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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!) With lessons like this, it is important for students to be given a strict set of behavioral guidelines before the activity begins. If they know how they are allowed to express their opinions then they are more likely to follow an appropriate classroom discussion structure. I also think that this would be a great teachable moment because the teacher could go into the discussions and explain that if you do not present your opinions in the appropriate manner, then no one will take your opinions seriously no matter how accurate your opinion may be. Also, explain to students that opinions will likely cause heated debates, but if they are not careful, they will undermine their own opinion by their actions and take away from the importance of their words. |
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