Politics in School.

[devonin]

1. Is it ethical for teachers to tell childern what is right and what is wrong in the context of political issues?

Teachers should never include their own personal opinion on any subject, especially politics, religion or philosophy. The job of a teacher is to expose you to all sides of a given issue, and teach you the analytical tools to gauge those sides and draw your own reasoned conclusion.

I had an Ethics professor in University who even outside lectures, in class discussion simply outright refused to tell us his personal stance on any of the issues we discussed. It wasn't his place to try and influence us one way or another, and he didn't want us thinking that on papers we would do better to agree with him.

a teacher to bring up issues for a report, debate, or class discussion and state his/her opinion on political, or religious issues (but not tell students what is right and what is wrong).

As above, I think that teachers simply shouldn't provide their own personal opinion on these issues. They should provide all sides in as neutral a manner as possible, and let the students draw their own conclusions.