{"id":28715,"date":"2017-10-05T15:35:57","date_gmt":"2017-10-05T20:35:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=28715"},"modified":"2017-12-01T11:54:00","modified_gmt":"2017-12-01T17:54:00","slug":"how-controversy-and-current-events-become-critical-curriculum-in-some-oklahoma-classrooms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2017\/10\/05\/how-controversy-and-current-events-become-critical-curriculum-in-some-oklahoma-classrooms\/","title":{"rendered":"How Controversy And Current Events Become Critical Curriculum In Some Oklahoma Classrooms"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_28720\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"Students at Luther High School watch Martin Luther King Jr.'s &quot;I Have a Dream Speech&quot; before a class discussion.\" href=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/10\/20170914-school-discussions-pics002_WEB.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-28720\" alt=\"Students at Luther High School watch Martin Luther King Jr.'s &quot;I Have a Dream Speech&quot; before a class discussion.\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/10\/20170914-school-discussions-pics002_WEB.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"620\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/10\/20170914-school-discussions-pics002_WEB.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/10\/20170914-school-discussions-pics002_WEB-500x500.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/10\/20170914-school-discussions-pics002_WEB-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/10\/20170914-school-discussions-pics002_WEB-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/10\/20170914-school-discussions-pics002_WEB-32x32.jpg 32w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/10\/20170914-school-discussions-pics002_WEB-50x50.jpg 50w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/10\/20170914-school-discussions-pics002_WEB-64x64.jpg 64w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/10\/20170914-school-discussions-pics002_WEB-96x96.jpg 96w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/10\/20170914-school-discussions-pics002_WEB-128x128.jpg 128w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/10\/20170914-school-discussions-pics002_WEB-550x550.jpg 550w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/10\/20170914-school-discussions-pics002_WEB-470x470.jpg 470w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Emily Wendler \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students at Luther High School watch Martin Luther King Jr.&#39;s &quot;I Have a Dream Speech&quot; before a class discussion.<\/p>\n<\/div><p><a href=\"http:\/\/news.gallup.com\/poll\/197828\/record-high-americans-perceive-nation-divided.aspx\">Polls<\/a> suggest this is one of the the most politically divided moments in American history. There are now<a href=\"http:\/\/www.upbeacon.com\/article\/2016\/11\/a-guide-to-surviving-thanksgiving-after-the-election\"> tip sheets<\/a> on how to survive Thanksgiving without disowning your family, and the comment sections of online news articles are full of vitriol.<\/p><p>Schools are not immune to the tension, but not everyone thinks that\u2019s a bad thing.<\/p><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/345531335&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=false\" height=\"150\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p><p><!--more-->Some Oklahoma teachers, like Rhonda Hlavaty, are actually asking their students to discuss controversial topics in class.<b> <\/b>Hlavaty, who teaches English at Luther High School, uses current events to help her students learn how to have discussions and, potentially, disagree with their classmates.<\/p><p>\u201cIf we don\u2019t begin to figure out how to work with one another and live with one another in our communities, it\u2019s just going to get uglier,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ve never seen it as ugly.\u201d<\/p><p>After a recent class lesson on the Gettysburg Address, the Preamble to the Constitution, and Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s \u201cI Have A Dream\u201d speech, Hlavaty asked her students to form a circle and discuss the texts\u2019 theme of equality, and what it means to them in 2017.<\/p><p>\u201cThis is a conversation for us to get out our ideas about what is happening in this country now, what was happening then,\u201d she told her class.<\/p><p>Hlavaty reminds her class the discussion exercise is a conversation, not a debate, and that respect is a priority. After some prompting, her students open up.<\/p>\n<h3>\u2018Touchy\u2019 subjects<\/h3><p>Jacob Rosecrants, a former history teacher at Roosevelt Middle School in Oklahoma City, also felt the need to talk about current events with his students. His students, however, were the ones who proposed daily discussion topics.<\/p><p>\u201cThe first thing that came up really big was Charlottesville, and that was a touchy subject,\u201d he says.<\/p><p>Rosecrants just won a special election for a House seat in Norman, so he\u2019s at the state capitol now and no longer in the classroom. When Rosecrants was teacher, he tackled Charlottesville by talking about the protest and its response, teaching a class lesson about the Civil War, and the statue at the center of the fight. He then turned the discussion over to the students and let them share their thoughts.<\/p><p>\u201cSometimes you\u2019ll have to be careful because some kids will want to dominate the conversation,\u201d he says, a problem he solved with a toy ball the kids tossed around to signify each student\u2019s turn to talk.<\/p><p>\u201cI\u2019ll open it up to everybody else by having a little ball where if a kid is done answering a question they can throw it to somebody else.\u201d<\/p><p>Eventually, the students were so interested in the news, Rosecrants started devoting Fridays to class discussions about current events. Overall, he says, the conversations were civil.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_28721\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"Luther High School teacher Rhonda Hlavaty.\" href=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/10\/20170914-school-discussions-pics008_WEB.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-28721\" alt=\"Luther High School teacher Rhonda Hlavaty.\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/10\/20170914-school-discussions-pics008_WEB.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/10\/20170914-school-discussions-pics008_WEB.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/10\/20170914-school-discussions-pics008_WEB-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/10\/20170914-school-discussions-pics008_WEB-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/10\/20170914-school-discussions-pics008_WEB-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Emily Wendler \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Luther High School teacher Rhonda Hlavaty.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h3>Civil skills<\/h3><p>University of Pennsylvania education researcher<b> <\/b>Jonathan Zimmerman says more teachers need to follow the example set by Hlavaty and Rosecrants. In his new book, <b>\u201c<\/b>The Case For Contention,<b>\u201d<\/b> he argues the country\u2019s fading ability to discuss controversial issues is part of the reason the nation is so divided.<\/p><p>\u201cWe are now in our country talking past each other,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019ve in many places, lost, or at least diminished, the ability to disagree.\u201d<\/p><p>Zimmerman says schools are a good place to reinstate some of these skills.<\/p><p>\u201cWe are so polarized,\u201d he says, \u201cWe\u2019ve given our young people such poor models of what political dialogue is, that we need our schools to teach a better way.\u201d<\/p><p>Zimmerman says teachers should not indoctrinate students with their own point of views, but rather help kids work through their feelings, do research, and guide civil class discussions.<\/p><p>\u201cAsking people what they believe, asking people why they believe it, asking people why they disagree, asking people if they could find room for compromise: These are all things that we need to teach,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<h3>Leave politics to parents?<\/h3><p>Not everybody agrees. Some teachers are actually told to avoid controversy and current events.<\/p><p>After a<b> <\/b>white police officer from Ferguson, Mo<b>.<\/b>, shot and killed Michael Brown, who was black, a local superintendent <a href=\"http:\/\/news.stlpublicradio.org\/post\/teachable-moment-adults-we-have-such-hard-time-having-these-conversations#stream\/2\">told his teachers<\/a> to change the subject if kids brought it up. Horace Mann, a leading figure in the creation of public schools, is even quoted as being against contention in the classroom:<\/p><p>\u201cIf the day ever arrives when the school room shall become a cauldron for the fermentation of all the hot and virulent opinions, in politics and religion, that now agitate our community,\u201d Mann wrote in 1844, \u201cthe fate of our glorious school system will be sealed, and speedy ruin will overwhelm it.\u201d<\/p><p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.debate.org\/opinions\/should-teachers-talk-about-politics\">Others<\/a> say teachers should just stick to core subjects and leave politics to parents.<\/p><p>Zimmerman understands where they\u2019re coming from.<\/p><p>\u201cThey\u2019re afraid the teacher will have a different predilection from theirs, and that the teacher will try to force or indoctrinate that predilection on the kids,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Polls suggest this is one of the the most politically divided moments in American history. There are now tip sheets on how to survive Thanksgiving without disowning your family, and the comment sections of online news articles are full of vitriol.Schools are not immune to the tension, but not everyone thinks that\u2019s a bad thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":28720,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[855],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28715"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28715"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28886,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28715\/revisions\/28886"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}