- 'Don't ask, Don't tell' military rule
- Abortion
- Law+Rules=cellphone use
- Driving Laws=age,grade, experience
- 2012
- Legalizing the medical marijana
- NFL Players being fined for big hits
- Driving Laws-Should be based on experience
- NCAA Suspensions on Dangerous Hits
- Obama Administration's Wire-Tapping Movement (Against it)
- Capital Punishment
- Big hits in the NFL
- Bed Bugs--are they coming to (our town) or not?
- situation in afghanistan
- Budget cuts effecting entertainment
- Animal Abuse
- Malaria In Africa
- The Mosque at Ground Zero
- Topic: Generation dead extreamly good witeing/ Generation dead is okay its not the best book I have ever read, I don't really like how the author jumps from charicter to charictor. My favorite thing about the book is the detail.
- Teen pregnancy, why its happening more often
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| Time marches on. |
One of my biggest challenges right now is listening to what smacks of religious intolerance, particularly of Muslims, in my classroom. I live in a conservative town and I am relatively liberal. It has never caused a problem. A teacher's political views don't belong in a classroom, but tolerance and acceptance are important values. I suppose that just by standing there, I have made a political statement. Sigh. Because I teach a foreign language in addition to teaching English, I was challenged during the very first year of my career for teaching culture along with the target language. I was flabbergasted, but I wasn't the only one. The administration and board of education were supportive and these days, the Minnesota State Board of Education expects me to teach the cultural dimensions of the people who speak the target language--duh--along with the language.
This post is really about what to do with anti-Muslim sentiment in the classroom. I am a little beside myself over it. I know my own children in the Little School are taught love as a value in first grade and inclusion as a value throughout, inclusion of different races and abilities and--stop right there--I'm not sure we've addressed religion. I'm not sure we've ever had a practicing Muslim student in our mostly white town. We have a small percentage of African American students and an even smaller percentage of Asian and Hispanic students. We are so far north and our population is so financially limited that our students have very limited exposure to people of other races and faiths. They believe in the Church of the Internet and of course, they mimic what they see at home. Still, it has never caused a problem I couldn't openly address and steer gently until this fall when a sophomore said, "President Obama is a Muslim. I read it on the Internet." This week, a freshman began to talk about the mosque at Ground Zero with such disdain that his face became twisted with rage. The other students joined in with so much misinformation that I was stunned into silence. I observed them carefully, seeing them imitate the words and gestures of adults they knew or lived with. I knew if I said what I believe--that the people who want to build that mosque have every right to do so, although I believe it to be in poor taste and that for the sake of tact and sensitivity and perhaps even ethics, they should not--my principal might get calls and complaints. It was the first time in my career I have had this feeling and I now carry the sad realization that the time is different and new in its degree of hatred.
I can't let it go, of course. I read Little Son the story of Ruby Bridges and think of her teacher, alone with her in the classroom, while for weeks the entire school boycotted because Ruby, a child of color, was the first to attend the all-white school. Every morning, Ruby and her teacher said the Pledge of Allegiance together and throughout the long, patient weeks, she taught Ruby the curriculum and Ruby continued to learn it. The school did not close and eventually, the other students rebelled against their parents' orders to stay home. They came back. I realize now Ruby wasn't the only brave one.
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