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Protection vs. Ignorance

During class this week we read a poem called "The History Teacher", by Billy Collins. This teacher puts forth an effort "to protect his students' innocence" (Collins 1). He does this by leaving out or completely making up parts of history, the subject he is being paid to teach. Examples of this include, the Chilly Age, where everyone wore sweaters, the Gravel Age where there were really long driveways, etc. I believe that this is very inappropriate. The teacher is responsible for teaching these kids a curriculum and this method of protecting their innocence is doing more harm than good. I understand how some teachers might leave out the gory or disturbing details, but to completely change history is wrong. The teacher is worried about if the students believed his story and too ignorant to see that his "innocent" students are on the playground tormenting each other. Although this is a made up story, it poses a lot of questions about the responsibility of teachers and their freedoms to change or edit the standardized curriculum.
A question posed in class to go along with this poem was "What do you thing a teacher should be responsible for?" I believe that a teacher should always be prepared for the lesson that they are teaching that day. If a teacher doesn't understand the material themselves, how would the students be able to understand it? To go along with this, teachers should be able to answer most questions students have related to the content they're teaching. I also believe that a teacher should care for their students outside of grades and performance inside of the classroom.

Comments

  1. Ethan LangSeptember 8, 2019 at 12:12 PM

    Hey Kyle, this post is great! I comepletely agree with everything you said especially the part where you mention how the teacher is harming the students rather than actually helping them. I believe that the teachers original intention was good and kind, but he ended up getting carried away and crossed the line.

    ReplyDelete

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