Well, I have to say that today's political furore took me completely by surprise, but I think it was educational gold and I ran with it as far as I could!
For those who came in late - As part of their leadership program, senior students formed groups to perform various leadership based activities. Several students have taken on fundraising as one of their activities. The last fundraiser was to fight Ovarian Cancer, and went off quietly as per usual.
However today, students had decided that raising money to fight factory farming was a worthy issue, and before we knew it, we had protestors on both sides putting forth their own point of view. I stepped between two opposing groups when things looked like they were taking a negative turn, but aside from that, I was following the directives of Frederick Douglas - "Agitate! Agitate! Agitate!" I even pointed out to a group that a united chant was more effective than individual voices, and they immediately began speaking with one voice. The opposing camp quickly came up with a chant of their own, and of course, it rhymed!
I didn't really see this conflict coming because I am one who is in the middle of this issue, without strong opinions one way or the other. But with my teacher's hat on, we discussed a whole raft of related issues, from effective forms of protest, to whaling, Buddhism, the difference between facts and opinion, and why teachers are careful not to reveal their opinions even though there is nothing nicer than a medium rare scotch fillet topped with prawns and covered with garlic sauce...
But I digress. Ms Collopy will today address this issue as it relates to the school, and our impartiality or the perception of it. I'm happy to discuss my own teaching with any parent at any spare moment, and if you have any concerns I would love to hear them. Until then, I would urge both sides to Maintain the Rage!
Is that politically incorrect?
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