Politics & Power Quote by Juan Cole

“Partisan politics has no place in the classroom” sounds like common sense until you notice how aggressively it tries to define what counts as “politics” in the first place. Juan Cole, speaking as an educator, isn’t really arguing for neutrality so much as for control over the terms of debate: the classroom should be a site of inquiry, not a campaign stop. The line works because it flatters nearly everyone. Parents hear safety. Administrators hear risk management. Teachers hear professional boundaries. Students hear a promise that their grades won’t be held hostage to someone’s ideology.

The subtext is more combustible. “Partisan” is doing all the work, separating civic education (acceptable) from partisan signaling (forbidden). But in practice, that boundary is slippery and often weaponized. For some listeners, “partisan politics” becomes a code phrase for any discussion that challenges their worldview: race, gender, climate, Israel/Palestine, even the basic mechanics of democracy. Cole’s phrasing anticipates that trap by narrowing the target to party-aligned messaging, implying that rigorous engagement with contested facts and moral questions is not only permissible but essential.

Context matters because contemporary classrooms sit at the intersection of culture war and institutional liability. In an era of school board showdowns, social-media surveillance, and legislation policing curricula, the quote reads as both a defense of academic integrity and a tactical shield. It stakes out a principle that sounds apolitical while quietly insisting on something more radical: a classroom disciplined by evidence and argument, not by party loyalty.