By Kate Lyman

photo by Rick Reinhard

"I'm not teaching about civil rights this year," my colleague asserted.

"Not teaching about civil rights?" I responded. My teaching buddy and partner had teamed with me in tackling "controversial issues" at the second/third-grade level - AIDS, the "discovery" of America, and homophobia, to name a few. I couldn't believe that she was not going to join me in planning the civil rights unit.

My partner explained that a parent of a child who was continuing in her second/third-grade combination class had objected to the unit on civil rights the previous year. "There was too much violence," she had said. Her daughter had been frightened.

Knowing that I would miss our joint planning sessions and sharing of materials and ideas, I nevertheless decided to go ahead with the unit.