Backseat Drivers

Our group's focus is on dealing with resistance towards our teaching or our curriculum from parents or administrators. It actually crosses over with one of the other CURRINS classes that I'm in right now, where we talk about censorship from various sources. Given the makeup of the country we live in, it's not too difficult to see where teachers would run into parental objections to their lessons, particularly in English classes - the list of banned books is a mile long, with new challenges coming up all the time from parents and special-interest groups who fear that we're going to "corrupt" their children.

As always, there are two sides to the issue. Parents should have a right to have some say in what their children are taught. But at the same time, some parents are bigots or morons, and catering to the lowest common denominator by allowing them to dictate the curriculum of an entire class is hardly the way to provide a good education. Personally, I'm not inclined to give in to such demands - but simply refusing outright will lead to other problems (kids being pulled out of school, even more complaints, administrative action, and so forth). In the end, prevention may be the best method: offer a more flexible curriculum to cater to a wider range of backgrounds. If students or parents have an objection to a particular text, see if another one can be found that will still be worthwhile, and give those students the option of reading it. But whatever you do, don't allow it to disrupt the class as a whole.