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Case: Politically or Racially-Aware
I believe in democracy. As a high school social sciences teacher, I strongly believe in democratic education and political awareness. I want my students to be aware of what is going on around them locally, nationally, and internationally. I require my students to keep up with news. Everything they learn from newspapers, magazines, and television becomes substance to use in my lessons. Before the presidential elections, I asked my students to watch all the debates, try to see the different perspectives, and how those perspectives may lead to different courses of action and to different implications for people. As part of this effort, I gave students a "persuasive writing" assignment. I gave them a list of topics from the debates, such as abortion, healthcare, affirmative action, and foreign policy. Students were to take a position on one of these issues and write a persuasive essay. When it was time for students to share their writings in class, things got out of hand. Every single topic we discussed along with the essays turned into a discussion of race. My Black and White students took opposite perspectives on every issue and during the discussions, they were not civil. I felt like my efforts for democratic education were not producing anything good. Should I change my activities? How come the political awareness I wanted develop in my students actually turned out to be racial awareness? Some guidance please!
Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!)
I feel that the students should be able to express their own opinions in the classroom. In high school, I was in a current events class that had us do something similar. The teacher was the mediator and set a tone for the debate. Two students were chosen for a current event and picked a side to be on (at random). Whether or not the student agreed with the side of the topic they were to talk about, they had to do research on it and come up with points about it. Bringing awareness of the facts of both sides, allowed the students to form an opinion of their own. When it came time to ask the students about what they thought, the conversation was civilized. It is important for the teacher to set the tone for the class. The students should not be allowed to talk about race and other discriminations in their debate.
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Rating
| The suggested solution is respectful of the individual (student) |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is relevant to the case |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is reasonable (easy) for the teacher to implement |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is likely to solve the problem/issue |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is original |
Yes
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| Comments: Like you said it is very important for the teacher to set the pace for their classroom, This will produce a more civilized atmosphere than just launching a discussion that students think that they are free to say anything they like. Most of these students are immature. |
| Rated On: September 26, 2015 1:22 pm |
| Rated By: yWasyD |
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Rating
| The suggested solution is respectful of the individual (student) |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is relevant to the case |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is reasonable (easy) for the teacher to implement |
Yes
|
| The suggested solution is likely to solve the problem/issue |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is original |
Yes
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| Comments: I really liked the requirement of performing research, backing up statements of opinion with facts, and also setting the tone for the discussion at the beginning of class to head-off some of the uncivil dialog. |
| Rated On: March 6, 2017 4:46 pm |
| Rated By: jyHyHy |
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