Answering a classmate’s Question
Greetings,
In my current class, this question came up on our online message board. I have cleaned up my response a little bit, and added hard breaks where they didn’t show up in my actual response.
Classmate A asked:
“This is something I wanted to bring up in class in relation to the readings but, since we are talking about indoctrination and our own political views, etc. etc., I have been curious to know, when do teachers start getting in trouble (with parents or other staff or the principal) for showing their views or even different interpretations of history? In reading these articles and thinking about all the controversial issues that will come up in our classrooms, it makes me wonder how easy it is for teachers to go too far and offend people. Just wondering what others’ thoughts might be.”
Well, I guess you would not want to be like this guy. From my understanding, he espoused only one viewpoint, which was highly critical of President Bush and upset a few students and even more parents. So I guess the biggest suggestion I have would be to make sure you present both sides of the argument to the best of your ability.
I suppose aside from that extreme, I would assume the next biggest thing to avoid “bad” situations is to make sure you meet or even exceed curriculum expectations. If you can teach the students everything they are expected to know, and still have time for debate over troubling topics, I don’t think that very many people can create a logical argument to get you fired or even in trouble.
In conclusion, I would claim that if you structure your discussions in a way that represents the different sides, and still get through all that can be expected of you, I seriously doubt that many people can really get you into trouble.
