Controversy in the Classroom?

Something that caught my attention while reading this week was under passion 7 in The Reflective Educator’s Guide to Classroom Research. It’s something that I know can be touchy but that I have also wondered about. Are elementary aged students capable and mature enough to handle controversial issues or topics? And are they able to handle these kinds of discussions maturely?

            I know in my practicum placement last semester, we had a lot of children living in poverty. It is something that I have sadly become used to when placed in a number of Title I schools. I have always noticed that this is often hushed and never spoken about around the kids. Or even last semester with the election going on, there were plenty of lessons about the election but a lot of it was hushed as well. I know deep-rooted opinions in politics should be kept out of the classroom, but I feel the race of the kids made my previous teachers nervous in discussions about the elections and the history that goes along with race in politics.

            If things are appropriately handled and introduced by a teacher, I often think some controversial lessons may go over well with kids and they can handle these subjects. But then again, you never really know what to expect out of a child’s mouth. I still wonder, how can we teach these topics or issues to students without it being too much or causing a fight? A lot of the world’s issues are quite controversial. Yet we never touch on them in schools due to fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of what will happen if our innocent kids hear. I don’t necessarily have a solution for this, but would love to find a way to be able to cover some “controversial” topics in schools to not over shelter students and keep them informed or allow them to voice some opinions without causing a fight or disruption. 

            Another topic brought up in the same section of the book was about the achievement gap and often how many attempts to close the achievement gap are failed attempts. One part read, “our school storage areas are littered with the debris of unsuccessful attempts to address and remedy the problem…” (Dana & Yendel-Hoppey, p. 50.) I am kind of torn when it comes to this idea too. I feel we do so much to try and close the gap but we often shelter students from knowing where they fall in the achievement in the classroom. Then, no matter how much we try to no let them know, they often figure it out anyway. For example, I was working with a reading small group this week and one student said, “this is weird, we are all of the gifted kids in the same group. All the smartest in the class.” I tried to play it off like it was not so, but then questioned why I was doing so. Is it bad for students to know where they fall? Would knowing they were a little behind maybe give a student motivation to work a little harder? Students are labeled gifted and pulled out and this does not seem to affect them. I would hate to hurt a child’s feelings, but still wonder if a little motivation to try a little harder, read a little more, or just put a little extra in would help to motivate and close the achievement gap in classes.