Reflection on Cycle 3: Should the Curriculum Address Controversial Issues?

   HIV/AIDS, homosexuality, religion and so on… All of these inevitably involve controversial issues when we try to address anything related to them. First of all, before going on to the topic of cycle 3, I think I need to explain some background and atmosphere of education in Korea. I never ever heard any teachers talking about any issues mentioned above in class especially sexuality when I was in elementary, middle and high school. Korean society has been under the influence of philosophy of Confucius for very long time (about more than 1,000 years according to Korean history) which greatly emphasizes morality and common code of ethics, and that’s too strong to be broken, even stronger in educational arena. I remember that my students were so surprised (they were 11^th graders) to hear the definition of “celibacy” a few years ago. They showed a little jaw-dropping expression on their faces just hearing the word “sex”. In Korean society, it is believed that schools should be preserved as a sacred place to convey ideals and dreams to students which makes teachers hard to deal with open reality. I agree with that, but shouldn’t schools teach students reality of society where they’re going to live? 

   Teachers seem to be afraid of talking about controversial issues in class because they know that other related things should be touched. For example, as Jonathan Silin says in his article, HIV/AIDS is not just disease when we try to let students know what that is. “Diseases are constituted through dynamic interactions of biomedical, economic, psychological, and political factors.” (Silin, p.245) In other words, if that issue is to be addressed in class, its related problems should be come out en suite and they could be even more controversial to say. But now this is 21^st century and we’re living in a globalized world where diversity and pluralism is prevalent. Even if we cannot accept differences, we need to know there exist differences and that’s someone’s life. 

   I believe that teachers need to discuss with students controversial issues because that’s part of our world that needs our understanding. We need to know that misconception and misunderstanding cause unnecessary prejudice against what people think “different” people, and that leads even to violence as in Matthew Shepard case. So when I listened to the story of John Byrne’s coming out and his acceptance and understanding by his students, I was touched so much. How much should we include dealing with the issue in class? What purpose should we have in mind when addressing the issue? One thing teachers should keep in mind is that we’re not exploring the sensational aspect of the issue but knowing why there is difference in people’s life and what to know about it to understand further. In fact, for me it feels pretty far way to go in Korea where even mentioning taboo words may be regarded as taboo. However, through various media and films, a lot of teenagers and adolescents appear to know much more than adults imagine. 

   There are already controversial issues open in our society. Then what should schools do with that? That’s where schools come in when it comes to addressing the issue in a right way: introduce students how to see and deal with it. Of course there’s a tricky problem when teaching kids about HIV/AIDS, sexual orientation and so on because of its multifaceted property. It could be like teaching students about drug and part of a negative way of life style. Even though “heteronormativity” is common and constitutes a major curriculum, we should not ignore the voice of minority because they have the same rights to be educated and treated as equal. In Korean society, we’ve heard and seen gay and transgender on TV (but never lesbian so far), but it took so many years to accept the fact that there are a lot of people who choose to live differently. I’ve never seen or heard that any of students have gay or lesbian parents so far. Honestly, I can’t imagine what would happen if that’s open to the public. While thinking about addressing controversial issues in schools, I kept thinking about why we feel so uncomfortable about those issues and cling to “traditional” eyes. We can’t deny that religion might be the core of the issues and that spreads into political agenda. That’s another long story though. I think schools should stand in a neutral stance in relation to controversial issues, which might mean a lot of jobs go to teachers. Now I feel like I need to find more controversial issues that I should know to understand people better. 

Reference sites:
Parents pushing for book ban for Danbury local schools
Controversy in our classrooms: Problems, Perspectives and Possibilities --Fida Sanjakdar (PDF)
Stopbullying.gov