Should the Curriculum Address Controversial Issues?

Let me first start by stating the fact that being an educator is a very challenging profession. (Well duh, I know.) As a teacher, you take on many different roles; you are mother, a father, a certified babysitter, a teacher, a counselor etc. It makes sense since, for many students, their teacher is the adult figure that they see more in the day than their own parent or guardian. Six and a half hours are spent everyday teaching them information; some of this information is helpful such as work ethic, how to read effectively, and basic math skills. Teaching to prepare for state standardized tests does not seem effective or beneficial, but for 3-12 teachers in Maryland, right that is what we are doing. We as teachers teach students all of these concepts that they may or may not remember and yet we tend to leave out the more important lessons; life lessons that need to be addressed and emphasized in order to help children become acceptable men and women in society or the real world. It’s funny to me that for as long as we have them, we guard them; we shield our students from addressing the real issues, the issues that they may be faced with now and/ or later.

We teach students, so why is that when a topic comes up that is not in the curriculum and could be considered controversial BUT effective and beneficial for my students to learn, why it is that I have to beat around the bush and not teach them at a time that would be ideal and an authentic teachable moment? Why is it that we shelter these students from real topics? Why do we shelter them from what lies beyond the school walls? These are questions I often think about but even more so while reading and reflecting on this cycle’s focus.

This cycle’s focus looked at whether or not controversial issues should be addressed in the curriculum taught. The issue that we mainly investigated was on the topic of homosexuality. As stated in earlier blogs, I currently am a fifth grade teacher in an inner city school. Many of my students have had to grow up way too fast and because of this, they know more than they should. An example of this happened a few months ago when I was explaining to students that they would be presenting their country projects and this would be a portion of their overall grade. When discussing the project, I said ‘oral presentation’ and two my students burst out laughing. It took several minutes to get these two girls focused again and when I asked them what was so funny, their response was Oh nothing. Students in this generation are exposed to far too much information whether it is from watching television, surfing the internet, hearing their parents, or hearing their peers. Yet so often these students misinterpret the facts and therefore, have a wrong perception about how it is really is. Allowing students to take on these perceptions seems wrong to me on so many levels, but there are certain topics of conversation that I have to stay away from because it’s not my place.

Many of the families and teachers in my school are very religious. It is obvious that bringing up a topic such as homosexuality would be blasphemy. Many of the teachers and parents that are apart of my school feel that homosexuality is not a lifestyle, but a choice. From generation to generation, people are taught from their mothers and fathers and grandparents etc about what they believe is true. There was a time in my life where I felt that homosexuality was a choice and that it was wrong. Growing up in a small town in Michigan would make it easy to take on such an opinion since in my town, everyone was white and everyone was religious and everyone was straight. However, as time went on and as society has became more accepting of homosexuality, all of a sudden there were homosexual people in my hometown. This isn’t to say that there never were homosexual people before, but now they are starting to feel okay coming out and being themselves.

Homosexuality is a lifestyle in my eyes. I am not one to force my beliefs on other people and I am not saying that everyone has to agree with homosexuality, but I will say that people need to at least recognize that it is a different type of lifestyle, not a choice and students need to recognize that understanding as well. As stated in the Eckholm article, the earlier children are given a positive perception of different types of lifestyles, the more willing they will be to accept it. The earlier that we teach our youth that homosexuality is another part of life, the better chance that it would be seen as a norm rather than abnormal.

This past Tuesday there was a new Glee episode. This episode conveniently focused in on bullying, specifically bullying students because of their sexual orientation. Basically, there was a football player who for a long time bullied another student for being openly gay. It ended up coming out that this football player was actually gay and he bullied the other student because he was envious of how okay he was with himself. He was bullied and decided it was best to move to another school; move to a city where no one knew that he was gay so he could continue to be his old jock self. Eventually, news got out of his sexual orientation and very quickly, the terms fag and gay consumed his facebook wall and text messaging box. The bullying got so severe that this man attempted suicide and would have been successful had his father not found him in time. I bring this example up because this emphasizes the point that people reject what they were never taught to be okay or normal and because of this, men and women attempt or successful with taking their lives because so many people can’t seen beyond the realm.

Bullying has become a nation-wide problem as every day men and women, boys and girls can’t take the name-calling, the teasing, the fighting, the facebook messages, the text messages and so they give up. My school is an anti-bully school and we do our part to diminish the bullying problems. Bullying has always been an issue, but as stated earlier, with the several ways to communicate, bullying is becoming more visible.  Bullying is also becoming a more personal issue as students are being teased not just for how they look, but for who they are.  Similarly to the Eckholm article in my hometown, the topic of placing sexual orientation in the anti-bullying bylaws was brought up and after several months, it was decided that it was not necessary, even though several students emphasized the mental abuse he or she received often because they were gay or lesbian. Even with concrete proof, it still wasn’t enough. This is another reason why many areas of the U.S.A are being counterproductive in exemplifying “an equal and accepting society.”  

          The article “Silence on Gays and Lesbians” really got to me on a number of levels. Firstly, I will be completely honest by saying that for a long time, I was under the impression that homosexuality was new, that it hadn’t been around for a long time. I guess growing up Catholic and living in a really small town would make such misconceptions apparent. Reading the article really opened my eyes to the idea that if homosexuality was brought up in social studies content as a mere part of the course (as pure fact) maybe so many of the examples brought up would seem okay.

The article addressed about the mistreatment of women in Afghanistan and how appalled people are of the beatings, but how men who are homosexual are mistreated as well, probably fair worse, but no one talks about this. For so long race and women were oppressed for equal rights in the United States. For a long time, these issues were not addressed in schools and were considered controversial. Enough people fought and fought to be treated fairly, despite race or gender. It seems that because sexual orientation is not a physical trait, but rather an emotional trait, people can’t accept its truth. Perhaps with time, people will be willing to do the same for sexual orientation. I know I know, easier said then done.

Just because students are not independent, does not mean that they are unable to take on opinions and beliefs of their own. As Eisner emphasized in his piece, “Yet if one mission of the school is to foster wisdom, weaken prejudice, and develop the ability to use a wide range of modes of thought, then it seems to me we ought to examine school programs to locate those areas of thought and those perspectives that are now absent in order to reassure ourselves that these omissions were not a result of ignorance but a product of choice” (pg. 83) We as a society need to stop bestowing our biased opinions on our youth and allow them an opportunity to make their own opinions and their own beliefs because without this thinking, we will continue to go in circles, rather than move forward and prosper.

From this week’s focus, it has opened my eyes to the possibilities that I have with my students, but because of politics and religion, we are limited with how much we say and how we articulate it. As stated in the Eisner article, “Sc Furthermore, it is important to realize that what schools teach is not simply a function of covert intentions; it is largely unintentional. What schools teach they teach in the fashion that the culture itself teaches, because schools are the kinds of places they are” (page 78).Television shows such as Glee and Real World have played a role in making homosexuality not about people with AIDS, but rather people who live the same life as us, just a little differently. My hope is that with time and continuous awareness, such topics such as sexual orientation will not be an issue, but rather an embedded part to the curriculum.

Stop Bullying This website looks at the awareness of bullying, different types of bullying. and ways to prevent and stop bullying in the United States. There are a lot of great resources that could be resourceful in the classroom.

Multicultural Education This website focuses on multicultural education and different resources used to make aware and implement a diverse mentality of learning and growing.

Okay to Be Gay This blog investigates the misconceptions of homosexuality and brings to light a positive, more realistic perception of people who are homosexuals and how it is okay to be gay.