Where do i draw the line?

I've been watching 'Go Back to Where You Came From' on SBS the last two nights. Having taught in the most "multiculturally diverse" shire in the country, the stories of refugees aren't new to me, and having grown up in country Victoria neither are bigotry, racism and ignorance. Doesn't stop me shouting at the TV though. 
What is interesting is the statement that has come from a good portion of twitter is that fighting this "comes from education." 
As an "educator" this is a cry i hear often. And by often i mean at least once a week. Once a week at least i hear of something else i should be including in my curriculum. Add to that the fact that at least once a term i hear the cry that kids these days aren't as educated as they should be and we need to get back to the basics of Literacy and Numeracy for kids to be better people. 
I was so curious about this 'phenomenon' that last year for a term i kept track of the things the media decided to tell me that i needed to be teaching more of in schools:

• Drugs
• sex education
• Driver Education
• literacy and numeracy
• bullying
• cyberbullying
• Global warming/not global warming
• discipline
• values
•  religion/culture
• multiculturalism
• tolerance/acceptance
• history of Australia
• geography
• healthy eating
• LOTE (language other than English)

Just in one term. 

On top of that is the cry that in general the curriculum is just too cluttered and we're doing too much. But cut something out and we're doing the wrong thing by our kids... (The only solution is make the kids spend more time at school and then we hear that we're putting too much pressure on them and they need time to 'just be kids')
No win. 

What caused me to sit and think about what we teach and why we teach it was the string of conversations I've had with students over the last couple of days. They weren't what would traditionally be seen as teaching settings. They were lunch time chats, or chats with small groups of kids about a topic at the end of class or even for the whole class but completely off topic and even remotely removed from the subject. 
I sat down with kids today to help them with Ratio's and Proportion in Maths today and the innocent question of "Miss, what's masturbation? I've heard the word lots of times and don't know what it is" spun into a completely worthwhile discussion about sexuality, consent, contraception, periods, STI's, homosexuality and genetics, with a smidge of vocab in there too. That group of girls now know more about condoms and sexual health than proportions but which is probably going to be more important?
Yesterday the conversation was about bullying and racism. About ethnicity and what makes someone "Australian." For second generation Vietnamese, or kids that struggle to declare who they are because one parent is Viet and one is white (and they speak English at home, and she's never had Pho and constantly told that she's 'half') the conversations we had yesterday were useful, productive and probably a damn more helpful than learning about finding the what number goes into both 27 and 21. 


But they're not really in the curriculum. Or there's not the space to do it justice. Or there's not the staff to run it in the best way. Or not the staff who feel comfortable with the topics. So should we just ignore the questions? Should I dismiss the questions and get back to the course? Tell them to speak to a parent or to welfare when they've been brave enough to bring it up with me?

Miss, how do girls masturbate? Miss, i don't know who i am, or where i fit. Miss, If a guy says he can't wear a condom, can i say no to having sex with him? Miss, can i ask a guy to get an STI check before i sleep with him? Miss is xxx really gay? I don't understand gay people Miss, why would they choose that? It's gross.

These are not easy questions for a lot of people, but questions that need an honest answer. A real answer and a real discussion. These kids need to be heard, their questions need to be answered and their concerns aired, their thoughts teased out, challenged and discussed. And not all teachers can do that. So i can, but should i? Should i say go talk to your parents? Not all parents can deal with this either. Or want to.


Yeah, parents. Them. What role do they play? Look at the list of things that the media has mentioned that i should be teaching at school and think about how many of them should be taught at home. Or instilled at home. I sometimes get the feeling that I've become responsible for things that i feel should come from the home. Values is the big one. Why should i place my values on my students? I think i have good values, Respect and kindness and tolerance are all good values to have (or so most people would agree) but they should be reinforced at school. They shouldn't be taught. Same with discipline. I can't try and instill respect and tolerance and following instructions if a kid goes home and is told that they don't listen to me because I'm "just another fucking do-gooder woman who doesn't know shit" (true quote by a parent to me). Or even the more basic "Science [or maths, or music or art] isn't useful, don't worry about listening or doing well in that class" If a kid hears this every day, how am i supposed to make any difference?
Same applies to racism, homophobia or other intolerances. I can work as hard as i like, develop as many programs to run in my classes, if they're being told the opposite at home, it's not going to make a difference. 
What's maybe worse is the parents that don't care. That don't engage their kids, who don't talk to their kids. Or who do damage by telling them they're useless/fat/ugly/stupid. There's only so much educating i can do before they go home and it's all undone. There's only so much i can teach kids about not bullying each other but if they see it at home, how am i really going to change anything?



So when people cry for Education to change things i want them to stop and think about who we should be educating, and how they want me to change things. 
I'm doing my best.