Student Op-Ed in the LA Times
This is from student, Zach Gottlieb, At my school, the closing of the teenage mind is almost complete, that ran in the Los Angeles Times.
It's quite the thoughtful piece. Maybe have your teen read it and it might spark an interesting discussion ON discussion in the classroom.
My revelation came in the spring, after a typical day in 11th-grade AP English. The topic was gender and how the experiences of the authors we were studying related to our world today. Unfortunately, I didn’t hear anything I hadn’t heard many times before.
Class discussions tend to go like that. We’ve been inculcated with approved positions on issues such as gender identity, patriarchy, cultural appropriation and microaggressions. Any perceived misstep can ruin a reputation in a flash.
But then something unusual happened. After the period ended, someone floated an opinion that, if shared in the classroom, would have elicited a clanging silence. Hesitantly at first, we found ourselves having a genuine discussion, the air crackling with competing ideas that made the moment feel almost transgressive. I left with more questions than answers, which is how learning should be.
That’s when I had my revelation: Just when my friends and I should be trying out many perspectives and figuring out where we stand, we're self-censoring, following familiar scripts. I had to wonder, if we spend our teenage years afraid we might share our thoughts in the wrong way or at the wrong moment, how is this affecting a crucial ingredient in becoming an adult: the ability to think critically?
Comments
Agree that kids are clued in on the culture wars raging in the schools. But I don’t resent the indigenous peoples history/culture studied in 4th grade now. It seems a whole lot more relevant than the ancient Egyptians or the Chinese Empire that we studied in the 4th grade. Your suggestion that this topic is somehow antithetical to critical thinking is problematic. Why should local history/culture be inherently controversial? I think you son would be rolling his eyes at whatever socialist topic was placed in front of him.
Life Isn’t Elsewhere
Life Isn’t Elsewhere
I say this having seen the HCC World History class my oldest 6th grader had do an impressive job in surveying many civilizations across the ancient world. My younger one got considerably less, so I got stuck reading the old textbook with him that the school/class had dumped...
Teach More Not Less!
I agree my son and his friends would roll his eyes at most social studies topics and that's why the curriculum should be presented in a way that appeals to kids of that age. Local history should be taught and does not have to be controversial. The part I find controversial is the amount of time devoted to it to detriment of other topics and the way some groups are portrayed as perennial victims and others as victimizers. I also think a daily land acknowledgement, as any other rote incantation, goes against a practice of critical thinking, be the pledge of allegiance or the rosary. Of course the teaching of any subject by itself is neutral when it comes to critical thinking and it comes down to how it is taught and whether different frames are presented.
I personally like the land acknowledgment. I see it more as a meditation on place than reinforcing some victim narrative. I find it grounding and perspective giving - this is all impermanent, whatever worry I have today is insignificant in the face of time. Yeah it’s possible that students don’t see it that way, but that is the stuff of ritual, it makes more sense and has more meaning with practice.
I suppose any topic can be overdone. And that’s in the teacher for lingering on a topic beyond its sell-by date in any classroom, when there are other subjects neglected.
Secular Mom