This is a fun way to make an
acronym actually and to remember the initials, which stand for:
P: Politics,
Pornography
A: Alcohol
(Middle East), anarchy, abuse, AIDS
R: Religion,
racism, rape
S: Sex, sexism,
stereotypes
N:
Narcotics, names, nudes
I: -isms, inhumanity,
intolerance
P: Pork (in
Muslim markets), police states, punishment (especially capital)
S: Soldiers,
Science
Let’s begin with course-books
first. Behind the course book you are teaching there is a whole industry with
hundreds of people working on the book. There is somebody who actually writes
the texts, somebody else is creating the exercises, somebody else is correcting
the mistakes, checking the content and many many more doing jobs that you have
never imagined. And there are rules on how a book or any kind of material
should be.
Books have to be impartial,
neutral. Books have to show no negative aspects whatsoever. Depending on the
country and culture they are planned for, they have to include or exclude
certain things.
Let’s start:
Politics: If
you have noticed, no Course book in history has mentioned political situations,
names of politicians or how a government in an English-speaking country is
formed. In contrast with other languages (i.g. German books), you are not
supposed to say anything about that. One can understand that the discussion can
lead to negative aspects of politics, like scandals or uncomfortable
situations, but as a teacher I do have discussions with my students about
historic events and how politicians’ decisions / politics have influenced the
development of a country.
Pornography:
Well it is obvious that we shouldn’t teach our children / students anything
about pornography, sex, rape, nudity and anything else that has to do with this
subject. It is the job of the parents to talk about sensitive issues like those
andcould cause uncomfortable situations.
Alcohol:
This is taboo, especially in the Arabic world, since it is forbidden and we
should respect religions and countries. It is not a good subject in any other
country. Who would want to talk about beer with their teenage students anyway?
On the other hand, attempts like talking about drinking and driving (i.g.
Fabiana Casella’s project in Argentina) are worth mentioning.
Anarchy, abuse, AIDS: All negative subjects which can lead to confusion,
but although we can’t find any of these in books, they do give you opportunity
to talk about how things in the world work, how to react if we see or
experience abuse and how to prevent AIDS (especially with young adults or older
teens)
Religion is
a bit taboo subject nowadays. One should respect any culture and religion and
never judge what the other person believes. We are different and we should
accept others the way they are.
Stereotypes:
Well this is a big discussion. What is considered a stereotype and what’s not?
Should we use pictures of women in the kitchen? Should all police officers be
men? Should we say police man and police woman or just police
officer? Are there any male or female professions? On the other hand, in other
countries, we are not supposed to show women working other than in the kitchen,
boys are the ones who do sports and dad is always in the living room watching
tv. (Culture and mentality, don’t forget that!)
Narcotics:
Coming back to sex – drugs and rock’n’roll. Negative role models. On the other
hand – talking about the effects of drug abuse with teens and young adults
could be a great opportunity to prevent difficult situations. Still depends on
the school and the parents.
Names: This
refers to the course books only, since authors are not allowed to use real
names of people without permission and companies’ names should not be mentioned
since it can be considered advertisement.
-isms: That includes all negative words like racism, anarchism,
atheism, cannibalism, communism, hooliganism and everything you can think of. http://www.morewords.com/contains/ism/
Still, if you have adult
students, you could mention ways to avoid all these negative things, but again,
it depends on the people. One thing is certain; you will not find them in any
book.
Pork:
Obvious for the Muslim world. It is forbidden. Respect please.
Police states / Punishment: I believe that it is not allowed in general to take
pictures of police officers or soldiers in action mostly for security reasons,
or any kind of weapon.
Science: Not
science itself, but subjects like altering nature, genetic research etc. (With
which I personally don’t agree, since you can have wonderful discussions and
debates on that)
You can find a lot more
information on this subject in the #ELTchats summaries:
in Scott Thornbury’s blog
post:
in Luke Meddings’ article in
the Guardian:
and if you like to give it a
try with Parsnips in your classroom, Phil Wade and a bunch of very interesting
and creative educators have prepared a collection with lesson ideas:
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