Cycle 4 Reflection

Should the curriculum address controversial issues? Why/Why not? What are the Challenges?

Stephen Thornton’s article “Silence on Gays and Lesbians in Social Studies Curriculum” has a quote that says “The social studies curriculum, because it must make some attempt at describing the world as it is, has always dealt with “difference.” This is a quote that stuck out to me because too often in my history education as a K-12 student and as a teacher looking through curriculum standards, I find that far too often the “differences” in society are either not given their due diligence or overlooked/disregarded completely. Thornton also writes about how James Baldwin is included in a curriculum, but “The text is silent, however, about Baldwin’s being both African American and homosexual.” This man is being admired for his actions in this text, but the text is making the conscious choice to ignore two massive aspects of his identity that undoubtedly helped push Baldwin to do the things he did.

LGBTQ history in particular is something that is so often deemed “controversial” despite homosexuality has been a known and documented fact of humanity since history started being recorded, and I find this idea that it doesn’t need to be talked about because some people disagree is completely absurd. I didn’t know much of anything about LGBTQ history until I saw the movie Milk with Sean Penn. I never even knew the name Harvey Milk, but I found myself completely enthralled with his story and seeing what he and people like him did to fight for their rights and earn representation in the government that was refusing to accept and protect them. Sure, any number of religions or groups will have their beliefs on homosexuality and that will pose challenges, but I’d much rather have a conversation with that points out the bigotry of homophobia than be someone who defends that bigotry by ignoring the fact that it exists. There are millions of Americans, many of whom are students that we will have in our classrooms, who identify with this community and I think it is our duty to make sure that these students are able to see themselves in history and content in general that we teach regardless of whether it makes other people uncomfortable.

Another challenging topic, especially right now in an America that’s more divided than most living people can probably remember, is the topic of race. The challenges teachers face when teaching about many, and as a white teacher who teaches about a number of painful eras in US history, it is essential for me to embrace the discussion rather than ignore it because as a white man, ignoring the impact of race from my perspective is easy. Jenna Chandler-Ward makes a strong statement in her blog post “Your Curriculum is Already Raced” when she writes “When white teachers avoid naming whiteness...they are in fact teaching ideological and institutional aspects of whiteness.” This is something that I’ve thought about often the past few years because 1 - the BLM movement has highlighted the countless injustices still facing the black community on a very public level and 2 - I’ve been teaching classrooms with large majorities of black and brown students from low income households for nearly half a decade.

I didn’t realize how white certain social studies curricula were until I was the white teacher teaching young black men and women about all these old dead white dudes and the terrible things people who looked like me have done and continue to do to people like them. It would have been easy for me to act like I “didn’t see color” or to get offended anytime one of these students said something negative about white people, but instead I have worked to learn how to embrace the controversy and give students the opportunity to truly discuss race in America and talk about why somethings have and have not changed despite centuries of fighting. I didn’t think about my race until I was in college because my race meant nothing when I was in white suburbia at a white school with white friends and everyone I knew and talked to was white, but as also states in Chandler-Ward’s blog: “When you are Black, forgetting about racism is like trying to forget a song that plays on the radio twenty-four hours a day. Even when you want to forget it, it is still playing.” This quote is essential for all white teachers who teach black students to not only read, but internalize because the occasional challenges we may face during an hour lesson trying to teach this content will often pale in comparison to the challenges students we teach face on a daily basis.

How does a teacher teach anti-bias curriculum?

“Anti-bias” curriculum is an idea that is intriguing to me because it’s not really a phrase that I have interacted with too much, but reading Derman-Sparks definition which said “It is necessary for each individual to actively intervene, to challenge and counter the personal and institutional behaviors that perpetuate oppression,” the idea made a lot more sense to me. I initially thought of this as being similar to unbiased, which I think is an absurd idea for any human who forms their own thoughts and experiences, but this definition made me think about this in terms of creating a classroom that points out issues and how to potentially overcome those issues.

So how does a teacher teach an anti-bias curriculum? I think there are a number of ways, with one the easiest being to give students a say in what they’re learning and to show them that you value their culture and their passions/interests. Teachers shouldn’t be in a situation where adding culturally inclusive content to their classroom is a struggle, it should come easily because teachers should be immersing themselves in the culture of their students and finding a love for the students and their families. Teaching anti-bias curriculum in teacher education Programs includes a quote that states “Prospective teachers will be better prepared to help students appreciate cultural diversity, if they have learned through experience to appreciate it as a reality and not an academic exercise,” and I think this point about not being an academic exercise is critical. Teachers need to be aware that appreciating cultural diversity in their classroom isn’t just an activity they try out, it’s an entire philosophy of teaching that we need to embrace if we are to effectively teach in communities that we did not grow up in or do not share many life experiences with. We can teach an anti-bias curriculum by no way other than being anti-bias ourselves, and making sure that we fill in the gaps that curriculum’s leave to make sure that our students know that people with influence in their lives are fighting to help them meet the challenges they may and probably will face, head on.