UN-SILENCING THE VOICES
Teaching Truth in an Era of Censorship
The Struggle for Honest Conversations in Schools
In this essay, I shall address three crucial questions about education in the United States.
The False Dichotomy of Comfort vs. Truth
I challenge the growing notion that student comfort should supersede educational value.
Institutional Contradictions
I strive to reveal how institutions can work against their own stated goals of equity and inclusion through policies that silence difficult but necessary conversations.
The Cost of Self-Censorship
I hope to illuminate the subtle ways educators are pressured into self-censorship through administrative and community pressures.
The Evolution of Teaching Literature
When I started teaching in 1999 in South Jersey, the curriculum at my school was old school, almost all white male authors. Very dated. Complete with authors who once wrote for adults who loved to read — not teenagers who rarely, if ever, read. With my Master’s degree in English, with a concentration in postcolonial literature, I introduced texts from a variety of different authors, including Chinua…
