This week awful things occurred at the Indiana University Campus in Bloomington. Rocks were thrown at windows at Chabad and Hillel, (both Jewish organizations on campus) Ignorance is not going away- it is becoming more prominent and closer to home. Should we just stand by and watch these hate crimes? It saddens me to feel the realness of these attacks.
As future educators we are told to explore and enjoy diversity in our classroom and embrace different cultures. But as educators how do we explain to our students why this is happening? It happens every day but no one seems to care. We need to take a stand. We need to show our students that ignorance is going to hurt this world. We need to accept all, people who believe in different religions, people who have abilities, and people who have difference in opinions.
Be proud of who you are, and celebrate who you are. Do not let ignorance shatter who you are.
The introduction of controversial issues within the classroom is something that, I believe, is never addressed enough in our current classes. Teaching goes such much farther beyond curriculum and content--our job includes the ability to help students understand the way the world work outside of the classroom. However, with hate crimes and the like being as prominent as ever, verbal explanations seem both futile and ineffective. Violence and war are facts of life that will never cease to exist, and, unfortunately, often come unequipped with a comprehensible explanation
ReplyDeleteI would share situations like this with my students factually and realistically. An open discussion would allow students to voice their opinions and share feelings that they might otherwise have kept hidden. The real world is what it is, and shielding young people from bad news is not productive. We need to respect and value our students as logical human beings capable of empathy and rationality.
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