Teachers should embrace the teachable moment

Charles Ungerleider, Professor Emeritus, The University of British Columbia

[permission to reproduce granted if authorship is acknowledged]

The York Region District School Board (YRSDB) in Ontario apparently advised administrators to tell staff to avoid initiating discussions about the Queen’s death because doing so may engender strong, negative emotional reactions. In today’s parlance, such a discussion could be “triggering.” Strong emotional reactions are real. But the fact that students may have such a reaction should not be a deterrent to addressing issues that might engender those reactions if the classroom is an emotionally supportive environment and the topic is treated in an intellectually honest way.  

I am willing to give the YRDSB credit for recognizing the potential sensitivity of the issue, but I think it is discrediting to teacher professionalism to think the board needs to alert educators to the fact that some students might need support when the issue arose. In my experience, teachers are typically alert to students’ needs for emotional support.  

The Queen’s death is what educators call a teachable moment, an opportunity to get students to think deeply about an issue that has gained prominence for one reason or another. As a former social studies teacher, I would use the Queen’s death to have students consider whether, in 2022, there is a role for the monarchy OR whether the death of a relatively popular Queen and the elevation of her son as King would accelerate the efforts of those countries seeking to shed the monarchy OR whether (and how) the monarchy has changed over the centuries. If I were teaching world history, I would ask the students how China’s Belt and Road Initiative is like or different from colonialism as practiced by European nations.  

There are many issues to which students might have a negative emotional reaction. If teachers were to avoid mention of any topic or issue to which students might react negatively, teachers could not discuss slavery, genocide, climate change, nuclear power, genetically modified foods, cloning, guaranteed annual income, Canadian foreign policy, the novels of Gabrielle Roy or Margaret Atwood, the poetry of Earl Birney or F.R. Scott . . . . or pretty much anything else of value.  

If the classroom is an emotionally supportive environment (and it must be), teachers must be free to explore topics and issues in an intellectually honest manner. Avoiding or ignoring teachable moments deprives students of the opportunity to question, weigh evidence, critically analyze media, understand differing historical perspectives, and examine and defend positions they hold.