Korean Job Discussion Forums

[IncognitoHFX]

I'm just looking for some advice regarding touchy topics for classroom discussion.

I teach Social Studies, which is pretty neutral most of the time. Especially with the children. I also teach Social Studies to high-level-English speaking Junior High School students, and I absolutely love it. They're really easy to communicate with, they behave wonderfully and they generally understand everything I say even if I'm going off on a tangent.

For my first couple months I forgot to observe the student/teacher relationship rule. I'd go on and on, asking questions, debating, learning about the student, et cetera until I realized that I wasn't taking into account the student's age and level of understanding. I learned that even though they might seem to understand everything I'm saying, they really don't. They understand it superficially.

The problem earlier was that I was trying to get them to think independently and re-evaluate their views on certain things. Then I realized that that is not my job, and that I need to educate them without subconsciously indoctrinating them into any of my belief systems or culture.

So, I changed my teaching style a bit, minimized the conversational elements a tad and began to focus more on what they don't know about history. However, stuff comes up all the time because of the textbook, and some times I feel uncomfortable volunteering my views on a particular subject because I fear it might influence the students to follow my example rather than think independently (they do this a lot which is why I tend to worry).

A week ago we started a chapter in the book on Christianity. You know how I feel about Christianity. Anyway, so far I've completely kept my views about religion separate and have been teaching them about how Christian values are ingrained in Western culture, and I've been trying to objectively teach them about the history of Christianity and how it has affected the world in different ways (I leave a lot to interpretation).

However, both of my students are strong Christians because of their families. The textbook is a standard American textbook, and it assumes that if the audience isn't Christian already then they should be ("Jesus was a man, he did many great things..." + multiple Bible verses, et cetera). Both my students are probing me as to my beliefs, and they are very curious how I feel about it (I've had students ask me to come to their respective churches before).

I avoid the topic and try to keep them at a distance.

My query is, have you forgotten the age difference between yourself and your students when it comes to course material? My students seem like university students in the class (outside the class they more-or-less act their age).

What is a good way to preserve the teacher-student gap in the future? Is it wrong to state personal opinions regarding things, given how impressionable they are? Should I avoid topics they might not understand completely (such as martyrdom, we're covering that in the textbook now)?

My students are really good, but I want to be their teacher first and friend second (if at all).

[Yu_Bum_suk]

It sounds like you're climbing the learning curve very well. When the topic comes up with me, I just say 'I don't go to church'. That's about as far as I go with my own beliefs. However, like with you, a lot of my students are quite sincere Christians and I don't do much to try to get them to do any sort of critical analysis of their beliefs. 'Jesus' birthday' is a perfectly fine answer to the question of 'what is Christmas?', but if I'm doing a lesson about Christmas I have no problem explaining the pagan origins. When doing careers one of my students wrote that she wants to be a minister and I'm all to happy to help her put that in a sentence.

As for changing people's thinking, getting students to analyse things deductively instead of inductively is important for teaching English writing, and if you can get them to do this for simple, inane things it will have some effect down the road on how they view more serious matters of belief. But affecting the latter just isn't part of our job.