WHAT ARE CLASSROOM NARRATIVES?
I define narratives in the classroom as opinions or beliefs that an instructor uses to promote a personal agenda. These opinions and beliefs are typically not mainstream nor based on properly conducted scientific study. And they are not typically part of the teaching material. Narratives can influence kids unduly. For these reasons, I find agenda pushing inappropriate in the classroom.
COMMON NARRATIVES
The most common narratives I’ve heard in co-op classrooms are the following: environmental toxins, food toxins, diet, electromagnetic waves, medicine, environment, social issues, politics, and conspiracy theory.
TO EACH HER OWN
If there are specific hot-button narratives that you don’t want in the classroom, you have the right to ask a prospective instructor if and how she discusses them. Before doing so, scan the curriculum that is being used and find if there are prompts for certain narratives. For example, a certain science curriculum addresses global warming. I think it’s important to ask a prospective instructor how she will present that information. Will she support the author’s view, challenge the author’s view, stay neutral, ask for student input, or skip the section?
THE TOXIC NATURE OF THESE NARRATIVES
Fear-mongering narratives offer a negative message with no foreseeable solution leaving kids with a sense of hopeless about their environment and their futures. I don’t want my kids hearing about ambiguous toxins they can’t do anything about. I don’t want an instructor telling my kids to fear foods or mainstream medical practices. An instructor has no right to freak my kids out with conspiracy theories. Media is causing kids enough anxiety and depression about all these matters without a “trusted” teacher forcing this fear and confusion down their throats in a classroom.
A troubling feature of the narratives is that they are not supported by the scientific method. Without proper data, they are essentially unsubstantiated opinion or twisted fact. I define them as pseudo-science. Unfortunately, kids are not adept at differentiating fact from opinion or pseudo-science from real science. The startling messages these narratives send can make an emotional imprint on impressionable minds causing changed beliefs and behaviors that can seem quite irrational and extreme. Like, “Mom, we need to throw out the microwave.” This kind of stuff can affect family relationships and complicate a child’s future relationships.
TEACHER PRIVILEGE ABUSE
Teachers are in a position of power and control. Students are in a subordinate position to soak in teaching messages and respect the teacher. To go off script and push personal agendas is an abuse of power and trust granted by the parents. Teachers, after all, are employed by the parents even when there is no direct exchange of money such as in public schools and co-ops. We “hire” teachers with the understanding that they will teach the material objectively and not add unrelated, opinion topics. This abuse of teacher privilege seems to be growing more each day. Thankfully, parents are becoming more aware of what can happen in a classroom.
WHY DO PEOPLE PUSH AGENDAS?
I believe that people push agendas to influence the thinking and behavior of others for personal gain. To cause someone to experience an emotion, change a way of thinking, or cause a behavior like spending money or ingesting something can be empowering. To buck a system or tradition can bring someone a sense of power and control as well. Power can be intoxicating and therefore addictive to some people. Unfortunately, a power grab in the classroom comes at the expense of our kids.
THREE WAYS TO FIGHT BACK
The best way to push back against agenda-pushing power-grab is to screen prospective instructors specifically for this behavior. Determine your hot-button topics and ask the instructor if he or she discusses them in class. I must extend grace to teachers who have not been formally trained as teachers. Oftentimes they are thrown into a teaching situation and have not considered classroom ethics. By voicing your concern about personal narratives, new teachers can be made aware of their inappropriateness.
If you are considering a co-op, a second way to address this problem is to ask the co-op administrator if there are policies in place regarding teachers and room-parents pushing personal agendas in the classroom. Ask the administrator if there have been concerns about this and how they were addressed. For parents already in a co-op, make an effort to get policies in place against this type of abuse. We need more parents putting administrators and teachers on the hot seat of accountability.
A third way to combat this overreach is to teach your children to become critical thinkers and more informed consumers – not passive recipients of an instructor’s ideology. Make them aware of your viewpoint in regards to personal narratives. Share with them which topics you feel are inappropriate for that course. Ask them to inform you whenever a teacher or room parent discusses these topics with students or with each other. If the problem is recurring, express your concern with the teacher. If it continues, consider pulling your student out of the class. The following story should motivate you to prepare your kids for teacher overreach.
TRUE STORY: TEACHER POWER GRAB
I sat in a high school level class in which the instructor, who had a teaching degree, pushed personal agendas more often than teaching the course material. The topics were unrelated to the course material. The other room-parent supported these pseudo-science, provocative views and formed a cabal with the instructor against me. Out of disgust and pure frustration, I excused myself from serving as a room-parent for the remainder of the course. Their rants and ineffective instruction were an injustice to these students who needed a core high school credit.
The parents were completely blind sighted by what had occurred in the classroom. If these students had been coached by their parents to identify power-seeking antics that employ personal agendas, the problem could have been discovered earlier. This situation was a tragedy because these students did not get the necessary 1/2 credit course they were expecting. It was a do-over situation.
IF YOU’RE THE INSTRUCTOR
When I was first thrown into a teaching position at my co-op, I had no idea about classroom ethics. After sitting in various classrooms and teaching for eight years, I began to realize how unfair personal narratives are to students and families. Going forward, I made a personal commitment to teach the course material and only the course material. I stick to facts as they relate to the material – no politics, no conspiracy theory, no negative ideology. My biggest mission is to host a positive classroom environment. Love the material, love the students.
If you will teach in a co-op with a room-parent present, establish boundaries in advance. Without boundaries, room-parents can get out of control and commandeer the class. I’ve witnessed it. They often have agendas at the spillway. Request that they not answer student questions or add commentary unless asked. Adult commentary during class can create awkwardness and loss of teaching time.
AN AWKWARD ROOM-PARENT STORY
This personal story should illustrate the need for setting boundaries with room-parents. While I was using a microwave for a chemistry experiment, a room-parent mentioned how the oven’s electromagnetic waves were going to damage my brain cells. Ouch! Rather than teach her which wavelengths actually ionize electrons like the curriculum taught, I shrugged it off. It would have been a great moment to review the electromagnetic spectrum with the students, but out of respect for the mom and her child in the class, I declined. Who lost? The students who became confused by her pseudo-science belief lost. The room-parent lost too in the eyes of more scientifically grounded students and perhaps her child.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
If you are looking for an instructor, be proactive and use a screening process. If you are an instructor or a room-parent, keep personal agendas out of the classroom. Positivity can bring you more reward than delivery of a shocking, fear-mongering opinion. Positivity in a negative world goes a long way. Let your classroom be a refuge from the world and a fount of education.
To help you develop screening criteria read How to Screen Private Instructors.