anyone but himself. He maintains he did not break the law, as
campaigning toward Election day reaches a fever pitch and most
of the world is talking about it. In nearly half of Wisconsin
schools, teachers are being restricted from discussing U.S.
elections. The Wisconsin Council for the Social Studies is
pushing back its president and Shorewood Middle School social
studies teacher and 2023 teacher of the year. Sarah Kopplin is
here. And thanks very much for being here.
>> Thank you for having me. >> So your council conducted a
survey of teachers on this. What did that survey find?
>> So we have a monthly newsletter that we send to our
membership. And full disclosure, we don't have every teacher in
the state of Wisconsin who does teach social studies. As members
of our organization. Currently, we are working to change that,
though, but 42% of the respondents in our membership
who filled out the survey said that they've experienced
scenarios where their district administration so either their
principal or perhaps even their school board has placed
limitations upon them for teaching of current events or
the election in this upcoming school year. Also, I was
recently at the Teaching About Elections conference at
UW-Madison and a reporter asked the crowd of educators if they
had experienced such things in their districts, and every hand
in the crowd went up. There was well over 100 educators there.
So this is something that we see as an organization. We also
asked a similar question at our conference last March and
received that type of overwhelming response.
>> So what is behind the restrictions and complaints on
the part of parents say? >> So the things that we hear
from educators around our state in terms of parent complaints
are our teachers are conducting units of study where students
are learning about how elections work. You know, how votes are
cast and counted, how the electoral electoral college
hearing from their students that when they come home, that this
type of topic is being discussed and then immediately complain to
principals or school board members that their children are
being indoctrinated with political ideology. So that's
something we've heard a lot of. And this is not a scenario where
an educator is talking about their partizan politics. It's
just simply giving students opportunities in classrooms to
learn about how our democratic system works. We also have heard
from educators that have had administrators that will just
say to them, we don't want you having any discussions in your
classrooms about the election at all, or any classroom
discussions about current events. It's too controversial.
We don't want parent complaints, which makes it very difficult
for social studies educators when this is related to our
state standards and also partially related to some of the
statutory requirements that we have in Wisconsin to teach
social studies. >> So our teachers pushing a
political agenda, in any case, in classrooms.
>> So I have yet to come across an educator that tells their
students what their political agenda is, you know, as an
educator, you are bound by policies in your school district
where most districts have similar policies that they
purchase from. And policy writing consortium. And it
basically says that as an educator, you should not give
any partizan political viewpoints in your classroom.
But simply talking about politics, how politics work, or
what issues are taking place in our political sphere is enough.
In the current political atmosphere to make parents and
administrators feel like going on in the classroom. The
term of indoctrination is thrown around quite frequently. I have
yet to find an educator, though that is telling any of their
students their political ideology.
>> Are these restrictions happening in your own district?
>> They're not happening in my district. I feel pretty
fortunate to teach in a district where not only the community,
but our school board and our district administrators at the
building levels have been very supportive of social studies
education. They have been supportive of us meeting our
state standards, which require to student students to engage in
their own inquiry and also to engage in developing civil
discourse skills. So learning about current events and having
current events discussions, learning about the election is
something that is valued in the school district that I work in.
>> And in your mind, why is it important for students to learn
about government and elections? >> Well, our state legislature
believes that it is. There's a statute that actually talks
about how important that is. And it requires that to happen. The
school board should provide an educational plan for that to
take place in school districts. It's also part of our state
standards. But more importantly, I think it's really important
for the future of our democracy that our students understand how
our government works, you know, what are the parts of our
government? What are their powers and limitations? What are
the rights and responsibilities that citizens have in this
country? And with that being said, how as a person who is
part of your community or if you are a citizen as well, how do
you engage to ensure that you are making a positive impact on
your neighbors? And how can you have a voice to be somebody who
is civically engaged? One of our state standards says that
Wisconsin students will learn how to be civically engaged. And
that's really important because we want our future generations
to be able to be strong leaders, strong problem solvers and
people that will strengthen and improve the democracy and the
country that we have, that we have here.