Last week we had a frank discussion on racism. It was great to have such a discussion in an open and safe forum. However I found that there were still a few quiet individuals that did not share their opinion the entire class. Now I am perfectly fine with that, it is their choice whether they want to or even feel comfortable enough to share their opinion. It still got me thinking about those who I will deem “the silent ones”.
In our classes there will always be these types of people, and it is very easy to overlook them and their opinions. Whether they are silent about bullying they saw, their offense to a certain joke someone made, or just silent in general, it is very easy to overlook these individuals.
So two points I want to make in this blog. The first, for every opinion/voice you hear there can be multiple ones that haven’t spoken up. Just because no one says something is wrong doesn’t meet it hasn’t been felt by others either afraid or too uncomfortable to speak up. The second is that we should foster a classroom environment to shift the people from the “silent” group to the “vocal “group. When everyone feels safe enough to share their view and opinion is a classroom I think we all want to teach in.
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