.5 Changing Social Conditions

Another part of the changing social conditions that we talk a lot about is multiculturalism. We live in a society where America is a melting pot and a salad bowl and we haven't acknowledged the changing social conditions or figured out how to deal with that in the way we should. We haven't figured out how to deal with changing social conditions in terms of the status of women. We are probably
doing better at that than most places in the world but no one is comfortable yet in terms of knowing how to attain the equity of men and women. As schools, one of our jobs is to help redefine norms in changing social conditions. Unfortunately we have to get our marching orders form society and when society is timid about giving us those marching orders, we then wind up in a situation where we are damned if we do and damned if we don't. If we teach about certain kinds of things some people complain and if we don't teach them other people complain. There is no one we can talk to get a clear mandate of what we should do or what we should teach. The result of this is a lack of confidence and tremendous timidity on the part of teachers. Teachers act like scared rabbits because teachers are always afraid that they're going to be teaching something that's going to get them in trouble. Now I am sure that as teachers in training you have thought about this in terms of how are you going to know whether it is safe to teach something. Whether it is sex education or whether it is something about gender or multiculturalism or something about evolution. All of these subjects are sort of sitting there and we are walking on egg shells and nobody is really giving teachers a clear set of marching orders. We know one thing, we want local control but we don't know what local control is. Remember that my advice to you as teachers is that anytime you are worried about a bit of curriculum, check with your principal and understand that your principal is likely to be very conservative in this and is more likely to say no than yes to anything controversial. In other words the curriculum is going to slide back to the safe middle. Realize that it is not your job as teachers to be subversive, you shouldn't try and do something behind the back of somebody. If it is a gray area then it depends on how brave or timid you are. It is different to bold about something of which you are uncertain than to be bold about being subversive. You can't defend being subversive but you can defend being bold. You can defend the fact that if the society doesn't give you clear instructions one way or the other, that follow your conscience. But if the society speaks, and by the society I mean your local school board or your principal, then you have the responsibility to respond.

	What is the instructors advice to teachers who are worried about a part of the curriculum?	Answer Here
	Mrs. Wilson teaches history in an inner-city high school in New York City. There is virtually a large population of all religions and races in her school. She teaches so many students throughout the day, and all of them have different backgrounds because of their diversity. Mrs. Wilson is required to teach about slavery in her American history class when they focus on the Civil War, and she is required to teach about the Holocaust in her European history class when they focus on World War II. How can Mrs. Wilson make sure that she teaches such lessons that are related to race and/or religion so that she will not offend any one in her classroom?	Answer Here