Teachers feel administrative heat
On the heels of several recent cases in which superiors wrestled away control of teachers’ classrooms, Franklin College education majors are learning to strike the right balance between what’s controversial and what’s best for their students.
In one high-profile incident, Perry Meridian teacher Connie Heerman was suspended without pay for a year after allowing students to read "The Freedom Writers Diary."
The book is a graphic collection of the success stories of inner-city teenagers, and administrators wanted her to stop using the book because of racial slurs, stereotypes, and sexual content even though she had her students’ parents sign and return permission slips.
In another case that received public attention, Woodlan Jr.-Sr. High School journalism adviser Amy Sorrell was chased away after allowing the student newspaper there to print a column in which a sophomore advocated tolerance for homosexuals.
Sara Banta, a senior, plans to teach high school language arts. Books, she said, are more than just words – they pack emotion, and that’s a key teaching tool. But Banta said she frets heavy-handed administrative acts might make teachers too cautious to use books that might push the line and serve as the best lessons.
"I don’t want to be known as the ‘rebel’ teacher," Banta said.
It seems now more than ever teachers must watch what they are teaching. But should that really be the case?
Secondary education majors, especially those who will be teaching language arts, are learning from other teachers such as Heermann.
Sherri Hall, the director of teacher education for secondary education, said she talks to her students about censorship on the part of both parents and administrators.
"We have talked about the Perry Meridian teacher and discussed how they would or should handle situations such as this," Hall said.
Hall’s students discuss choosing quality in a book. She said she reminds her students to ask themselves "why this book?" She said she wants her students to know there may be alternatives that could have the same impact without it being controversial.
But telling a teacher what to teach is one of Hall’s pet peeves.
"Censorship really gets under my skin," she said.
Banta, who is student-teaching language arts at Whiteland High School, called books a vessel for students to learn about themselves. She said she’s afraid that censorship is telling students what to think and not allowing them to come up with conclusions for themselves.
"People are just afraid of controversy," she said. "But sometimes controversial topics have the best lessons at the end and it’s not right for anybody to censor that kind of learning,"
Banta said she has noticed that language arts teachers have a lot more pressure because it is such a liberal subject.
But where do teachers, parents, administrators and community members draw the line?
It seems no book is safe from being banned. Even literature such as "To Kill a Mockingbird," "Of Mice and Men" and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," pieces that have been taught in classrooms for years, are being banned for their harsh language.
Banta said she is saddened by the thought that parents would censor their children from great learning experiences by limiting what they can read.
"Books are more than just words. They teach lessons and they allow you to feel emotion. It’s sad that students are missing that feeling," Banta said.
Banta doesn’t understand why a parent or administrators would want to keep students from lessons that are learned by reading controversial books.
She said that she’s not going to challenge her boundaries but rather be cautious around them – she’s not worried about being fired, she said, but it’s certainly in the back of her mind.
Hall said parents shouldn’t judge a book until they have read it themselves. But in the end, she said, it is the parents’ choice.
Through the education program at Franklin, students are taught how to develop good lesson plans. Hall said she hopes this will help her students make intelligent decisions when choosing what books they want their class to read.
Senior Holly Toops, who is student teaching language arts at Clark Pleasant Middle School, went as far to say that she would send parents a newsletter describing what the students will be studying that year.
"This way I have their legal permission and will eliminate any problems down the road," Toops said.
She has learned that teachers sometimes have to pick their battles.
"I knew there were controversies that occurred at schools, but it didn’t phase me," Toops said.
