But what I think about these issues is not really important. I want to know what teenagers, male and female, think of these conversations. This constellation of articles and news stories is ideal for creating classroom conversations that matter to young people. As educators, our job is not to tell young people what to think. Our job to teach them how to think. To expect them to think. To give them the opportunity to think.
Back in January, Myra and I wrote about ways of exploring work and identity in high school social studies. The conversation about women and work, about how women work, and the intersection of social, cultural, and political forces that occurs in each of our lives is an important one. I would love to know how high school teachers are harnessing this national dialogue, which seems to represent much of the spirit behind the Common Core State Standards regarding perspective, point-of-view, evidence and information, and argumentation. Just consider these questions alone:
- What is happening to women in the white collar workforce? Blue collar? What's the evidence?
- Who is writing about women in the workforce, and why?
- What is the cause of income stagnation in the United States? Are women and men impacted equally by this?
- What causes income inequality? Why is the gap between the top income earners and everyone else growing wider and wider?