I agree that elementary school teachers have no business discussing politics with children. High school is another story though. Thanks to an 11th grade Government teacher I realized that I was conservative. He had the classroom divided in half, with the desks facing each other. Students with a conservative point of view sat on one side with liberals on the other. We had some pretty good debates in that class...especially concerning FDR's New Deal. He also gave extra credit to students who volunteered to work on a campaign (it was an election year, and we got to choose the candidate and office). I really enjoyed that class.