when I thought about the guy who bashed Jo's artwork and others in that school like the guy who wanted power over most things in life, I started thinking. what do you think causes ignorance? do you think kids are born with ignorant parents? or do you think they develop this oblivion over time? do you think it's curable? how did these kids get there? maybe this is a silly question, but i think it's worth thinking about since we're probably going to have some kids in our class who have some pretty crazy ideas about people and who judge them pretty harshly...

Laura brings up a good point, I don't think these kids were born that ignorant, but instead were impacted by ignorant parents and a society that is focused on money and power. I think the problem can be cured, but it is up to us as teachers to educate them to the truth.

This is a very interesting question beucase of the fact - who is to say what is ignorant and what is not. Yes, some kids are goign to come to class with some pretty twisted ideas - and this is becuase of parental and social influence. It is our jobs as teachers to teach respect and basically the golden rule. We are to teach that people are all good at heart. It will be hard to influence kids other then that becuase that is when parental control will once again play a part - Parents could get pretty heated about ideas a teacher might be putting in their kids heads. We simply have to be good people, set good examples, teach respect, and hopefully they will follow by example.

I think that we are all ignorant in some way or another, and I think that it has to do with what we have been exposed to. When we are teaching, we have to think about what we want our students to know the most when they walk out of our classrooms, and do the best we can to prepare them for open-minded lives.

ignorance is lack of education.
evil is lack of empathy.

i agree with kelly, we are all ignorant in some way. and jill is right too, we are going to be educators, its part of our job to break that ignorance that is sometimes so richly embeded in our students minds.

What Jill typed really got me thinking. We might be teaching something the student's parents would not want put into their child's heads. That's a very valid point. The child might come from a very prejudiced home, it is the parent's duty to teach a child respect, tolerance, and manners, but then does it become our responsibility to "fix" the bad ideas these students have been learning at home. Personally, I think it is. I don't want to step on any parents toes and lose their support but in issues like this, the moral fiber of society is in jeopardy. That, to me, is a big issue.

How to sidestep the parent? That's an even tougher thing. What will you tell the parent when they come in for a Parent/Teacher conference about why you're teaching their child that everyone is equal? Try to change the parent, I hope.

I agree with the statement previously used that "we are all ingnorant in some way or another". I believe that this is due to how our parents or guardians raised us, in what enviromnet we were raised, and sadly what social class we are from!

Ignorance of this kind most definitely comes from parental influence more than anything else. Even during the middle school years, when kids are trying as hard as they can to do whatever their parents tell them NOT to do, they still believe in most of the morals and values they were taught as a child. It wasn't until I got to college that I realized some of the things my parents taught me I didn't agree with, because before then it was just what I had always been exposed to. Also I think most children tend to end up in the same classes as those who share the same moral values as they do, because of tracking, etc. It's our job as teachers to try to change that through a diverse curriculum, so that when they enter "the real world" it won't come as such a big shock to them.

So the guest on this one is me Bri! I had a Brain fart and forgot to login!