Cycle Three: Should the curriculum address controversial issues?

The curriculum should definitely address controversial issues. Teachers do not have to spell out the answers or their opinions, but it is important for students to think and address questions surrounding important issues. After all, as educators, we need to help prepare our young people to become adults who will be able to weigh both sides of an issue and make educated and thoughtful conclusions.

Stephen Thornton’s chapter, Silence on Gays and Lesbians in Social Studies Curriculum, discusses the importance of including “gay history and issues” in K-12 social studies instruction. One reason Thornton provides for this addition to the curriculum is that adults who have not attended college are more prone to be prejudiced against gay people; therefore, what is learned in K-12 education becomes that much more important.  However, although the book, written in 2009, seems current, I contend that society has changed even since then.

I live in a county where only 13 percent of the residents have earned a bachelor’s degree. The majority of my students are considered at-risk. While the number of students in our building on free or reduced lunches has gone up steadily over the past several years, the attitudes concerning homosexuality seemed to have softened during that time. In the fall, as part of a building-wide election unit, my students studied the two presidential candidates’ stances on numerous issues. They were to then write an argument paper where they chose three of the issues to support their claim of which candidate would make the best president. I was astounded at the number of students who chose gay rights as an important issue. Even though most of my students do not have highly educated parents, many of them supported Obama because of his more liberal stance on gay rights. Some even mentioned having homosexual or lesbian relatives as a reason for their opinions. I couldn’t help but take note of what I considered to be a rapid change in society’s, and indeed, my conservative county’s, acceptance of gays and lesbians. I know there is still much prejudice, but my students, even in the recent past, did not seem to be as knowledgeable or as comfortable with the idea of alternative lifestyles until recently. I can’t help but think the media’s portrayal of homosexuality as a common and acceptable occurrence has desensitized much of the population, even those who are not college-educated.

Even with changing attitudes toward homosexuality, I understand that including lessons about gays and lesbians in our curriculum could cause controversy. The segment of society that would object, typically the religious right, tends to be very vocal about such issues. Even if they are in the minority, they can cause a lot of trouble for school districts. School boards and administrators can also pressure teachers to stay away from what they might consider touchy subjects. In fact, our neighboring school district, Corunna Public Schools, recently dealt with a well publicized case on this very issue. In 2009, Corunna High Schools diversity club displayed a showcase in honor of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender History Month. The school board became involved, and the showcase was removed. The ACLU then objected and the showcase was allowed, but the teacher who headed the club ultimately lost her job. Early this month, the teacher filed a lawsuit alleging that her rights had been violated. If her allegations are true, she certainly paid the price for trying to raise awareness in her school.

Thornton’s article made me think about ways to incorporate gay and lesbian rights into my English curriculum. However, the happenings in Corunna are a reminder that I would have to be very careful about how the issue is presented. I am already in the midst of planning a unit on social injustice. I had planned to bring in literature about the Holocaust, about the ongoing plight of Native Americans, and the Japanese internment camps during World War II. This article gave me the idea of incorporating the book, suggested in the article, called Reading Jack. The book is about a boy dealing with his father being gay. It appears to be appropriate for middle school students, so that makes it appealing to me. I also plan to gather materials and ideas from the magazine, Teaching Tolerance, and its website.

I loved the readings this week because they sparked ideas for me to use in my classroom.  The issues are timely and would work well with the philosophies of International Baccalaureate and inquiry-based learning. Getting students to think about and discuss controversial issues is one way to prepare them for adulthood.

Cycle Two - What Should Schools Teach? How Should They Be Held Accountable?

I read with interest, anger, and eventually, some semblance of agreement, chapter  5 of E. D. Hirsch, Jr.’s Cultural Literacy and the Schools. I found Hirsch’s negative opinion of public schools to be off-putting, but I suffered my way through the chapter and was struck, both negatively and positively, by many of his observations.

Hirsch believes that, in order to be successful readers, students must first have a base of knowledge that they should learn in early elementary school. He argues that the current emphasis of arming students with reading skills is the wrong approach to guarantee successful comprehension. He writes that, “Every text, even the most elementary, implies information that it takes for granted and doesn’t explain. Knowing such information is the decisive skill of reading” (112).  While I agree that prior knowledge is an asset to understanding, I disagree that it is the most important aspect of reading for meaning. I teach eighth grade, and we arm our students with the various skills necessary to comprehend informational text. These skills have helped our students to approach a reading assignment with an organized plan of attack. Because of this, students are more confident and successful when reading an article or text book assignment in any class. I have even benefitted by acquiring new strategies for reading informational text, so I know firsthand how much more comfortable I feel by having a plan to tackle challenging reading assignments.

The author goes on to take issue with the “self-selection” method where students choose their own reading materials. Our curriculum director is certainly a proponent of students selecting their own texts, so we are trying to move away from large literature units where all students read the same book. While I can see why a student might be more engaged by choosing a book that appeals to his or her interests, I have also resisted changing over to 100% books of their choosing. I have settled on a mix, with students picking their own books for their daily reading, interspersed with a whole class study of a novel. Our school, like many other schools across the nation, has embraced Nancie Atwell’s ReadingWorkshop approach which promotes student choice of books. However, I do see a benefit of exposing students to critically acclaimed or classic books which they might otherwise not choose for themselves. In fact, in discussions about this very point with my curriculum director or colleagues, I have asked the question, “How could a person possibly survive in life without reading To Kill a Mockingbird?” Perhaps I was exaggerating a bit to get my point across, but not by much. So, I guess, even though Hirsch sounds rather elitist and narrow with his emphasis on Shakespeare and the like, I do agree that there are certain works of literature that students should be exposed to.

Hirsch is a traditionalist who is not shy about sharing his criticism of public schools. He believes private schools are superior to public schools. He also supports vouchers and charter schools. One’s social standing or background, Hirsch believes, has nothing to do with one’s success in school. However, he doesn’t acknowledge the fact that parents of private school children tend to be more supportive at home. I teach in a school where 70% of the students receive free or reduced lunch. I know that many, many of my students go home to absent, uninvolved, or disinterested parents. Certainly, this has to be a factor in a student’s motivation and success. Hirsch quotes Diane Ravitch to support his opinions on this very topic. It is interesting to me that since this book was written in 1988, Diane Ravitch has broken ties with this way of thinking. In 2010, Ravitch, a former proponent of No Child Left Behind, and the Assistant Secretary of Education, published her book entitled, The Death and Life of the Great American School System, How Testing andChoice are Undermining Education. In the book, she supports educators over politicians and businessmen in making decisions about education, believes that charter schools should not compete with public schools, and believes in a common national curriculum.

Although Ravitch has admitted her mistakes from the past, Hirsch has held steadfast. He is critical of Ravitch’s book in The NewYork Review of Books. Hirsch is not without his own critics, however, as in the blog by English professor, Joel Shatzky, in the Huffington Post.