Opinions
Many people value education. As I also value education, I strongly value the way I receive it as well. We are to receive public education in the United States with an unbiased approach, and we are to be taught without any persuasion on what we should believe or stand for. This is how I was taught until I had Frau Roller as my German teacher during my junior and senior years of high school.
Frau Roller was not a very well-liked teacher as she was pessimistic and very opinionated. Her opinions on life and world affairs always had a way of creeping into our class discussions. One day in German class, the current war in Iraq arose in discussion. Frau Roller started going on about the war, America’s “weak economy” and what she believed were poor decisions made by President Bush concerning the war. She basically started bashing on Bush and the war, and she even began stating that Germany would soon be the leading country of the world in wealth and power and would likely “take over the world” (whatever that meant). I was disturbed by the fact that was even saying these things but was really upset because one of the students in the class had a dad who was presently fighting for our country in the war.
I couldn’t take it anymore and said aloud “opinions!” When she asked me what I meant I replied with, “What you are saying are only opinions, and they shouldn’t be preached in the classroom. People have different opinions on the war and their own country Frau Roller.”
She later pulled me aside and tried to cover herself by explaining that she was just presenting thoughts and predictions. She also apologized for possibly offending me or others in the class. From that day on there were no longer strongly opinionated remarks from her in the classroom. However, there still seemed to be implied statements regarding her opinions that she probably would have liked to express aloud and openly.
This particular experience didn’t necessarily ask...