Tradegy
I feel that if students have the want or need to talk about tradegies or disaters then we should talk about it with them. By having a discussion nine times out of ten they are only going to learn something from it. Even if what they learn or retain is in the most minute unimportant point they are still learning and hopefully will be able to develop their opinion and education from that point. It will also help your students form a better bond between one another. I mean most classrooms are full of students the same age especially through middle school. Discussions like these help students become more intune to one another and the world going on around them, whether it be in your town, state, country, etc. Locating resources for the most part should be easy, especially now when we have the internet. The television and radio also help. Occasionally watching CNN in a high school classroom during a state of tradedy is more than likely a useful tool. Besides that your students aren’t going to be able to concentrate if they are aware (i.e.) that planes are hitting the twin towers in NYC. People learn from times like these by growing stronger as a nation and uniting as one to fight for their beliefs and their country. Of course there will always be those who disagree about one thing or another but the majority of people want to know what others think about what is happening to their country or in other countries. All people have feelings, cares and concerns and for the most part want to help others out any way they can. If the students can learn a valuable lesson from the problem then yes. Say you are teaching 4th graders about weather and what to do or not to do in case of a hurricane. You may use Katrina as an example that hurricanes are not safe and you need to leave your home in order to survive no matter how much you think you just might be able to stay there instead. Ignoring the issue helps nobody. I don’t feel that things like this should be ignored. You are the adult in the situation and in most cases it will be your job to present material that is unbiased. So you do as you are taught and speak with an unbiased and age appropriate tongue and give the best advice and information possible while doing so.
