debate the issues.

I think it's fine for her to say I'm voting for X because etc. But she should follow this up with but other people might vote for other parties for other reasons which is fine because it's how democracy works.
I think all children should be taught more about how politics work and how to read a manifesto and evaluate its claims for yourself.

YANBU. She was being highly unprofessional and abusing her position of power.

I think teachers should be impartial as most local government staff are supposed to be (presumably she's emploed by the council ^)

Employed*^

I yearn for the olden days when who we voted for wasn't discussed, people kept it to themselves

YANBU.

Teaching children about how the legislative and political system works, and what the different party platforms are is very different to stating who you are voting for and telling the children they should also be voting for that party. One is informative, the other is undue influence from a position of authority. A teacher can put forward a political stance as a subject for debate without having to state whether or not they agree with it.

This is one reason I am so pissed off that Trump is allowing religious leaders in the US to become politically active with regards to their congregations. The minister is in a similar position to adult congregants as a teacher is to children. If the minister starts spouting off in his sermon about someone being 'God's candidate', which many did about Trump, of course that is going to influence how their congregation votes. The congregation is there precisely because they respect the minister and value their opinion on how they should live their lives. People encourage their children to respect teachers and value what they say so teachers should not pass on their political views to their students.

YANBU - teachers aren't allowed to share political views with kids.

YANBU - I don't think it's fair for teachers to share their voting preferences with kids (esp. if they are saying/implying 'and you should do this too').

Unfortunately, quite a few teachers seem to do this, whether it's against their professional code of practice or not.

I'm not a teacher Mistress - I'm a central Government civil servant and was explaining the rules that apply to me.

I have no idea what the rules are for teachers, but I think what the op is talking about is highly unprofessional.

Whoops, sorry. Had just assumed given context.

My DS's sociology teacher loves JC and has for years, he even has a picture of him in his office.

My DS has dared to say that he doesn't agree with some of Labour's policies and for that he has been singled out and ridiculed by the sociology in front of the rest of the class.

He has said things like "Is anybody else as stupid as PersianCatBoy and think that the Conservatives have some good policies?"

"Thank goodness that PersianCatBoy can't vote yet (he is 17) as he would only vote like an idiot"

I don't really think that because DS has raised some valid points in sociology about the economics of JC's manifesto and about immigration that he should be singled out like this.

Luckily, he doesn't care.

YANBU OP

A teacher in DD's school gave the class what can only be described as a lecture about who they should vote for when they are old enough. Based on that DD2 told me she hates X party.

I explained the differences in a way she can relate to and she was horrified when she realised that in fact she doesn't agree with the teacher.

As a teacher I do try really hard to portray both view points and listen to the kids rather than go too much into my own views. I question their views more to help them develop their justifications but I make it clear I'm not questioning in that way because I agree or disagree

I've called DS school today as his teacher yesterday told the whole class "a vote for Labour is a vote for terrorists" 😳

He's entitled to his opinion but as others have said it's in teachers professional role to be neutral in the classroom.

My kids (at school) asked again today how I voted. I told them. It was also an opportunity to explain the concepts of a majority, minority, hung Parliament and a coalition. I am happy with the discussion we had.

Your daughter is 8. And hopefully you will have more of an influnence on her than her teacher so try not to fret.

YWNBU. It makes me deeply uncomfortable when people tell their primary school aged children which party is the "right" one to vote for. I saw a video on a FB group of someone filming his kid saying "the red team are good guys and the blue team are bad guys". Why would we want to advocate that kind of division with kids? Even more so from a teacher!

Lots of our students have been interested in the election and have wanted to talk about health, war policy, education, tuition fees, taxes, bankers etc.
I have no issue giving my personal views if asked, though some don't want to and that's fine. What I won't do is be rude about other candidates.

And this morning when the results came through, I had a student initiated discussion about hung parliaments, mandates, whether they thought she made the right call on the election etc.

Personally, I think children need to discuss and debate politics outside the home so they can hear a range of views.

MaisyPops

Agreed.

Maisypops I agree absolutely that debate and hearing other people's views is important. What I didn't like was the approach of this teacher that any opinion other than his was wrong!