I bring in topics to get the students to practice and learn critical thinking skills - not define a world view. My focus, though they might not know it, is on the process of thinking and debating, not the topic at hand, and the hot button issues just are not that good at getting the students to open up to the critical thinking process.

I’ve been in too many classes too many times looking at my watch wondering if I would make it out before pulling my hair out, because the teacher got a “good discussion” going from his or her point of view, because so many students were “discussing” it “actively” —– but I know zero “discussion” was taking place.

Now, I think in college this is different. Sometimes it isn’t. I had a girl cuss me out in class once for saying that a (potential) father could feel the pain of losing a child if it is aborted (she was dominating the “discussion” in the whole class of 150 students and harping on the pain and suffering an unwanted child would bring)…

but that was a freshman course (first semester), and in general, I think by college, you can have some productive, analytical discussions on some of the issues I won’t bring into a high school class, but I still won’t get into them with teens.

Even as certain issues may seem “irrelevant” to the students’ lives (that the issue of gay marriage is because they don’t engage in it is irrelevant is just about as short-sighted as saying that interracial marriage was “irrelevant” as an issue just because most people didn’t engage in it before the 1960’s), that doesn’t mean they aren’t irrelevant to the concerns of a society – which is why the issues are “hot button.”

It depends on approach, as well as on tone, which again, speaks to academic training and experience in that field. Just as I don’t teach real ESL courses (I lack the training), I think that too many people step into hot water and make for bad discussions and uncomfortable students because they are 1) actually not too knowledgable about the content being discussed in a structured way, and 2) often fall prey to the temptations of unexamined personal opinion that they should be busy separating their students intellects from.

I am an opinionated dude. I rant and rave on my blog. One of the reasons I do that is because I don’t allow myself to demagogue in the classroom and sometimes feel like my head is going to explode from the pressure of holding my tongue back.

But I also won’t lie and say I don’t have a clear sense of what is right or wrong, and that my students don’t pick up on it. Yet, I always make it clear that the students are free to disagree – for reals, not just the lip service many profs give before leaping down their students throat – but there has to be a reasoned explanation for it.

That’s why I think teaching hot button topics are hard – they’re hard to do without a lot of experience, training, and a structured approach.

Many of my students remarked at Waedae how their foreign professors always say to feel free to express their opinion, but then often jump on their students for saying the “wrong” thing. It’s something that I think foreigners tend to do here (I include myself in this temptation), especially since we’re in a position of power vis a vis the academic environment of the classroom.

So I think it’s our duty to remember to allow students to really take new intellectual steps in the classroom, albeit with structured guidance; but it’s also our responsibility to challenge them, on every level.

That’s a hard thing to do when we’re talking about abortion, gay marriage, or the “clitorindectomy” (sic) – it’s “clitoridectomy.”

Yet the latter procedure absolutely has relevance if you’re talking about Charles Taylor’s discussion of “cultural relativism,” then this is the #1 issue brought up, espeically since it’s so extreme and so clearly demonstrates the slippery definition of “culture” and “human rights” after doing the appropriate reading and preparation. But I agree, if you’re just looking for grist for a simple discussion for conversation class, such topics are a bit much.

And other issues don’t work for other reasons.

Affirmative action discussions usually lack the extensive legal and historical background required to have an intelligent discussion on an academic level, as opposed to the popular “it’s not fair” or “it’s reparations” battle, so it just goes in circles, the blind fighting the blind. Messy.

Or abortion, which really just revolves around the question of when life begins, which leads to the question of whether you think abortion is “murder” or not. If you hone in on it, you might have a debate – “when does life begin?” – but if you just ask about “Is abortion wrong?” well…you’ve set yourself up either for gladitorial battle or complete, awkward silence.

It takes a subtle hand, is what I’m saying. But I also think it’s our duty as teachers to push them, not give them pap. Navigating all this makes our jobs hard.

And ain’t that where the fun is?

I agree absolutely, usinkorea. If a teacher likes doing this kind of thing, fine, but I hate the idea of bringing some topic that is largely irrelevant to the lives of my students (gay marriage) or that they have no knowledge or understanding of (clitorindectomy-I kid you not, this was taught in an MA program as a good subject to give to ESL students).

Some of these subjects seem little more than a way for a teacher to present their biases in class. I remember a teacher who ‘discussed’ gender equality in class and some students came away hurt and distressed that their non-politically correct choices in life were made to sound like bad or wrong choices.

I avoid hot button issues - however - like the plague. No abortion, same-sex marriage, death penalty type stuff in my classroom. I felt strongly over the years I had wasted too many hours of my life in a classroom - where learning was supposed to take place - with teachers using hot button issues that closed minds immediately and were always a waste of effort. The teachers liked these classes because it “got students involved” and some of the material in the education program I am currently in for the MA stressing using the issues to “engage” the students, but I hated it so much as a student, I’m not going to do it as a teacher.

As for question 3, most Korean women I know have very strong views. And usually somewhat different from the men, so you should get some interesting debates. Many of the Korean women I’ve spoken to, feel that military service is a neccessary evil that all Korean men need to experience “to become a man”. Of course this sentiment changes if its a brother or boy friend. But then again most of the people I talk to have been out of Country for a long time so perhaps people there have different views. I certainly agree that Korean women should also have to do military service or something very similar.

Oranckay,

Happy Hunting