When you say you teach, I take it for granted you mean at the college level. But I believe you said that, in your classes, you couldn't be sure your students knew the USA has a Democratic and a Republican party. And you say that students would not understand the political alignment denoted by the terms "left" and "right". Really and truly? Then how is it possible they were admitted to a program of higher education?
That semester, I was teaching at a local community college. All they really needed to do to be admitted to that college was to have a high school diploma or its equivalent. And generally speaking, one does not need to know that Republicans and Democrats are members of the two major parties in our political system, or what the terms “right” and “left” meant in political discourse, to get a high school diploma.
When you say you teach, I take it for granted you mean at the college level. But I believe you said that, in your classes, you couldn't be sure your students knew the USA has a Democratic and a Republican party. And you say that students would not understand the political alignment denoted by the terms "left" and "right". Really and truly? Then how is it possible they were admitted to a program of higher education?
That semester, I was teaching at a local community college. All they really needed to do to be admitted to that college was to have a high school diploma or its equivalent. And generally speaking, one does not need to know that Republicans and Democrats are members of the two major parties in our political system, or what the terms “right” and “left” meant in political discourse, to get a high school diploma.
And we wonder why our polity is in such dire straits. Unless you have an educated electorate, democracy fails.