Lies My Teacher Told Me Lesson Plan

How many of you think that at least a part of poverty can be blamed on the poor? What kind of arguments have you heard to this effect in your lifetime?

The teacher should take care to ensure that opinions expressed by students are not perceived harshly by their peers. If, for example, a student argues that a lack of individual initiative does play a role in causing poverty, the teacher should engage with this—and encourage other students to engage with this—as a kind of entry point into a larger debate. Some students may sharply disagree with such a view, and the teacher should make space for these disagreements—but this is best accomplished by separating arguments from...