Lessons from COVID-19: Passion versus Problem in Discussing Social Topics

This is the second essay in the series that will encompass lessons drawn from current events and circumstances that teachers can incorporate in their writing and reading curriculum. These lessons are tested in my own classroom and will sometimes include some stories from my own teaching adventures.

Many teachers feel anxious about talking privilege and other controversial topics in the classroom. Things may get passionate amongst students and out of hand for the teacher. Passion is good, however. It means that the student is engaged and invested in the conversation. This is a student who is ready to learn and who will be more than happy to write their views in a short essay. The passionate student is not the problematic student, however, and so many teachers get these two confused.

Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

I took a temporary teaching assignment at a charter high school, teaching English for six months. One of my classes was a group of girls who were deemed “difficult” (and were probably placed in my class because I was the only black teacher — let’s be honest). Well, I taught them about analyzing texts and one of the texts I used was Franz Kafka’s The Emperor. It is a micro-flash fiction piece that features a messenger who has an important dispatch for the emperor. However, after seeing the crowd and how difficult the…