Ignorance is Bliss

After a week of debriefing from our observation periods, I have had the opportunity to hear about a lot of great experiences from my fellow colleagues; I've heard of great lesson ideas, and teaching strategies, as well as really interesting classroom management techniques. In comparison, I've also heard of some 'not-so-good' observations, many of which have opened my eyes even wider to the diversity of teachers within our public education system.
During my own experience, I realized just how careful teachers must be when they are expressing facts and information to their students. For example, during my observation, I watched a grade 12 History class, which was focused on China during WWI. During the class, a few students asked the teacher about the situation in Tibet, saying, "I've heard that if you wave a Tibetan flag in Tibet, you will be shot." The teacher (who is very new), agreed with the statement, and even went on to emphasize this "fact," that if someone were to do something in Tibet, such as waving the Tibetan flag, that indeed, you would be killed. Immediately, further misconceptions began to fly around the classroom, with one student claiming, "You know that big area in Beijing, that square? (Tiananmen Square) Well, I heard that if you spit your gum out there, you will go to jail for nine years." Again, the teacher did nothing to dispel these ideas, and even encouraged this type of thinking by nodding in agreement about how strict many countries are on such things as gum chewing.
It was obvious that no one in the classroom had ever been to China. I lived in China for one year, where I taught English and travelled to some of the places that were being discussed during this class. As I sat in the back, observing these student-teacher interactions occur, I felt frustrated on many levels. The claims being made in this class are not true. Although the political climate in China is at times very turbulent, people are not being haphazardly killed or sent to prison for the things discussed in this class. It was obvious that the teacher did not fully know about the situation, and instead of simply saying that they were unsure about the facts, they allowed the misconceptions to continue, and even supported them.
As teachers, we have to be incredibly cautious about the facts that we relay to our students. When they come to us with excessive fallacies that have grown from the media, their friends, or other sources, we have to dispel them, and if we are unaware of the truth, than it is our responsibility to tell them that we are unsure, but that we will find out the facts and let them know.
I wanted so badly to interject during this class, but I didn't feel that it was my place. Nevertheless, false facts such as these often sprout into closed-minded and ignorant thinking. We must be ever mindful of this.