Political Questions to Ask Students
These are political questions to ask in class when the room holds more than one opinion and you will be teaching the same students tomorrow. The 57 questions lean on how students reach a view more than on which side they take, and they sit in six groups in the order a unit tends to run: a warm-up, where their news comes from, questions to ask students about voting that a student with no vote can still answer, the issues and how to disagree over them, leaders and parties, and taking part beyond the ballot.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Warm-up
What is the first word that comes to mind when you hear the word politics?
Why ask it
Take it as a one-word round or on sticky notes so nobody has to explain themselves yet. Sort the words on the board into rough piles, such as people, conflict and boredom, and leave them up: the same round at the end of the unit shows whether anything moved.
On a scale of one to ten, how closely do you follow politics, and what would move you up a number?
Why ask it
Have the number written down before anyone says theirs, or the room drifts toward whatever the first speaker claims. Collect what would move them up, because it tells you whether the obstacle is time, jargon or the sense that none of it touches them.
Which political issue comes up most when you are with your friends?
Why ask it
What friends talk about unprompted shows the issues students care about, not the ones they think a teacher wants named. If a student says politics never comes up, it is worth learning whether that is lack of interest or a habit of keeping quiet, because those call for different responses.
What is one thing you wish adults understood about how people your age see politics?
Why ask it
This lets students correct the frame instead of answering inside it. Expect objections to being treated as one bloc, and listen for whether they can also name something adults get right, which separates a considered view from a complaint.
When someone says they are not political, what do you think they mean?
Why ask it
Two readings tend to come up: the person has no opinions, or the person has opinions and no faith that voicing them changes anything. Put both on the board and ask which describes more of the people the class knows, because a lesson can do something about the second.
How is politics talked about where you live: often, never, or only when something goes wrong?
Why ask it
Keep it to how the talk goes, not what gets said, so no student is reporting a parent's views to the class. A home where politics is never mentioned and a home where it is shouted about can both produce a student who goes quiet in this lesson, for opposite reasons.
Who is the first politician you remember having an opinion about?
Why ask it
A first opinion often arrives from home or from one big news moment, and naming the politician tends to bring that source out with it. Follow with whether the opinion has been checked since, and let each student answer that for themselves and not for the room.
News
Where did you first hear about the last big political story you followed?
Why ask it
The route matters more than the outlet. A student who heard it from a group chat, a clip, or a parent at dinner is describing a filter, and may never have noticed they have one.
Who or what do you trust most for political news, and what earned that trust?
Why ask it
The earning is the question. 'My dad' and 'a creator I have watched for years' are both honest answers, and both rest on familiarity more than on a record of being right, which students can work out for themselves once they say it aloud.
How do you decide whether a political post you see online is worth believing?
Why ask it
Listen for whether they describe a process or a feeling. 'I can just tell' often means the post agreed with them, which is worth raising as a general point without singling anyone out.
How can you tell a news report from an opinion piece or a political ad?
Why ask it
Bring one of each on the same story and let pairs sort them before anyone defines the terms. The opinion piece laid out like a report is where pairs tend to disagree, and that disagreement is the lesson.
When did you last see a political claim that turned out to be false, and how did you find out?
Why ask it
Go first with one you fell for yourself. Without that, students offer only claims from the side they already distrust, and the exercise confirms what everyone walked in believing.
Do you follow anyone online whose politics you disagree with? What do you get from it?
Why ask it
Some follow to understand and some follow to be annoyed, and students are quick to admit which. A student who follows nobody they disagree with is not at fault; ask instead how an opposing view would ever reach them.
Have you ever shared or reposted something political? What made you decide to, or decide not to?
Why ask it
Stay longest on the decision not to post: fear of a screenshot, a relative who would comment, not wanting to be the political one in the group. Those are judgments about audience, which is a civic skill even when the result is silence.
Voting
Have you ever voted in anything: a school election, a club, an online poll? Did it feel like it counted?
Why ask it
Everyone has an answer, including students years away from a real ballot, which makes this the way into voting for a younger class. Whatever made that vote feel real, a close result or a visible change afterwards, is the test they will later apply to elections.
If you had a vote in the next election, would you use it? What might make you skip it?
Why ask it
Put as an if, it can be answered by a student who will not have a vote for years, or at all. Registration hassle, not knowing who is on the ballot and a belief that the result is already settled each need a different remedy, and filing all of them under apathy misses every one.
What do you know about how to register to vote where you live?
Why ask it
Collect what the class believes first, then check it together on the official election office website for your area. Ages, deadlines and whether registration is automatic differ by country and state, so do not answer from memory, and do not ask any student whether they are eligible.
What is on a ballot besides the names at the top?
Why ask it
Print a sample ballot from your local election office if one is published where you teach. Finding an office or a measure nobody in the room has heard of, and working out what it does, is better homework than an essay on why voting matters.
If you could vote tomorrow, what would you need to find out first?
Why ask it
The list students produce is a syllabus: who is standing, what each office controls, where to go, what to bring. Keep it on the wall and tick items off through the unit so they can see the gap closing.
How would you find out what a candidate actually stands for, beyond their ads?
Why ask it
List every source the class offers, then sort them by who wrote each one: the campaign, an opponent, a journalist, an official record. Voting records and official candidate statements are published in some places and not in others, so check what your election office or legislature provides before telling students they can look it up.
Who would you talk to before deciding how to vote, and who would you avoid asking?
Why ask it
This names the real influences without asking anyone how their family votes. The people students would avoid tend to be the ones they expect a lecture from, so be ready to hear teachers on that list.
How much does one vote matter, and is your answer different for a local election than a national one?
Why ask it
If the first answer is 'not much', the local comparison is there to complicate it, since a small electorate can produce a very narrow result. Find a close result from your own area and check the figures before the lesson, so the example is a real one.
Do you think people your age vote as much as older people do? What are you basing that on?
Why ask it
Take guesses, then look up turnout by age from your country's election authority for a recent election. Whatever the figures show, ask for explanations other than laziness: moving house, shift work, a first registration nobody walked them through.
Should the voting age be lower, higher or left where it is? What is your reasoning?
Why ask it
Here students argue from their own position, which is rare in a politics lesson. Push past 'we are mature enough' by asking what a voter needs to be able to do, then whether that test would also exclude some adults.
Should everyone be required to vote, as some countries require? Who would that help?
Why ask it
Run it as a walking debate, one wall for yes and the opposite wall for no. Ask the students standing in the middle what would shift them a step, because their answers bring out the difference between a duty and a right more clearly than a definition does.
If someone chooses not to vote, are they saying something or just not showing up?
Why ask it
Ask how anyone counting the results could tell a protest from a shrug, and what a non-voter could do to make the difference visible. Students who defend staying home on principle often find that second part hard, and it is fair to let them say so.
Issues
Which issue in the news do you keep hearing about without anyone ever explaining it?
Why ask it
Take these on slips of paper, since admitting confusion aloud is costly in front of classmates. The pile is your planning for the next month, and reading out the three most common ones tells the room that not knowing is normal.
Which government decision has actually changed something in your own life?
Why ask it
Expect a blank at first, then school funding, a bus route, a minimum wage, a health rule. Point the blank out kindly once the examples start coming: politics reads as distant until it gets local, and the class has just watched that flip.
What is the biggest problem facing the place you live, and whose job is it to fix it?
Why ask it
Keeping it to your own town or neighbourhood pulls answers away from national party lines and toward things students have seen for themselves. Whose job it is will need looking up, because the split between local, regional and national government differs from one country to the next, and tracing one problem to the right office is a good ten-minute task.
If you could get one law passed tomorrow, what would it be, and who would object?
Why ask it
Naming an objector turns a wish into a political problem. A student who cannot think of one has not tested the idea against anyone yet, so have a neighbour play the opponent for two minutes.
If public money is limited, what would you fund first: schools, health, roads, safety or something else? What would you cut to pay for it?
Why ask it
Give groups a fixed number of tokens to spread across the headings and make them agree one allocation. The arguing happens over the cut, not the wish, and that is the part of budgeting a class rarely gets to feel.
Which rule at this school would you put to a student vote, and which should never be decided that way?
Why ask it
Spend most of the time on the rules that should never go to a vote. Once students say that safety rules or the treatment of one group should not be up to a majority, they have arrived at the idea of rights without being handed the word.
Where is the line between free speech and speech that does harm?
Why ask it
Ask for one example on each side of the line and one that sits on it, and keep the examples about public figures, never classmates. The law on this differs a good deal between countries, so separate what students think should be allowed from what is allowed where you are, and look the second up.
Have you ever changed your mind about a political issue? What did it?
Why ask it
Ask what did it before asking what the issue was: an argument, a person they trusted, or a situation they ended up living inside. If few of the answers are arguments, say so, because it unsettles the assumption that people are persuaded by debate.
What is the strongest argument you have heard for a position you disagree with?
Why ask it
Have the answer written before it is spoken, then ask someone who holds the position whether it was put fairly. A weak version passed off as the strongest is the common failure, and classmates catch it faster than you will.
When is compromising with the other side the right call, and when is it giving up?
Why ask it
Ask for one example of each, from the news or from a group project, before anyone states a rule. With two cases on the table the answer cannot arrive as a slogan, and students have to say where their own limit sits.
Can you stay close friends with someone whose politics you strongly disagree with? Where would it stop?
Why ask it
Yes comes quickly, and the limit only appears when you ask for it. Keep that limit abstract, a kind of view and not a named person, because the friend in question may be three desks away.
Is there a political topic you avoid bringing up at school? What makes it risky?
Why ask it
Take it on unsigned paper. The slips tell you the room's actual climate, which may not be the one you believe exists, and writing keeps classmates and staff from being named aloud.
Leaders
What do you want from a leader that you are not getting right now?
Why ask it
Asking what is missing, not what is ideal, tends to produce concrete answers. Sort them into two columns, qualities such as plain speech or keeping promises and positions on issues, then ask the class what the balance between the columns says.
How well do you think your elected representatives know what people here actually want?
Why ask it
Listen for whether students picture representation as a job with mechanics, such as office hours, public meetings and a postbag, or as a distant abstraction. Asking who represents them is a fair follow-up, but put it to the room and not to one student, and be ready for nobody to know.
If you could put one question to the person who represents this area, what would you ask?
Why ask it
Vote on the best three and, if your school allows a class to write to an elected official, send them as a letter or email and see what comes back. A reply, a form letter and silence each teach something about how representation works, so the exercise cannot fail.
Would you rather vote for someone you agree with but do not trust, or someone you trust but disagree with?
Why ask it
Forcing the choice separates students who see politics as a set of outcomes from those who see it as a matter of character. Ask each camp what the other is risking, and do not let anyone escape into 'neither'.
When a politician breaks a promise, how do you tell a lie from a change of circumstances?
Why ask it
Without an example this stays vague, so bring a promise from an old campaign that students have no loyalty about. The tests they come up with, such as whether the politician explained the change or hoped nobody noticed, are ones they can reuse on anyone.
Should a politician's private life matter when you judge them?
Why ask it
'It is none of our business' is a common opening position, and it tends to shift when you ask about honesty or how the person treats staff. Steer away from current scandals, where the answer follows the party, and toward the rule students would apply to someone on their own side.
How young is too young to hold office, and is there an age that is too old?
Why ask it
Minimum ages for candidates differ by country and by office, so look up the ones that apply where you live instead of guessing. Talk about politicians who are too old heats up fast, so ask what the job needs and whether age is really the thing being measured.
Which political label, if any, would you use for yourself, and what does it mean to you?
Why ask it
Take this one on unsigned paper, because a label said aloud follows a student out of the room. Read out a few definitions of the same word without names: one label can mean quite different things to different students, and declining any label is a position to explore, not a blank.
Do you have to agree with everything a party stands for to support it?
Why ask it
Have each student think of one issue where they would break with the side they lean toward, and let it stay private unless they offer it. If candidates where you live mostly stand without parties, put the same question about a single candidate.
What counts as corruption to you, and where is the line between that and ordinary politics?
Why ask it
Start with bribery, which nobody defends, then offer the harder cases: a large donation, a lobbying job after leaving office, a relative on the payroll. Rules on each differ by country, so have students draw their own line first and then look up where the law puts it where you live.
Taking part
Besides voting, what is something you have done or would do to influence a decision?
Why ask it
Many students will have signed a petition, reposted something or sat in on a public meeting without counting any of it as political. Naming those acts as participation changes how they estimate their own leverage.
Have you ever tried to get a rule changed at school, at home or at a job? What happened?
Why ask it
A curfew negotiated or a uniform rule petitioned is politics at a scale students have run themselves. Ask who had the power to say yes and how the student found that out, since locating the decision-maker is the step people most often skip.
Who decides things about this school, and how would a student get a say in it?
Why ask it
Have pairs draw the route from a complaint to the person who could act on it, and expect gaps in every drawing. Find out before the lesson how it works in your school or district, including whether students may speak at board or governor meetings, because that varies.
What would make you join a protest, and what would keep you home?
Why ask it
The threshold shows how they weigh risk against effect, and the reasons for staying home are often the more honest part: how family would react, missing a shift, fear of trouble, or plain doubt that marching accomplishes anything. Keep it a discussion and not an invitation, since rules on protests and on school walkouts differ by place and by school.
Does posting about an issue online count as doing something?
Why ask it
Some students have watched a post change someone's mind, and others see posting as a substitute for effort. Ask each side for a real case, then what the post would have needed alongside it to matter more.
Would you ever run for office, even a school one? What puts you off?
Why ask it
The reasons for not running are a list of what students think politics costs: being disliked, being scrutinised, having to ask for votes. Notice who says they have never been asked, which is a different obstacle from not wanting to.
If you had one free afternoon a week to give to a cause, where would it go?
Why ask it
Framing it as time and not opinion gets answers from students who avoid anything labelled political: a food bank, a sports club, an animal shelter. Ask which decision by a council or government shapes that cause, and the student makes the link to politics unprompted.
What is one thing you could do this month about an issue you care about?
Why ask it
Insist on something small enough to finish: an email, a meeting attended, a question asked at a public session. Do not grade the cause or require the action, since a compulsory political act is a different thing from a chosen one, and check your school's policy before giving class time to it.
What should a class like this be teaching about politics that it currently is not?
Why ask it
Put this last, because by now students know which earlier questions they could not answer. Take the requests seriously enough to act on one: if the class asks how a law actually gets made or how to read a ballot, that is next week's lesson.
Running the discussion
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Choosing questions for the lesson you have
- The six groups follow the order a unit usually takes: Warm-up, News, Voting, Issues, Leaders, Taking part. One group is plenty for a period.
- The second half of Issues, from changing your mind to the topics students avoid, is about disagreeing well. It stands as a lesson of its own, and it is worth running before the class meets a topic that divides it.
- For a first lesson with a class you do not know, stay in Warm-up and News. Nobody has to state a position there, and you learn how the room behaves before the Issues group tests it.
- In the week before an election, use Voting and stop there. Feeling about the candidates is already running high, and the mechanics are the part students will not get from their feeds.
- Younger classes can manage Warm-up, the school-vote and school-rule questions, and Taking part. Hold the corruption, label and party questions for students who already follow the news.
- Mark your copy before the lesson: aloud, in pairs, or on paper. Anything about home, labels or the topics students avoid at school gets truer answers written and unsigned.
Before you start
- 1Tell students at the outset whether you will share your own views. Either policy works, but an unstated one makes students spend the hour guessing and answering to it.
- 2Say plainly that positions are not being graded. Students who suspect otherwise will produce the position they think you hold.
- 3Set one rule about repeating things outside the room, and be honest about its limits. You cannot promise what classmates will do.
- 4Read the school's policy on political discussion before the lesson rather than during it, especially if parents are likely to hear about it.
- 5Pick the three or four questions you actually need. The full list is a term's worth of material, not one period's.
While the conversation is running
- Ask what would change their mind more often than why they think that. It moves the room from defending to thinking.
- When a student states a fact, ask where it came from without signalling doubt. Do it for claims you agree with too, or the question will read as a correction.
- Let silences run longer than is comfortable. These questions need more thinking time than recall questions, and whoever speaks first tends to set the room's tone.
- If two students are dominating, switch to two minutes of writing and read a few responses aloud without names attached.
- Resist resolving disagreements. Students take more from an argument they understood and left open than from a conclusion you supplied.
If the lesson is about voting
- Check the facts for your own area the day before: the registration age and deadline, what identification is asked for, whether voting early or by post exists. These differ by country and state and they change, so use the election office's own pages.
- Keep the lesson on how voting works and whether to take part, never on whom to vote for. Some schools and some places restrict what staff may say during a campaign, so ask your administrator how that applies to you.
- Never ask who is eligible or who has registered. A student who cannot vote, because of age, citizenship or anything else, should be able to answer every question without having to say so.
- Put paper in their hands: a sample ballot, a registration form, a map of the local polling places. A ballot handled once in a classroom is less strange the first time it counts.
- If you run a mock vote, put an invented question or a school issue on it. A mock election between the real candidates tells every student how their classmates' families lean.
When it goes sideways
- If a comment targets a person or a group in the room rather than an idea, stop it in the moment and name the distinction, not the student.
- If the room turns out unanimous, treat that as self-censorship rather than agreement. Ask for the strongest case against the consensus and let someone argue a view they do not hold.
- If a student discloses something about their family's circumstances or immigration status, move the discussion along instead of following up in front of everyone. Speak to them afterwards, and if it worried you, take it through your school's usual procedure.
- If you get a factual point wrong or do not know, say so and look it up together. Covering costs more credibility here than in most subjects.
- Expect at least one conversation with a parent afterwards. Being able to say which questions you asked and why is usually enough.