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What exactly is meant by "push"?
I wouldn't have a problem with a teacher that has opinions. As long as the teacher doesn't insist that everybody else shut and listen. Sometimes opinions are necessary to stimulate students to form counter-opinions.
^
That's a good point. I believe in exposing students to all perspectives honestly, and then let them decide where they fall. Otherwise, you get students being taught that people rode on dinosaurs or that the founding fathers of our country were horrible bigots.
Seriously, teaching history is teaching history. Events that already happened. Mr. Homan was out of line to push his personal political agenda.
Here is an answer from one of the most radical members of this forum, well at least from most of the libs here.
I taught American History and American Government for 28 years in the late 50s through the mid 80s and managed to give a very fair picture of both sides except that I often argued either side to get things going. I was a very liberal thinker in the 50s and 60s and changed sides in 1972. I really don't think I ever showed any favor to either side enough that kids could tell which way I leaned. I very much wanted them to think for themselves and thought they needed to see both sides as openly as possible.
Now one day in Government Class we were discussing the people from central Europe and I said that the Czechs were Slavs just as the bell rang. That night I was in a beer joint and a tight grip came to my shoulder and a voice I recognized said he was about to prove that this Czech was not a slob. Knowing that I couldn't win against that man I planned my escape and then told him that I did not say that and explained what I did say. He admitted that his daughter must have misunderstood me and let me go.
My 7th grade Current Events teacher was a Korean War vet. His right lower right arm was a stainless steel grasping hook that he could open and close using his left hand.
The school had high ceilings. Periodically, throughout the school year when he was in an especially good mood, he would throw his car keys over the top of the light fixture, and move gracefully to catch them in his shirt pocket. Rumor was, that he was one hell of a pool player, too.
He worked very hard to impress that it was very important to know who made up the president's cabinet, and all of the other appointed positions at the federal level. Our homework assignments were to cut out news articles from the local paper, and then write about which person in the federal government did what relating to the article. Everyone hated doing this.
After returning home from . . . the sixties . . I read where he had blown his brains out with a hand gun.
Maybe he thought his classes didn't "take" well enough.
Here is an answer from one of the most radical members of this forum, well at least from most of the libs here.
I taught American History and American Government for 28 years in the late 50s through the mid 80s and managed to give a very fair picture of both sides except that I often argued either side to get things going. I was a very liberal thinker in the 50s and 60s and changed sides in 1972. I really don't think I ever showed any favor to either side enough that kids could tell which way I leaned. I very much wanted them to think for themselves and thought they needed to see both sides as openly as possible.
Now one day in Government Class we were discussing the people from central Europe and I said that the Czechs were Slavs just as the bell rang. That night I was in a beer joint and a tight grip came to my shoulder and a voice I recognized said he was about to prove that this Czech was not a slob. Knowing that I couldn't win against that man I planned my escape and then told him that I did not say that and explained what I did say. He admitted that his daughter must have misunderstood me and let me go.
I was a lib back then.
If'n you'd a been a pub, I'm sure your biceps woulda been bigger.
The hope for value-neutral curriculum is pretty much a myth that is never going to happen. As long as people can understand that, they'll cope better with understanding and coming to terms with the idea that if you send your kid to a school, he's going to come away with at least some commentary and editorial coming from teachers, however acute or slight.
Any subject can have politics dragged into it. Mathematics is probably the most insulated of all fields from this phenomenon, but even that (one might be surprised to learn) can have politics dragged into it.
Teachers should strive to minimize the commentary they offer, as their job function is to teach first and foremost, in as value-neutral a way as they possibly can (which is more difficult with some subjects than others). However, I think people get a tad excessively worked up about that. As long as the lesson plan is done for the day, if they offer up a comment her or a comment there, I think that's just part of the world people need to learn to deal with.
Insulating people from ideas and words breeds frailness in the psyche and makes people mentally weaker human beings who may be unfit to deal with the world around them when they grow up.... a world which is filled with different ideas which as adults they will be exposed to and which they have only some degree of control over. They need to learn from the outset to evaluate what they hear, and to come to terms with whatever emotional upset they may feel as a result of hearing things they are not accustomed to hearing. Mental hardening/tempering should be part of the childhood process. The "sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me" concept needs to be viewed in a much broader context. It needs to apply to all ideas, not just name calling.
My high school civics teacher didn't "push" an agenda per se - but he was quite opinionated. He voiced his opinions about draft dodgers being allowed back from Canada (the war in Vietnam was ending), Nixon's resignation, and, as I remember, he said Lyndon Johnson had made a mess of society with starting the entitlement programs. The school district I attended was typical Wonderbread rural/suburban, and we didn't know anyone on welfare/public assistance/food stamps, so I have to admit he pretty much prejudiced our young minds on that subject. He was an excellent teacher, though, his classes were interesting, and we left his classes with a thorough knowledge of government from federal down to municpal.
The point is that teachers have always felt that it is okay to use the classrooms to push personal agendas. It is not okay. People don't pay taxes to fund the personal agendas of teachers.
Right. It is a bad thing if a teacher is one sided.
However, how would you FACTUALLY teach history?
It is well known that the winners are the ones that WRITE history. You don't hear the loser's side very often.
For example, say in 2050- a teacher in a history class is talking about the bailouts of the banks.
How should he teach it?
This will be the way it is taught in PUBLIC/gov't schools. "Back in 2008 , the US was on the verge of a huge financial mess b.c of poor regulation, and then President GWB and congress decided to take action before it was too late and created TARP to improve the economy."
That is how they teach FDR's programs. I had a conservative teacher, but that is how the book is laid out that they got to go by, and he didn't want to waste his time spouting off his correct opinion to students that don't understand or care about politics yet.
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