Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Kids talking about abortion

Well that was a surprise. I was subbing in a Middle School leadership class the other day and the lesson left for me asked students to make posters about what they wished they could do to change the world. I had two students say 'stop abortion'.

I wasn't really prepared for this. Fortunately it was a school that I had subbed pretty frequently so I knew the students, but I didn't know them REALLY well.

Each student had the opportunity to get up and talk about their poster, why it was important to them, and what they could do in their life to help accomplish that.

I was scared, but it actually went really well. I allowed the students to lead the discussion, asking questions themselves and answering themselves. I acted as a referee, making sure kids were only talking one at a time, and that each discussion got a fair amount of time, but didn't get out of hand, over focused, or turn into an argument. There were a few times when I took the opportunity to inform based on fact, but mostly I kept out of it. I often restated what students said, clarifying and summarizing, and they then reaffirmed if what I said was what they meant.

It went really well in my opinion, and after school I asked one of the most opinionated girls who lead a discussion about ending abortion and asked how I did, and whether I let my personal bias through, and she said I hadn't and she thought I did a great job. I'm glad to hear that, and glad I've crossed that hurdle now. Students got a chance to voice their opinions and examine difficult issues, and I managed to keep my mouth shut!

5 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm impressed. I know I usually have a hard time keeping my mouth shut especially around issues like that. Good job being the teacher! -Miriam

Unknown said...

@Miriam

Thanks, it was hard for me to keep my mouth shut too. Especially since these kids are just at the edge of being able to actually use reasoning, and support their opinions.

It was very exciting at one point because one of the proponents of outlawing abortion was asked about what she thought in the case of rape, and she faltered a bit, and thought about it, and said she didn't know. I think it's huge for a girl that age (13 or 14) to be able to admit un-surity, rather then just parrot back what has been told to her.

Anonymous said...
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Unknown said...

I'm impressed. I think that at 13 or 14 I wasn't really aware of the issue. I think the first paper I wrote on it was in Sophomore or Junior year in high school

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