In the aftermath of six Albuquerque Public Schools teachers' suspensions, a four-member panel addressed issues such as the First Amendment's role in classrooms and fielded questions from about 50 local educators at the Anderson Schools of Management Monday night.
A UNM graduate student's desire to discuss the suspensions in class created the idea for the event, titled "Teaching Under Siege? Speaking freely about the rights and responsibilities of democratic teaching in wartime."
Lois Meyer, an associate professor in the College of Education and the presentation's organizer, broke down racial disparities in New Mexico's public schools in her opening remarks to the audience.
"This is why we must go deeper than the APS issue," Meyer said. "There are histories and languages that are not present in the classroom."
Jane Gagne, co-legal director of New Mexico's American Civil Liberties Union and one of the panelists, said the APS suspensions were her first experience with a First Amendment issue involving teachers.
"In terms of classroom speech, students' rights are quite analogous to teachers' rights," Gagne said.
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In discussing the Iraq war in the classroom, she said, teachers need to be able to express themselves, but a level of professionalism is requisite in doing so.
"The events of the last few months are extraordinary and they are everywhere," Gagne said.
Some audience members, including Natalie Hotchkiss, a UNM graduate student and APS teacher, said there is a double standard for public school instructors.
"I feel like I'm being told, 'teach critical thinking, but don't be a critical thinker,' " Hotchkiss said. "Can I impart to students that, yes, it's good to be a critical thinker even if sometimes you have to go against the grain?"
Panelists agreed that critical thinking skills are essential to teaching, but that it must be done tactfully.
Reading from the APS teacher policy, Joe Vigil, lead superintendent for APS and the evening's second presenter, said "teachers will serve as impartial moderators ... and will not advocate for a particular viewpoint."
It is not the discussion of war, Vigil said, but the underlying concepts of it that are important for students to learn. He added that the manner in which teachers are supposed to teach controversial issues is where "the law is hazy and unsettled."
Presenter Beulah Woodfin, an American Association for Universities representative, said the greatest threat to higher education freedoms is corporatization.
"I would like to think the time you have experienced here at UNM, or whatever institution of higher learning, was entirely free and open," Woodfin said, followed by audience laughter. Panelist Ellen Bernstein, head of the Albuquerque Teachers' Union, passed out a letter she wrote in response to the APS suspensions.
"I believe it is our role as educators to help our students understand the world around them," the letter states. "World events should never be taboo in school and controversy should not be avoided."
Meyer added that she was "sorry there wasn't more critical thinking about UNM. There's a lot more that could and should be said. But this is a start."
