Most Controversial School Classes

Race is often a hot-button topic, which is why Delavan-Darien High School in Wisconsin could have handled the teaching of it a bit more delicately. A class on diversity was alleged by some parents to simply teach students that minorities are disadvantaged by white oppressors. The class was intended to help students “better understand oneself and recognize how feelings, ideas and beliefs interact with the ideas and beliefs of other individuals and groups.” However, some parents felt that assignments and worksheets were more like “indoctrination” and were teaching students about “white privilege” and thereby dividing students.

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You’d think the controversy over a college course at The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor called “How to be Gay: Male Homosexuality and Initiation” would be because the title makes the argument that being gay is a choice instead of a genetic assignment. However Gary Glenn, a lobbyist for the American Family Association, lead the charge against the course for what he says is promoting "queer studies" at taxpayers' expense. An attempt was made in the Michigan state legislature to cut off government funds for the course but fell short. The course’s teacher argued the curriculum isn’t teaching students to be homosexual, but rather it “critically examines the off notion that there are right and wrong ways to be gay, that homosexuality is not just a sexual practice or desire but a set of specific tastes in music, movies and other cultural forms—a notion which is shared by straight and gay people alike.”

If you ever suspected there was more depth to The Dukes of Hazzard than short shorts, fast cars and crooked cops, have we got a college course for you. The University of Alabama elevates the significance of Boss Hogg, Uncle Jesse, Daisy and that rascally Rosco P. Coltrane in a class that investigates how Bo and Luke Duke and company were perceived by both white and black cultures. See, kids? All of that TV watching finally serves a purpose.

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Some kids learn better by doing instead of just, say, reading, but that doesn’t always make it right. A performing arts high school in Las Vegas had a class where students were to showcase their knowledge of U.S. history either through a research project or by performing a first-person narrative, and two students received permission from their teacher to dress in KKK costumes for their presentation. The students only got in trouble after they wore their white robes and hooded masks outside of class. The teacher was essentially slapped on the wrist for not ensuring the costumes were off once the class ended.

It’s understandable that some folks would get bent out of shape when young children are taught inappropriate things at inappropriate times and in inappropriate places. But being opposed to teaching anatomically correct words in a chapter on human reproduction? In this case, a 10th-grade science teacher in Dietrich, Idaho got in hot water for using the word “vagina” in a biology lesson on human reproduction. He’s also accused of showing a video clip that depicted a genital herpes infection. Maybe the rankled parents would have preferred the teacher used terms like “pee-pee” instead and avoided mention of STDs?

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At a school in Leeds, England, they find the time to offer makeup lessons, which must mean they have time for absolutely everything else that's important and are doing the lipstick lessons in all of their free time. Both 14- and 15-year-old students are given hour-long lessons with eyeliner, blush and mascara in an effort to teach them how to make a good first impression and boost their self-esteem. Because apparently hitting the books isn’t enough.

Teaching Mexican-American history is fine. But teaching it from a perspective other than the American perspective is not, according to a court in Tucson, where critics said the teachings encouraged students to adopt left-wing attitudes and resent white people. In an effort to exclude the course, the Arizona legislature passed a law banning “courses that promote the overthrow of the [U.S.] government," "promote racial resentment" or "are designed for pupils of a particular ethnic group.”

It’s one thing to take a stand on evolution vs. creationism. It’s a whole other thing to reinvent the facts surrounding the entire existence of dinosaurs. A private religious school in South Carolina teaches its 4th graders in a science lesson called “Dinosaurs: Genesis and the Gospel” that dinosaurs roamed the Earth a scant 4,000 years ago and hung out with humans. Which all sounds awesome, until you visit just about any nature and science museum and see those facts turned upside down and find out it was more like 230 million years ago, which was a few (or millions of) years before humans made an appearance.

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Most schools are working around the clock to ensure guns stay far, far away from their corridors and classrooms. One school, however, is inviting them in. Students at San Diego’s South Bay school take a firearms safety course as part of an Administration of Justice program. However, some are up in arms, saying it's inappropriate to fund a program that has anything to do with guns in the wake of mass-school shootings such as the one in Newtown, Conn., in December. The students use a simulator in class and visit an off-campus range in their senior year.

Photo via 10News.com

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Seattle’s The Center School made news after a teacher said his students could handle “frank and necessary” discussions about race—even though not all of his students agreed. A format called “Courageous Conversations” meant visitors joined students in the classroom to talk candidly about what it’s like to be a minority in the United States. On Mondays, the teacher asked students to talk about anything they experienced over their weekends that made them think about race. That is, until one student was upset by the format, saying it created an “intimidating environment.” The course was reinstated after being suspended—just with the Courageous Conversations format eliminated, which administrators said was appropriate for adults, just not for kids.