Controversial Issues in Democratic Education Classes

            Inclusion of controversial issues in school syllabi is a good detour to encourage democratic education. Through a controversial issue, be it political, social, or religious, an instructor in the class can succeed to impart democratic education. Each and every controversial issue, because of its controversial nature, has two sides for the speakers to speak for and against. Naturally, it is a good topic for students to be engaged in a debate, one of the key principles of democracy. A teacher rich in democratic ideals can design syllabus with some controversial issues with an aim to extend participatory knowledge and skills to his/her students. It is good for students but it is, of course, challenging for a teacher. In doing so, the teacher may risk losing job if the authority is autocratic in ideology and intolerant in views, and that’s why, many teachers dare not drag controversial issues in classes. I have some experience about it: I have seen some progressive teachers humiliated by autocratic authorities for discussion on controversial issues in classes. I saw my biology teacher who avoided teaching the chapter on human organs in our biology book. He told us to read the chapter at home. Later, we understood why he avoided the chapter even though the chapter was not controversial. The chapter was on human organs, not on an issue of political controversy. I am tempted to cite another example. A young teacher of political science in course of his lecture relevantly mentioned in our class that the division of India based on religion into India and Pakistan was a political blunder of the then political leaders. This comment reached the principal who withdrew him from the class and replaced him with another teacher. Though this type of case is rare in Canada, there are still lots of countries where the autocratic mentality of school authorities strangles democratic process of teaching. I feel teachers have no full autonomy over teaching as per their will, and therefore, they avoid teaching controversial issues though those issues can play a significant role for democratic education.