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Case: Patriotic/Unpatriotic Facts After teaching middle school Social Studies for many years, I decided to go back to school to get my graduate degree. In one of my classes, we studied James Loewen's Lies My Teacher Told Me. I was so influenced by this book and the idea that we have been presenting students inaccurate information that I have been thoroughly researching the content I teach before presenting it to my students. Recently we have been studying international affairs of the US government. Some of the information I presented revealed actions the US government engaged in other countries that resulted in killings and disturbances. My students were interested in the materials and some of the issues we discussed in class made dinner-time discussions at home. One of the parents who is a retired army officer came to the school to talk to my principal. He told the principal that I was indoctrinating students. When my principal told me about this, I explained to her that all the information I presented was factual and that I researched the information from multiple resources. Her suggestion to me was that I should focus more on teaching patriotic materials. I am so frustrated that I do not have the support of my principal. Also, I disagree that what I teach is unpatriotic. I am simply trying to teach accurate information. If I continue doing what I do, I may lose my job. However, I do not want to give up teaching my students the truth. How should I go about this issue? Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!) I think that social and ethical discussions should be a part of a good history class. It seems that the parent was concerned that the U.S. is being shown in a negative light, and the teacher is concerned that the students are not learning both sides. One way to go about this type of topic is to have a class debate, where students are assigned roles and research the topic before a debate in class. For example, one third of the students might be assigned the role of Israel, another group would be the Palestinians, and another group would be Americans. Each of the groups would take a stance on the situation and look at it from their point of view. In science class we have debate topics on issues involving cloning or stem cell research, and the students are able to think about the subjects in ethical terms. I see my role as providing factual information, but the students are able to think about how they interpret that information on their own. As long as a teacher isn't insisting on one point of view in particular, the information should be presented. |
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