Montana labor news., 1939-02-09
Teachers Are People

BY some absurd combination of circum-
stances the notion has gained currency, both
inside and outside the teaching profession,
that a teacher should not take sides on con-
troversial questions. The fact is, OF course,
that every teacher with any opinion at all
takes sides on any question that may arise.
Teachers with strong convictions tend to take
sides openly. Those with uncertain convic-
lions take sides furtively or unconsciously.
Vital people have convictions and express
them, and they are the only kind qualified to
teach.
know one teacher who has been in the
business for more than thirty years who
declares with pride that she has never eX-
pressed an opinion on anything in her life,
except outside the classroom. On the day
all the banks in the United States were closed
by Presidential proclamation, this same
teacher refused to deviate from her usual
course and occupied her time with the teach
ing of the infinitive. Clearly she regarded
the ~infinitive of greater Importance to her
pupils at that time than the apparent collapse
of the financial structure of the country.
Without saying a word about the matter, she
had eloquently advanced an opinion which
in discussion she would nave been pOwerless
to defend, even to her pupils.
Those who object to the expression of
opinion on the part of teachers are in reality
concerned about the opinions with which
they disagree. | confess I am frankly dis
turbed at the thought of anti-democratic,
intolerant doctrine taught in some school
rooms throughout the country. Even in
Chicago there are perhaps a few teachers
with Nazi sympathies who do not hesitate to
express their opinions. But if these doctrines
are dangerous, as l believe they are, they
would be much more dangerous if concealed
or subtly and clandestinely introduced into
the instruction. So long as these ideas must
compete in the open market they invite
refutation.
1t may be that one should assume an atti-
tude of fine impartiality about the bombing
of women and children from the air. Per-
haps one should remain dispassionately aloof
when racial and religious antagonisms fame
throughout the world, or when Senators
block the passage of anti-lynch legislation.
In the study of history, there may be those
who believe that the teacher should main
tain a detached neutrality about the con-
troversy between the American colonies and
the royalty and economic overlords of Eng
land, or about the slavery issue in the United
States. For myself, I believe not only that
a teacher should exhibit partisanship on
these questions but that the chief business
of a teachers union is to protect the rights of
the teacher to take sides on such matters.
Proponents of strict neutrality in the class
room forget that impartiality where demo-
cracy and related matters are concerned is
illegal. Most of our states have passed laws
requiring the teaching of American history
and civics with the obvious intent of de-
veloping love for our democratic institu-
tons. Whether the statute books say so
explicitly or not, society organizes schools
primarily for the purpose of maintaining it.
self, and it is well-known that the preserva-
ton of democracy has been one Of the chief
arguments for the establishment of free
public schools. To say that we must not