<p>In my math class, people often get into political debates. Basically, we have "free time" when we're allowed to do homework. I'm one of the people that spend my time acctually doing the homework, but people on the other side of the room choose to do.. other things. The thing is, I go to a small catholic school. There are a lot of diehard catholics here. There are also very many liberals here too. During free time, people get into political discussions. Like, how they feel about gay marriage, the death penalty, the environment etc... I hear people say "It would be horrifying if two people of the same sex could be married" and "I hate the environment. We should just go drill in Alaska because its big and there is nobody who lives there and nobody cares about Alaska". I guess the thing is that some of these people are so extremists in their views (liberal people and conservative people), that what they say can be insulting (I'm not gay or an enviromentalist, but there are some people in the class who are).
What do you guys think of disscussing politics in this kind of setting? These people that "debate" are not friends (after the "alaska" comment, one girl said 'I hope if that happens that the oil poisons the salmon and you eat it and DIE"... she was not kidding).
I was just wondering what other people think of this</p>
<p>Seems fine to me. There are many high school math classes like that, where you are given free time to do homework and the bulk of the class...well, don't. It's up to them what they choose to do if they don't want to do homework as long as it's legal, within the school code, and not too disruptive. Sounds like you have a problem with their views more than where they talk about it, in which case you just have to accept that there are people out there with different views, I suppose.</p>
<p>You should go to one of those online political forums, the debates there are much, much worse :)</p>
<p>I don't think debating politics is any worse or better than debating music choice or talking about who's dating who. Well, maybe better, since it influences the world. And with regard to the views, you should remember that the people in your high school are mostly teenagers who often gravitate towards extremes due to their lack of life experience. At this stage their "knowledge" is more theoretical than practical.</p>
<p>lol, my math class talks about everything! except it's mostly the teacher talking. he'll complain about the other classes, do card tricks (he says he was a street magician), talk politics (he loves arguing against global warming)... pretty much everything!</p>
<p>and this is my dual-credit class at a university.</p>
<p>As long as it isn't offending anyone...I see no problem.</p>