Cycle 3: Controversial Curriculum

It wasn’t so long ago that having integrated schools as opposed to segregated schools was controversial.  I considered this reality as I read through this week’s articles and thought about the guiding question, should the curriculum address controversial issues? I found myself quick to respond.  Absolutely, without a doubt, curriculum should address controversial issues. If we look at our country’s history or even the history of other parts of the world, we will find that controversial issues are continually being addressed within society. For example, slavery, women’s suffrage, Jim Crow laws, rock n’ roll, eugenics, medical marijuana, sex education vs abstinence education, homosexuality, Islam, the list is endless!

One could argue that many of these controversial issues are already being addressed by way of the excluded curriculum. But, is that really how we want to address controversy in our classrooms? I think excluding controversial issues from our classrooms makes them taboo or can make them seem unimportant or irrelevant. As educators, anytime we make something unimportant or irrelevant in our classrooms, we run the risk of making our students feel unimportant or irrelevant. Perhaps they are gay, lesbian, or bisexual or have a family member who is. Maybe they have AIDS, HIV, or some other illness. Maybe they are Muslim, Jewish, Jehovah’s Witness, or atheist.

Even if our students manage to elude controversy in their own lives, in all likelihood there will come a time when our students encounter someone with HIV or AIDS, or someone who has two moms or two dads, perhaps even someone who is lesbian, gay, or bisexual themselves. If we don’t address these issues in the classroom, our students will be left to navigate these encounters on their own, sometimes with devastating consequences.

So, for me the question this week was not so much should we address controversial issues but how should we or how can we address controversial issues with our students? I think that the excerpt out of John Silin’s book Sex, Death, and the Education of Children: Our Passion for Ignorance in the Age of AIDS as well as the Thornton article, Silence on Gays and Lesbians in Social Studies Curriculum really helped me think about this question. My personal opinion is that as teachers we need to be prepared to have discussions with our students about controversial issues. But, we need to be able to have these discussions within the context of other aspects of their learning.

If there are times when the Social Studies lesson for the day could also include a discussion about homosexuality or religious freedom, teachers should consider these opportunities teachable moments. As a first grade teacher, my discussion would obviously be very different from that of a middle or high school teacher. Rather than being a discussion on the role of homosexuality in Greek art, my age-appropriate lesson might be a discussion about similarities and differences, which would allow me to focus on different types of families, or different traditions and customs and being tolerant of different types of families or different traditions and customs.

Nonetheless, I think that teachers often avoid controversial or difficult topics in their classrooms. It’s understandable when you consider that teachers are supposed to remain unbiased or neutral. They must consider the ramifications of dealing with such issues not only for students, but also for parents, families, administration, and themselves. For me, I know that when I talk about anything that could be controversial, even something like presidential elections, I worry my students will make assumptions about my beliefs. In the end, my goal is only to expose them to the fact that there is a world beyond their community, not to tell them who is the better candidate, or what kind of family is the best, or what religion they should be, or who they should love. I hope my students leave my classroom feeling respected and confident about who they are in a way that allows them to respect others who may be different.

Within the past seven years, I have taught in three vastly different schools, one urban and low-income, one suburban higher-income, and now in a school that is rural with both low and high income students. Having taught in these different environments has reiterated the importance of making learning relevant to student lives. That does not mean that I don’t expose them to things outside of their communities. It just means that I have found that my students are most open as learners if I can relate the learning to their lives and experiences. If we prescribe curriculum to teach children about things like homosexuality, illness, death, religion, politics, or any other controversial issues, I think we run the risk of neglecting our students’ experiences and backgrounds. Instead, I think that when teaching anything, especially when teaching about issues that can be polarizing, it is within the context of our students’ unique experiences and backgrounds that they are best able to form new or better understandings.