Political Correctness In The ClassroomSchools in Canada have recently become the battleground for the fight overhow much political correctness should be allowed to infiltrate grade schoolclassrooms. One can take two sides when dealing with such issues as violent toys,”good clean fun”, the benefits and disadvantages of political correctness.
There is much controversy about violent toys which are far from beingconsidered politically correct. The toys that enter many grade school classroomsthroughout the country may also seem offensive to people who try to be aspolitically correct as possible. I can remember an incident involving myself, awater gun and a teacher back in grade four. What had happened was that Ipondered onto school grounds with a tiny plastic watergun. As I proceeded downthe hallway a teacher took notice of my “water-squirting” device. She approachedme and ceased the toy from my hands .
Many elementary school educators believethat violent toys can lead, and often do lead to violence if the children areallowed to play with the toys in an unsupervised environment. Something that used to be considered good clean fun has become aconstant frustration to teachers and parents everywhere. Many educators onrecess duty who have observed children at play have come to believe that roughplay which might look innocent can and often does lead to real violence. Thegoodness of teaching political correctness in the classroom is its ability toprotect our children from violence, discrimination, and the unfairness thatexist in this world. Political correctness is a good thing for kids to learn. I think thatbeing politically correct is just being polite and considerate for the feelingsof others.
I encourage parents and teachers to teach children about the fairnessand equality that political correctness implies. However If teachers and parentsallow political correctness to dictate the educational process, schools will nolonger work toward educating, but instead will shift their focus towardsaltering the attitudes and minds of students. It’s not always beneficial for a teacher to over-emphasize politicalcorrectness in the classroom because it limits the students’ ability to learn. It’s not right to isolate children from the books, toys, and games that let themlearn and have fun for the sake of being considered politically correct. Nearlyall of us grew up and experienced political incorrectness; with dolls such asBarbie, fairy tales such as Little Red Riding Hood or Cinderella, toy guns andcartoons.
This is especially evident since the vast majority of adults grew upto be decent human beings who can form their own opinions. In our multicultural, racially diverse, opinionated nation we, asteachers, parents and students need to adjust the grade school curriculum inorder to keep up with the changes that are taking place every day. Main goal forthe educators and teachers it to challenge students to think, reason and toconsider the views of others and eventually come to their own conclusions onpolitical correctness.
