YAL deals with many universal themes, including the eternal questions Who am I? and Where do I fit in? Some of the themes are: alienation from one's society or group; survival or meeting a chal-lenge; social and/or political concerns about racial or ethnic discrimination; social concerns about AIDS, teenage pregnancy, divorce, substance abuse, family conflicts, dealing with death, and politi-cal injustice. These are issues and topics that all students can benefit from reading and discussing, not just students at lower academic levels.
After carrying out so many discussions and analysing so many stories meant for young adults in class, it's time to wonder about those teenage concerns in our Greater Buenos Aires classrooms. What topics should be deal with in class? Is anything possible or should we refrain from touching upon the more delicate issues?
Maybe the following newspaper article will give you something to ponder about before joining in the discussion:Click to read.
As future teachers, I think, that our classrooms are the best place for discussion on delicate topics to occur. Teachers can deal with sex, divorce, bullying, racial discrimination, teenage pregnancy, etc, if they are prepared with strategies for generating good discussions in the classroom. Teachers have to recognize the different opinions of the students and perhaps have techniques for managing "hot moments" in the classroom and for managing their parents if they don't agree with the topic.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if I've answered Blas question, but It is my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI knouw by heart that ´teaching should be adjusted to the needs of the learners´. I wonder did this teacher in question a research about what her students like reading? Did she find out what her students think about certain topics? Did she know that an early pregnancy does not give maturity to the adolescent mother?
ReplyDeleteImperative teaching causes a kind of rebellion in students.The prove of this is shown by the students´ resistance and shame when read some parts of the book.
Teachers are not open minded just because they take a controversial book into the classroom. They have to be preppare to debate issues such as pregnancy. sex. homosexuality, Aids etc but in a responsible way.
Unfortunately,training colleges train teachers to teach ideal students... free of difficulties.But the real truth is that classrooms are completely different when new teachers arrive .
It is true that society is facing a crisis but not all people are able ´to digest´´those changes without horrorizing.
Perhaps,Education is turning its sight and not paying much attention to what is really happening in society. I think special instructions must be given soon not only to teachers that are the visible face of the educational system but for the whole educational community.
When all the members of the community speak the same language understanding will appear.
Until then, education will be the same it was and it is now
LIDIA
sorry people ,the second word is KNOW !
ReplyDeleteLIDIA
I'm agree with Valeria that classroom could be a best place to treat delicate topics to help stds deal with their doubts but the problem is that some part of the society are not ready to accept these topics in the school. As Lidia said before teachers are not open minded just because of a book , teachers have to be a very clear purpose when deal delicate issues, is a pity that the teacher mention in the article hasn't the opportunity to expose her intentions.
ReplyDeleteMarisa.-
It is true that society changes day by day, so teachers have to deal with real topics about nowadays society in the classroom so as to try to engage students in their classes. I think that the teacher in this article is dealing with an important topic unfortunately the novel seems to be very erotic than being more educational. Homosexuality in many culture is still considered as something taboo and not all cultures are open minded to deal with this topic in society and not even at school. However, if this topic was aborded from a softer way than it had been, i am sured that the teacher would not being punished so severe...since, at first glance, her action transmitted to us a perversion rather than something educational... Pablo S.
ReplyDeletejust to have curiosity I have a question: Where can I buy the book???....hahaha.... P.S.
DeleteI like Lidia's words when stating "Unfortunately, training colleges train teachers to teach ideal students... free of difficulties." Yes, that’s may be true. But we have to bear in mind that difficulties are part of our daily life and we are not trained anywhere for "living a life". So, what I think is that school is part of reality, is not an isolated "institution" where everything has to be perfect. We have to train ourselves every day there. What a pity the teacher had no opportunity to justify the book's election (if the events were as they are narrated in the article). From my point of view, topics like the ones concerning to LGBT rights are very important to deal with in the classrooms. Also, any topic that students are interested in is important to carry out. Because adolescents are interested in many things, it’s not true that “they don’t care about anything”. So, if there are some topics that are appealing for them and more than that, are exposed by them, it’s very important to be witty enough to handle the topic and reach to a successful discussion in the classroom.
ReplyDelete