In some form or fashion most of us have experienced this word "discrimination"
whether we were the cause or initiated it.
Events like the Holocaust, Slavery, Christopher Columbus invading Native Americans' land, 911, Mexican, and more.
It's sad when people are judged and are taken advantage of- Trayvon Martin, Rodney King, The young Jewish boy who was killed by a older man in Brooklyn, New York. The list can go on and on and on.
As an educator we are responsible to teach our students historical facts, academic skills and strategies, also we need to focus on ways we can guide them to be successful citizens in our global world.
Should our judgments be neutral? should we have a voice? things like religion, race, and sexual orientation-These are gray issues educators can be 'fired' if we share our personal views. Silence can be agreement and it is imperative that we allow our students to explore those views and share their points and reasons why on their own.
just my thoughts as we shared during our colleagues demo lesson.
These are important questions to m Reynelda. I know that there are some things that I simply cannot remain neutral about - like child abuse, or hate. I'm thinking about Mary Cowhey's lessons for her first graders around issues of poverty. She is definitely taking a position, busting up stereotypes, she is anything BUT neutral - and that seems very, very right to me.
ReplyDeleteI think that question of neutrality is a really interesting one. I generally am fairly open with students about what I think, but I'll also turn around and play devil's advocate. Most of all I want to help students understand why a group of people might have felt and acted the way they did. I think it's sometimes easy for students just to dismiss people in the past as crazy, which keeps them from seeing ways that similar things are happening in our society today.
ReplyDeleteReynalda...This is a pretty complex, sticky issue...on one hand...you cannot accept EVERYTHING that kids bring into the classroom...for example...what if a "Skin head" mentality attempted to emerge in your class. Would you accept it? Would you silence it? Would you seek to better understand where the mindset was coming from then engage in some sort of conversation as to why...within the context of your class...this mindset does not "fit." In what ways are any of these options a form of discrimination...towards the person(s) bringing that mentality in or the rest of the class? Thanks for making me think more about this.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you are saying. When I was working at the newspaper I realized that my opinion is out there just by the stories I chose to go on the page. This goes for all the news media--how they display the story is their opinion. We do the same thing in our classrooms whether we mean to or not.
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