Home | How It Works | Stats Login | Register         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 it's great that you put so much effort into researching what you teach. Some teachers just do the bare minimal by reading out of the text book. I think your principal should acknowledge the effort you are making to better your students' understanding of the material. I would not give up on teaching your students the truth, but I would modify the way you teach the issues. I would make sure the students learn the basic material that is regularly taught, but then provide an alternate way of thinking about the issues with the research you've done. I think that it is important for the students to know BOTH of the material and to test them on the original material (since that is most likely what their standardized tests will be on) and then maybe implement your new information as bonus material on tests.