sensitive subjects

I agree with Kate. Religion and politics should stay out the classroom. Both can bring up emotions that are hard to control, and many times, when people are arguing against what you believe, it feels like a personal attach, and most students don't know how to deal with that. I don't think most adults know how to deal with those emotions. Plus then once those differences are discovered, people might blame other problems on those differences. It reminds me of a class I took, Sociology of Religion, half way through the class, we found out that our teacher was Mormon. Of course, now we believed everything he said was tainted in someway because of his religious association. I believe that same thing can happen with politics. It's all too messy. It's one thing to learn about the process, the history, and what's going on. It's another to make some students feel like they are losers or wrong. We are supposed to make everyone feel successful and proud in a safe environment, and I don't think politics and religion helps promote that safe environment.