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Challenging Conversations As scheduling continues, students, teachers promote classes that test world views, incorporate discussions KIERSTEN RIEDFORD STORY
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n her junior year, current senior Sandiya Sajan said she came to the realization that all she had ever thought was instilled by someone else’s opinions. It was during her IB History of the Americas class, she said, when the teacher posed the question of whether native people were considered to be savages or not; the students then had to argue their opinion. “This was one of my first introductions to IB History of Americas. It’s one of the first classes that we had with (Will) Ellery and he started off with (giving) us this article (on whether) natives are savages. (Ellery) said, ‘Read through it, and then tell me your opinions on them.’ We read through the article, and our first reaction was (natives are) obviously not savages,” Sajan said. “Then he asked us to define what natives (were) and we
were like, ‘Okay, they’re people who don’t really have the association with the world; they’re off on their own doing their own thing,’ and (Ellery’s) like, ‘Well, isn’t that what savages are? Isn’t that technically the definition of a savage? Someone who is off on their own or doing their own things?’ “And I stopped, and at first I panicked,” Sajan said. “In this era, you need to be politically correct, so I’m like, ‘Oh my God, that’s totally not the same,’ but I thought about it. That (was) what I (was) saying essentially, (and) that was insanely scary. So I’m sinking into this thought once I realized that that’s what I was saying. I stopped (and thought), ‘This is horrible.’ I thought I was a horrible person because I was like, ‘Is this what I actually think?’ But it’s really not; it’s really what people told you to think.”
Scan this to read a story about how CHS classes are helping students prepare for their careers
But as difficult as that moment was, Sajan’s experience is not unusual. Many classes discuss in-depth and controversial topics; social studies teacher James Ziegler said that he suggests students who want to take classes that involve more in-depth conversations should go into their scheduling meetings with their counselors and request specifically to take classes like U.S. History, U.S. Government or AP U.S. Government and Politics. “What I really encourage students to take is sociology. Again, I’m more of a liberal arts and kind of social studies (thinker)—that’s my preference. I’m biased in that sense. But high school and college sociology courses were always some of the most interesting and most productive conversations,” Ziegler said. “I know our sociology teachers here are great and
