Sunday, October 27, 2013

Theme 3B: Final Reflections


What is humanity?

Starting with that question might be the first step to better integrating the controversial curriculum that is emerging in our world.  However, defining humanity as one thing, and one thing only, is something we must be careful of as well as the hidden curriculums (like church, politics, etc.) that might diminish the humanity of others.  

It seems this discussion of humanity connects back to citizenship; social lessons are just as much a part of the curriculum as the textbooks we teach, or the standards we follow.   But these social lessons are something that I know I need, and in ways, have been trying to teach, but they seem very vague in my own district—it makes me realize that I need to find out where my own school stands on issues of multicultural learning as well as on the discussion of LGBT community.

I look at my district and realize that many students are still surrounded by these restrictive “bubbles,” and the first thing I need to ask myself is why?  I feel many parents want to protect their children from the harsh lessons of life and protect the youth and innocence of their teenagers before they are swept away into adulthood. And in many ways, that is justifiable.

However, sometimes these bubbles are created out of ignorance.  Some of that ignorance is based on the misunderstandings of culture, sexuality, and so on…


So in order to stop this ignorance, these bubbles must be broken, or rather expanded in some way—and we could start doing that by the social lessons we teach in our schools.

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