Tony,
The issue of capitalism is controversial, so there will be folks on both
sides of the issue and the best we can do is agree to disagree.
Again, there is disagreement whether teachers at various levels should or
should not have an agenda and use it in instruction. There are those who say
the teachers should spout only undisputed facts, but to do so is often
likely to leave out the very information that children need to keep the
instruction from being BORING! Personally, I feel a teacher should present a
balance of both irrefutable information and some controversial issues.
Students learn to think when they are given something to think about, and
education must always be more than just regurgitating facts.
Student, especially from middle school on, become aware that their best
teachers have an opinion on issues. They not only want to know what that
opinion is, but how the teacher arrived at an opinion. In essence, students
model how their parents, their teachers, and other adults around them come
to conclusions.
But, there is a line drawn in the sand that limits the teacher to present
his/her opinion, the means at arriving at it, and then allow students to
form their own opinions. A teacher who does not allow students to disagree,
is not following good professional practice. A good teacher will "provoke"
students with what the student perceives perhaps as "outrageous", and
thereby encourages the student to engage in thinking about the issue. That
is one way to promote thinking.
Last night someone sent me a "lesson plan" probably presuming I'd link it up
to my website. It was clear that the "lesson plan" intended for students to
come to one and only one conclusion - that a vegetarian diet is "best". All
of the materials and resources for the "lesson" led the student to that
conclusion. I quipped to the person who sent it, that after reading it, I
suspect that any child who, at the end of the "lesson", says "I'll have a
Big Mac" will automatically earn an "F" for the "lessons". Needless to say,
it will not go on my website. It is far to biased a lesson. Better to
present the resources and let the student develop their own conclusion than
to drive the conclusion to a "proper" outcome.
Anne
Anne Pemberton
[log in to unmask]
http://www.erols.com/apembert
http://www.educationalsynthesis.org
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