Reply to Preschool teacher talking about election with kids

Forum Index » Infants, Toddlers, & Preschoolers

Reply to "Preschool teacher talking about election with kids "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]That's pretty screwed up.  I wouldn't follow-up with the director about it because it seems like a one-off thing that many people were upset about, but I'd make it clear that there's nothing to fear (even if I wasn't so sure of that myself).  [/quote]

Unless it happens again, I'd let this go, too.  If the teacher made a habit of discussing politics, that would be one thing, but a lot of people were genuinely upset yesterday.  Talk to your kid and[b] cut the teacher some slack[/b].  [/quote]

No, I don't agree.  I really understand how upset the teacher was.  And I think she's allowed her period of mourning.  However, she has to separate her professional self from her personal politics.  What the teacher did is completely unprofessional.  As a teacher, you are teaching all children and you don't have the right to inject your personal politics onto innocent children who don't understand that their teacher and their parents may have different political views.  You don't have the right to tell preschool children that their parents elected a bad man and scare them about a choice their parents made.  This is grossly overstepping your professional ethics.

I have no problem if older children ask about politics when they have a little more understanding, and teachers sharing their opinions in a way that the children understand that there are different points of view, but in this case, preschoolers have no understanding of the political process or the issues and concerns.  They also don't understand perspectives.  To them, there is right and wrong.  There is a real problem if the teacher and their parents are teaching them different rights and wrongs.  Framing your disgust with the president elect by calling him a "bad man" and essentially characterizing him as the boogey man is a gross professional error and should be reported to the principal.  It's fine to be sad and upset, but you need to put your grief aside.  If the kids ask, just let them know that you were upset/disappointed/whatever by some news but that it doesn't concern them.  Any teacher who could not find a way to put on their teacher face, and distract the children from the teacher's different mood, should not be going to work. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics