Dan Delong is back to teaching English at a high school in Illinois. Last week, he was briefly removed from his position after he assigned an (optional) article from Seed magazine to his students. This article detailed the evidence for homosexuality among animals like sheep and dolphins. The article is a bit explicit, but not inappropriate for his class of (honors) sophomores. This is a great article to strengthen the students' deductive reasoning skills. At this age, they need to form valid and independent judgments. In the end, the students did get a great lesson-they stood up for their teacher at the school board meeting.
But at what cost? Has the damage already been done? How many teachers will think twice before they assign high interest or controversial reading assignments to strengthen students' logic skills? If this teacher erred by assigning a scientific article from a reputable magazine, what's next?
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