I am starting a Theories and Research in Educational Psychology class and one of the first assignments is to discuss whether there can be curriculum neutrality in education. The idea of curriculum neutrality is when the teacher attempts to not to place any of his or her personal, political, religious, or moral beliefs when developing curriculum for their classes. This poses two interesting questions:
1. Is curriculum neutrality possible?
2. If curriculum neutrality is possible, is it desirable?
Personally, I say no to the first question. Curriculum will always reflect the values of the teacher, school, and community. Watch what happens whenever mentions teaching sex education at a school board or PTO meeting and you get my meaning. On the second question, if the teacher does not go overboard then yes. I have always tried to be a moral compass for my students so they would have an example to follow. All of the teachers i know always want their students to do the right thing. Sometimes it is the teacher who is the only one to provide that moral grounding and that is unfortunate.
How would you answer these two questions? Discuss!