My Classroom and the Importance of Freedom of Speech
Welcome to my classroom! My name is Mr. DaoDeSam. In English 11, we will cover American Literaure and its relationship to the development of our culture. We will work chronologically through the texts from the precolonial era to present-day America and connect the ideas we read to the historical context.
I want you to know that I think books are cool, I think learning is cool, and I think being weird in your own way is cool. You cannot grow if you are afraid to explore. If you are interested in something, you should never be afraid or embarrassed to find out more about it.
Check out my bulletin board: I filled it with my own weird things that I like. I want you to feel open being yourself in my classroom, so I believe it's vital for me to be open about who I am. To learn you have to be challenged, but to do that you must become comfortable with failing. You have to know you won't be judged and mocked for expressing your thoughts, or for trying and still getting it wrong. I have said inaccurate things in class before and I thank students that correct me!
One of the reasons I love teaching English is that there are no absolutely right and wrong answers, but there are good and bad answers. I can completely disagree with your conclusion, but if you back up your argument with reason, facts, citatitions, and an acceptable application of standard written English, you will still get an A.
Because American Literature runs parallel with American history, some controversial issues of the past that are still relevant today will come up in the course of our discussions. We need to be able to talk about tough subjects. This is why it is so paramount that we all trust each other. Y'all are basically adults now. We all need to agree that all of us are entitled to our own views. We all need to agree to try not to take things personally and react emotionally in a philosophical discussion. "Love is the only force that can turn an enemy into a friend," Dr. Martin Luther King said. He also said to judge people by their actions and character and not on their external differences. We need to also try not to judge people as bad for holding opinions contrary to ours. You will be much more convincing if you calmly explain your points as objectively as possible. If you are so sure you are right, why try to shut the other person up? You catch more bees with honey.
this board is not yet filled because it is your classroom now too and should reflect your personalities as well
I am aware that my rant is getting long and I thank you for your patient attention. I am making this point because I believe that understanding our Freedom of Speech is urgent and imperative right now. I saw a story in the news the other day about a teacher that declared he would send any student out of his room that dared to wear Trump apparel to his class (https://aminerdetail.com/washington-county-teacher-under-fire-for-anti-trump-facebook-comments/). I don't know what you think about the President and it doesn't matter to me either way. I bring this up because I don’t want any of you to be afraid of something like that happening in here. I will never judge you or think differently about you because of your political, religious, or other personal views. I know you are all good inside and I will only assess you based your completion of the work we do in class. This is going to be your best year ever because I love you all and I want you to become better people.
Truth is important to me, but I am not here to give you Truth. My job is to give you the skills and inspire the desire to seek Truth on your own. To me that is what education is all about. Now let's get to work!
Hi @daodesam, excuse me for not having read this post earlier. I was 12 hrs too late to give you an upvote.
Nonethess, I'd like to say that I love this post a lot. You seem like a teacher I would like to have studied English literature with in high school.
Look at those posters and prints om the walls and bulletin board. That's cool! :D
A good class starts with giving the students the feeling of comfort so they are not afraid to express their opinions. I like how you facilitate this comfort. :)
Thanks @chhaylin! It's important for everyone but especially young people to explore new ideas. With the political climate here in America right now I feel like people are convinced more and more that it's acceptable to bully people into their way of thinking. This is counter-productive to education in my view.
I saw your post in my facebook group Seemit Community. I have decided to upvote it for its quality and follow you. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks. Following you now too!
It's really a good post, you are welcome to promote it here if you want : Promote and Earn - First post -
Thank you. I commented there but the first post doesn't have the resteem button. Maybe it's too old? Should I resteem and comment on another post instead?
You are promoted, you the the 🏆 The Seventh Winner 🏆 , you can now promote any of your friends or people that you follow, but you can promote more when we will have the second round and you will be among the next ten winners again. ☺
yes any promote to earn post , I have a lot of them with winners
Freedom of speech is important in the every where and every part of life not in only class room.
I agree. I think it's a very important issue today. That's why I wrote the post like I did, as if you were all in my class. Not an ego thing though, you are all my teachers as well.
upvoted and resteemed - we are in the FB group together Resteem to post
Thanks a lot!
interesting...
freedom of speech is important - but at the same time many use it to insult others which I don't agree with
That's true, but as an author can you argue that it isn't dangerous when you start telling people they can't say or think or write certain things? Thanks for your comment.
It is dangerous of course! They absolutely can and should say and write what they feel like. Writers will never tap into their full potential if they are limited in any shape or form!
Right, that's my main point. I don't let my students bully or attack each other in class, but, in the real world, we have to allow people to have their voice no matter how evil or ugly we think their words and beliefs are. Only speech we don't like needs to be protected. 'Ice cream is delicious' is not controversial. If we start banning 'hate speech' those same laws could be used against us one day too if what we say offends someone, even unintentionally.
words are powerful... they can harm or empower... they can destroy or revive...
and we're all free to use the ones we choose
Wonderful message to your students. #truthcorps love it!
Great very well done @daodesam congratulations, interesting and entertaining post, thanks for sharing your experiences, regards!
It is a pity that there are not more teachers like you @daodesam - the world would be a very different place. Keep rocking your classroom just the way you are!
I appreciate that @jaynie. You keep kicking the Truth in your own way too!
Will do my best :)