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Teachers expressing personal/contraversial views in classroom..

restro

A few days ago my history teacher (a quite strong conservative, with some fairly contraversial views including the climate change is not happening idea) went off on another tangent about the rights of teachers to express their own views in the classroom.

His argument went something like this it is wrong that over the years teachers have lost their rights to express their own opinions on religion, race, politics etc in the school, it is an over emphasis on forming a politically correct england that is making the classroom dead

the counter argument went something like this teachers should not be expressing personal contraversial views (e.g. climate change) because they are effectively imposing them on kids who have not had the chance to develop their own ideas

thoughts?......

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Reply 1

Huw Davies

What happens if a teacher expresses an opinion with which a student strongly disagrees? Any argument which then occurs is not going to be on an equal footing: either the student is browbeaten into submission by authority or the teacher is perceived to "lose" and is more susceptible to being challenged in general.

Reply 2

ForeverIsMyName

restro

teachers should not be expressing personal contraversial views (e.g. climate change) because they are effectively imposing them on kids who have not had the chance to develop their own ideas

Logically extend this and we have some braindead kids coming our way.

Some degree of bias, with the bias recognised and explicitly stated by the teacher is fine.

Reply 3

supernova2

I don't think the teacher should express their own personal view in that kind of way. The teacher is there to teach the syllabus, not to promote their own viewpoint. If they set it up as a debate then fine, but opposing views and their reasons should always be shown. RE lessons does this quite well. School informs the students with facts so that they can make their own judgments and decisions.

Reply 4

Alasdair

I vaguely remember most of my teachers being pretty good at teaching the syllabus without any inherent bias (unless you call the idea that Hitler was a monster bias, which I guess an extreme pedant could).

However, as long as Teachers aren't too extreme, and clearly acknowledge that what they're about to say is their own personal opinion, I don't see a huge problem - it'd have to be beneficial to the kids learning, though...

Reply 5

SuperhansFavouriteAlsatian

I don't mind as long as it's presented as opinion. There's a difference between someone telling both sides of the story but saying which they agree with and why, and someone only offering one side and pretending there are no others.

Reply 6

restro

i guess you would argue that teachers have to change their teaching styles to match their students, A-levels students should probably be able to deal with their teachers opinions, even if they are contraversial don't you think?

The issue was that my teacher was actually incorparating his opinions into the history sylabbus and never really being clear about when he was and wasnt expressing an opinion.

Reply 7

George_Insull

supernova2

The syllabus gives students the bare minimum to pass the exams and to achieve passing grades in coursework.

As horribly cheesy as this sounds, teachers are not there to recite lessons again and again, altering only when the exam questions change and the syllabus changes - they are there to inspire a greater degree of learning and and interest in the subjects they teach.
If all kids need are the facts then why do the teachers need degrees? You can write a lesson plan and give it to the cashier at McDonalds if all kids need are facts.
Is it just me that's so utterly sick of teachers that do not give a damn about the worthless rubbish that they are told to repeat to classes? I find it a pretty even split in terms of teachers that took a degree because they were interested in the subject and those that simply chose something they got good grades in.

Reply 8

Arminius

i think a lively debate is healthy, but it must be a debate - teaching your opinion and not exploring other options comes close to indoctrination.

Reply 9

Wangers

^ agreed, there should be open debate. As long as the teacher has his opinions openly challenged then its fair to present contraversial opinions - as long as other opinions on the subject can be explored.

Some would even consider narrow syllabus teaching as indoctrination.

Reply 10

lamenter

A teacher got fired for telling his students that Santa doesn't exist. Tells you all you need to know. It's more about protecting the School from angry,crazy and stupid mothers and fathers. Who might sue the school in this compensation society.

Reply 11

anon4eva

i had a brilliant teacher in my school. during the general elections my teacher (who was my tutor) informed us on all the parties (well at least the main ones) and recorded loads of videos of stuff like question time for us to watch. And however much we asked him to he would not indulge his political preference, and i fully respect him for that. i would've been influenced by him if he did tell me his political preference just because i have sheer respect for him and his opinions, but he never indulged it knowing that he might influence others, and it made me respect him more.
so overall i think teachers should inform kids about all sides of any controversial debate but not express their own personal view on the matter

Reply 12

Arminius

I think it would be helpfull to look at all parties, such as the BNP, Respect, UKIP etc. I have a noticed a worrying trend in this country and with my peers in general that extremist = bad. Or that controversy = bad. Its sad because the political battleground has shrunk to only a small number of issues and people are not "allowed" to explore all options.

Its very much the media's fault, whereby the only parties that are given a fair hearing are the main 3. All the others are just dismissed and this is bad for our democracy.

I would ever go so far as to say that our current political system encourages terrorism. Minority groups have no outlet for their politics and no representation, i.e skinheads, islamic fundamentalists. With the lack of political opourtunity it sows the seeds of violent and terrorist acitivity. I fimly believe that giving the "extremists" a dialogue will satisfy those that could be called passive terrorists. The ones that aree with the terrorists actions but don't go so far as to do it themselves.

Reply 13

Jonesy_LJ

Taken from the point of view of a philosophy student, I think it would be terrible if teachers were prevented from making their own personal opinions known.

Now this must of course include the stipulation that they present their opinions as opinions, and not simply as fact, and they present the other side of the argument.

When teachers are confined simply to drones, reciting pre-written passages out of exam syllabi then lessons are simply tedious.

In our philosophy lessons everyone is invited, though not forced, to make their view point known, and subjected to scrutiny by the rest of the class, and that includes the teacher. In this way healthy debate is nurtured, the kind of debate that leads one to love one's subject in the first place.

The sheer benefit of allowing a forum of free discussion massively outweighs the problem of potential offense somebody could take at a teacher's viewpoint. By ensuring that teachers may not express their views, all we are serving to achieve is to foster intollerence, by creating an atmosphere where we avoid offense by avoiding debate rather than by advocating the importance of toleration.

Reply 14

Morbo

anon4eva

I agree that your teacher was very good in not revealing his own political allegience in this case. This was because he knew that if he did, the lessons would switch focus from the study the political system, to a political debate. If you are studying politics, it is of course important to remain impartial during the study. Once you have done the study, you are then of course entitled to form an opinion and have a debate which evaluates what you have learnt. If you were to move on to the evaluation stage with your teacher, he would then have had to reveal his political allegience so that you could properly evaluate his arguments!

At that stage, his personal views would have become very important to know.

Reply 15

FadeToBlackout

Well, you're only generally learning one side of any argument or topic- what the exam boards want you to know! Why their point of view should take precedence over the teacher's in the classroom is perhaps dubious, apart from the aspect of passing exams...

If the teacher's views are controversial or non-mainstream then I think they should be expressed. It's perhaps a really big thing for children to learn, that everything is based upon an opinion, from what they're studying to society's opinion of what does and doesn't constitute good behaviour. If it helps to teach them this fact that I am all for it.

And it could also help them to work out the "WHY" behind questions and points of view; it will force the children to THINK, and then argue and justify themselves. If they make their own choices and agree, then fine.

But I do think that there should perhaps be limits. There is a difference between a History teacher telling his class that WWI was just as much a fault of the British as the Germans, or another revisionist point of view, than there is with a Primary school teacher telling his Reception class that Father Christmas foiesn't exist, or that Hitler was a good man and that Jews are evil...

Reply 16

benisright

As long as the teacher doesnt make you believe like that is the only opinion. My core tutor for politics is german and she thinks appeasement is an awful thing. Having not studied appeasement for a year i tried to argue against her, call her up on it potentially being an outdated view that it was just the wrong option and chamberlain was a bad man.

Her long winded and inelegible reply, made me feel slightly patronised. As a result, i havent been to that lecture since.

Reply 17

AisAis

Yes, children need to develop their own ideas. So how are they going to develop their own ideas unless they hear lots of different ones? Otherwise the only real way they're being influenced is by their parents. Surely that can't be a very good thing.

I've only thought about this idea since I've read this thread, and I've realised that most of the teachers whose lessons I really enjoy are the ones who express their views etc quite a lot. Geography is a classic one because a lot of what the syllabus teaches you is one sided; the classic example being global warming where we all have to say it's happening because of people. Our teacher told us about how there are other perspectives to it and why people don't think that's true, but said we can't write about it in exams until A level. We talked off-topic a LOT in geography and the teacher was very intelligent and very opinionated, and I found what they had to say fascinating, whether of not a believed it. If you didn't agree he discussed it with you.

English teachers must do it a lot, with English be a subject with quite a lot of discussion. Last year my teacher brought some really interesting perspectives; and this year our teacher, when we started with An Inspector Calls, tried to brainwash us all into following his socialist views and made it all very dictated and one-sided. I argue with teachers like that. I question them and don't believe it just because they've said it.

When you can do that and have some good discussions I learn a LOT and really enjoy it. If it couldn't happen school would be a pretty dull place (even duller than it is now!) and we may as well be taught by interactive Smartboards and no teacher.