The new AWARE committee has accused MOE of allowing pro-gay groups to infiltrate schools and spread their pro-gay message. Recently, apparently the new president’s husband, a Dr Alan Chin, has supposedly been fowarding an email spluttering about how homosexuality is being discussed in a positive light in the GP classroom. Also, it seems that MOE is looking into recent complaints from parents about AWARE’s CSE programme – something which they did not have before.
Pastoral Care and Civics and Moral Education are big parts of a students’ education. As an English teacher, I often find myself having to discuss various issues in class as well. Because, let’s face it, many parents do not discuss current affairs with their children and so they can be quite ignorant of issues that may impact them in the future. Plus, if we are really trying to build “thinking schools”, I don’t think we can do it by ignoring issues.
As a result of the AWARE saga and the resulting myriad of opinions online about how and what we teach in the schools, I’ve been thinking about how I approach various issues in class. I try as far as possible to take a neutral stance on the issues I discuss in class. I am aware that (a) certain issues may be quite sensitive and I really don’t want to have to deal with disgruntled parents, (b) my opinions are my opinions and I should not be shoving them down my students’ throats (despite my firm belief that I am right) and (c) my students will never learn to think critically if all I do is tell them what to think. Yet, I also know that despite my best intentions, my personal opinion may still be quite obvious. As a result, whenever I discuss sensitive issues in class such as sex, abortion, governments etc I always replay the lesson in my head, wondering if I did or said anything that may result in MOE investigating me (because, seriously, I really, really don’t want this to happen and many parents like to bypass the school and go straight to MOE nowadays).
Now that I have written this much, I don’t know what point I am trying to make. Thankfully, I am not writing a GP essay. Sigh.
I’m going to give up now and return to marking.
3 comments
beka says:
May 1, 2009 at 10:59 pm (UTC 8)
As a secondary school student myself, I would suggest encouraging students to read widely, but don’t let the school limit you to simply suscribing them to ST/Newsweek/Reader’s Digest (shudder at the last). Online sources, blogs even, make it seem less like a “I am pushing you this mainstream view, accept it, regurgitate it” session and, yes, encourages critical thinking. :D
For example, you could take them to the computer lab, show them Martha Peace, show them Kathryn Joyce’s response to the Quiverfull movement, and let them google it a bit before writing a journal (or an essay, if you want to make it a more serious assignment).
Just my thoughts :D Awesome bad-ass feminist teachers are in short supply, ‘m lucky to have one right now. And pleased to make your acquaintance. :) Good luck with the teaching/marking!
Past Blog Posts « We-Are-Aware says:
May 9, 2009 at 3:27 pm (UTC 8)
[...] May 1 – Neutrality in the Classroom [...]
Past Blog Posts says:
May 10, 2009 at 1:20 pm (UTC 8)
[...] May 1 – Neutrality in the Classroom [...]