Why Go to School?

What Did I Agree With?
I was engaged with this reading from the start! I loved the introductory conversation that set the context for the rest of the piece. I agreed with the author when he stated education has somewhat become a fill-in-the-blank experience. I've encountered many students who expect this type of learning and many teachers who push this narrative as well. 

I also found myself also relating heavily to the idea of "the glaze" the terrible apathy that adorns so many students' faces when they're challenged to complete a task on any kind of timeline. I've seen that many of my students struggle with due dates because they don't understand how to organize their schedules and block out time to accomplish a task. For several years I've given my students calendars with daily timelines for big projects but still, a number of students use the glaze and fail to complete the assignment. Its frustrating. 

Challenges to My Thinking
I appreciate the emphasis to help students learn what they truly care about, but I struggle carving out time for that experience. I know the easy answer is to say "just provide ways to differentiate for students so they can explore and choose to learn about their passions" but that is not the easy solution. I also have a constant internal conflict because I'm comparing my school experience with my students. When I entered high school, I had a broad list of passions and interests that I would draw from to use during projects, but I'm seeing that the majority of my students either do not have those passions figured out or are for some reason keeping them a secret. Either way it's been incredibly difficult to help them come to any conclusions about their passions or cares.

Question
I loved the author's emphasis on teaching for citizenship. I teach my students the history of rhetoric and the purpose of school being to become knowledgeable, engaged citizens; however, my question is this: 

How can my school district encourage teachers and students to engage in political conversations?

From my experience, I've seen several teachers pushed out of the district because they've engaged in deep conversations about politics and citizenship, so how can we claim we are educating students for the future when there are so many hidden landmines that destroy a teacher's career due to cowardice from the school district? 

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