Teaching and Topic Sensitivity

Here is an interesting response to my 16 August blog which cited an article by Thomas Sewell and then asked, "But how biased is reporting in Middle Eastern affairs? And is it as biased as the Thomas Sewell article "Trashing our history: Troops in Iraq" claims it to be? How do we teach the war in today's news?"

To give readers an idea of how difficult it often is to answer such a question, I provided some links to various web-sites offering varying points-of-view on the subject of purported media bias and concluded with: "Not easy is it? Believe me, it rarely is...but it's all a part of the process that enables us to become informed citizens and better participants in a democratic society. "

I offered no solutions to the original article or questions, and sought to show how difficult it is for teachers to touch on subjects of great import that are often of a very sensitive nature. The following response to my blog is a case in point.

Hey El Duce
You're still in denial..... about Viet Nam... after all these years...
What happened, in the USA, during Viet Nam is called *democracy*....
Yet you still *can't* & I mean *can't* face the truth......
Back then our leaders lied... the pentagon lied.....
Eventually, the American People realized, they were lying....
Eventually the American People stopped the war... not the media....
Today you are spreading right wing, neo-con propaganda, (lies) on your blog.....
Eventually your students will realize.... you are lying....
It was not the media that killed 59,000 American soldiers, in Viet Nam....
It was liars like you.....
How many times, back then did I hear "The Viet Cong is in it's last throws".....
Lies, Lies, Lies, Lies, Lies............. You should be ashamed......
Was it the media that just frightened U.S. warships out of the Red Sea.....?
Nope it was *neo-con* lies..............
I knew you couldn't keep a clean blog....

Wow! Anyone ever listen to the meandering recorded speeches of Adolf Hitler or Benito Mussolini? As a teacher, you might ask yourself and your students the following:

• Have you ever heard such rhetoric before? Where and by whom? For what purpose?
• Can you guess the political leanings of this writer? How? Based on what I wrote and what he has written in response, why might he think as he does?
• Where do you think the writer's opinions come from?
• To whom was he speaking? Me or the author? Or both?
• Do his comments lead you to believe that he thinks the portion of the original editorial I cited in my blog was written by me and not Mr. Sewell? Why?
• Do you think he even read my blog, Mr. Sewell's editorial, and the web-links? And if he did, how might he come to the conclusions he presented in his response to my blog?

Now, imagine being a high school teacher and being faced with a response like this to a topic like the one I originally posited on 16 August. How--as a teacher--would you respond to such a diatribe without stifling honest, open debate and an opportunity to teach? Think about it...and think about what it must be like to be a teacher who teaches many such topics during the day. Anyone want the job? If you don't, be thankful for the many who do...and who do it well.