That is an interesting observation and an excellent point. Thinking back, I recognize that we never dealt with any controversies. In studying the Civil War, for example, the over-arching point of view could be summarized as "Some folks were wrong about slavery, but we all have the right beliefs now." There was no discussion of the issues…
That is an interesting observation and an excellent point. Thinking back, I recognize that we never dealt with any controversies. In studying the Civil War, for example, the over-arching point of view could be summarized as "Some folks were wrong about slavery, but we all have the right beliefs now." There was no discussion of the issues. We were in the middle of the war in Vietnam, but we never discussed the matter in school: it was simply a fact.
Roll the clock forward to the early 2000s, and my son had a social studies teacher who was anti-capitalist, a science teacher who taught the party line on Global Warming--it made my head spin. The saving grace for him was the debate team, where they were coached on the process of developing a position and arguments to defend it.
While I like the idea you put forward, I wonder where we'll find the teachers to do it justice.
That is an interesting observation and an excellent point. Thinking back, I recognize that we never dealt with any controversies. In studying the Civil War, for example, the over-arching point of view could be summarized as "Some folks were wrong about slavery, but we all have the right beliefs now." There was no discussion of the issues. We were in the middle of the war in Vietnam, but we never discussed the matter in school: it was simply a fact.
Roll the clock forward to the early 2000s, and my son had a social studies teacher who was anti-capitalist, a science teacher who taught the party line on Global Warming--it made my head spin. The saving grace for him was the debate team, where they were coached on the process of developing a position and arguments to defend it.
While I like the idea you put forward, I wonder where we'll find the teachers to do it justice.