6144 - Controversial Issues

Windsor Locks Board of Education

Manual of Policies, Regulations, and Bylaws

Section: INSTRUCTION Definition: POLICY

Title: Controversial Issues Number: 6144

  Page: 1 of 1

Adopted: January 1975

Revised: September 1983

Replaces:

The presentation and discussion of controversial issues in the classroom should be on an informative basis. The teachers should guard against giving their personal opinions on sectarian or political questions or any other controversial issues until the students have had the opportunity to find, collect and assemble factual material on the subject; to interpret the data without prejudice; to reconsider assumptions and claims and to reach their own conclusions. By refraining from expressing personal views before and during the period of research and study, the teacher is encouraging the students to search after truth and to think for themselves. The ability to meet issues without prejudice and to withhold judgments while facts are being collected, assembled, and weighed before drawing inference or conclusions is an important one. The development of that ability is a highly desirable outcome of a free educational system.

The policy can be described also by listing three basic rights of the student:

1. The right to study controversial issues, which have political, economic, or social significance on which, at his level, he should begin to have an opinion.

2. The right to study under competent instruction in an atmosphere free from bias and prejudice.

3. The right of access to all relevant information freely available in the school or public libraries.

Emotional criticism and the promotion of a cause within the classroom are inappropriate and unscholarly. The teacher’s attitude should be that of the true scholar which is truth seeking, open minded and tolerant.

Some of the factors a teacher must consider in making decisions to study a controversial question are as follows:

1. Is this issue within the maturity level of the pupils?

2. Is this issue of interest to the pupils?

3. Is this issue socially significant and timely for this course and grade level?

4. Is this issue one that the teacher feels he can handle successfully from a personal standpoint?

5. Is this issue one for that there is adequate time to justify its presentation, both in terms of the school day and as a unit of study?

6. Is this issue one for which there are adequate resources at hand to read, research and explore?

The response to each of the above considerations must be in the affirmative. With the help of the teacher, the students should be free to learn the techniques of critical analysis, to learn to evaluate sources of information and to learn to make independent judgments.