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  Case: No Women's Issues Please!
I am a novice middle school social studies teacher. When I was still a student in the middle grades education program, my professors taught me the importance of teaching students about the underrepresented groups such as minorities and women. I have been very sensitive to women's issues and their perspectives and contributions since I started my job two years ago. Last week, I was teaching my students how to conduct research using Internet resources. To practice their skills, I asked students to do research on accomplishments of a list of women I created. Students were allowed to pick whom they wanted to research. While my female students were very excited about this assignment, three of my male students openly protested the assignment and said that they did not want to waste their time researching about women. I have to deal with this behavior somehow because I will be integrating women's perspectives into my curriculum regularly in the future. I cannot tolerate this type of behavior continuously. I wonder if these children's home lives have something to do with their reaction to women's issues. What should I do?
Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!)
I believe that this shouldn't be up for debate. The students should do the assignment and it should not be changed just because the students dont feel like doing the assignment. What I would suggest is that if the students refuse to do the assignment then they receive 0s for the assignment and I do believe you should include men who have been great throughout history. I would do one week about the important females and then one week about the important males.