HATE SPEECH, KIRPANS, AND PEANUT BUTTER:
TEACHING CIVIL LIBERTIES – WHY AND HOW WE DEAL WITH CONTROVERSY IN THE CLASSROOM
It is often said that of all the systems of government, democracy especially requires a well-educated citizenry. The Canadian Civil Liberties Education Trust profoundly supports this proposition.
In the past decade, this organization has developed a special approach to the teaching of civil liberties. We focus on helping teachers and students to think relevantly about the dilemmas endemic to life in a democratic society. Participants will learn a structural approach for working with conflicting rights and freedoms: a way to help their students work out what is “fair.”
Today’s teachers face conflicts in their classrooms on a daily basis. How are we to help our students think their way through weighty decisions, when we are concerned that we may find ourselves in conflict with our administration, with parents, with the diverse community we serve, merely by facing the questions our students may be asking?
Can we talk about preventing terrorism, as well as preserving our fundamental freedoms? What about the conflict between free speech and hate speech? How far should we extend religious freedom? What about issues such as abortion, gay and lesbian rights, creationism and evolution? Do we discuss these in class or do we avoid them? If we avoid them, what message do we send to our students? If we open them up, what risks do we take?
CCLET workshops provide an opportunity for pre-service students to discuss and explore historical controversies, some of the conflicts they may have already experienced in their classrooms, as well as the kinds of controversial situations they may expect to see in the future.
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