The importance of impartiality – Why social activism and schools shouldn’t mix

The value of educational impartiality is being imperilled by the determination of some practitioners to produce student activists, writes Alka Sehgal Cuthbert in Teach Secondary magazine…

…The notion of ‘impartiality’ is often conflated with demonstrating a lack of passion or ethical commitment. Contrary to received wisdom, though, being an impartial educational institution actually requires high levels of both passion and ethical commitment – only to truth and its attendant virtues, rather than nebulous ‘social justice’ causes.

We’re currently witnessing the emergence of a disturbing trend, whereby some educators and LAs appear keen to accept – or even promote – the idea that schools ought to be incubators of socially responsible activism.

The focus might be racism, trans rights, environmentalism or even a combination of all three. In any case, it’s a tendency that’s both wrong- headed and deeply pernicious, since it undermines the very idea of education being a public and liberal good, underpinned by the practising of political impartiality…

Read the full article on Teachwire.