Argues that teachers must bring works of the Holocaust to the classroom and focus discussion around its revelations. (FL)

Discusses techniques and provides background information to help teachers use debate in U.S. history courses. By debating controversial issues, students learn to do in-depth research. The necessity for anticipating evidence and arguments generates great incentives for study. (RM)

Discusses a journalism course that analyzes relationships between mass communication and conflict issues with respect to recurring themes or problems in communicating the issues, the time in which the communication occurred, and the medium of communication. (RL)

What part, if any, should momentous current events play in the curriculum? This article suggests that some events are so significant they impose themselves on the curriculum, that children need to discuss political events, and that teachers should be realistic, respectful, and reassuring in dealing with these matters. (Author/RH)

There are many possibilities for the use of controversial issues such as animal experimentation in biology classrooms. Outlines a series of three lessons that asked senior biology students to consider the issue of animal experimentation from three perspectives. (Author/LM)

The paper challenges recent criticism of higher education curricula as "biased." Teachers are encouraged not to attempt to rid their teaching of such "bias" but to state and defend positions, however controversial, for the furthering of students' critical capacities. (Author/DB)

Describes how a high school newspaper handled a sensitive issue (in this case the arrest and indictment of a teacher), choosing to face undesirable news by getting the facts correctly, explaining them, and putting a stop to speculative stories. (SR)

Provides both the pedagogic and scientific thinking that guided the construction of a classroom role play called "The Great Evolution Debate," which is about the publication of Darwin's "The Origin of Species." Provides tentative findings regarding learning from role playing. (ZWH)

UCLA has issued world history standards calling for less memorization and more historical thinking skills. The standards are neither rigid nor doctrinaire, but they have been criticized for promoting a national curriculum, stressing 20th-century events, downplaying traditional U.S. heroes, exhibiting an anti-Western bias, confusing suggestions…

The hourglass model approach to public policy issues in extension education includes (1) selection of mega-issues; (2) formation and reporting of study groups; (3) a symposium; (4) synthesis and revision of symposium and study group outcomes; and (5) extension/outreach to broader audiences. (SK)

Describes methods of approaching Toni Morrison's novel, "The Bluest Eye," for the secondary classroom. Suggests that it was the students' responses to the novel that showed to the teacher the importance of this controversial work. Provides numerous examples of students' written responses to the novel. (HB)

Provides four practicing teachers' written responses to Carolyn Henly's article entitled "Reader Response Theory as Antidote to Controversy: Teaching "The Bluest Eye," which appears in the same issue. (HB)

Discussed is the complexity of the issue concerning the use of live animals as subjects in laboratory tests. Included is a column written by Dr. Suzanne L. Epstein that discusses some of the advantages and disadvantages of use of tissue culture to replace laboratory animals. (CW)

Discusses the issue of whether or not Mark Twain's novel, "Huckleberry Finn," should be taught. Reviews various arguments for and against teaching the novel. Concludes that the novel is worthy of being taught. (HB)

Presented are the highlights of a press conference featuring biomedical ethicist LeRoy Walters of Georgetown University and attorney Andrew Kimbrell of the Foundation on Economic Trends. The opposing points of view of these two speakers serve to outline the pros and cons of the gene therapy issue. (CW)