Using Dystopian Texts to Promote Social Responsibility in the Composition Classroom

Since the Colonial period, educational institutions in the United States

have been tasked with developing character as well as academic skill. While

in earlier epochs such character education would have been explicitly tied to

morality as defined within Christian contexts, today's character education

takes on a more secular form, focusing on developing skills related to social

responsibility. By definition, social responsibility is "a personal investment

in the well-being of people and the planet" (Berman 15). Despite the fact that

many feel that public schools and universities are ideal sites for this type of

training, research has found that instructors are often reluctant to discuss

controversial issues within their classrooms because of the potential negative

ramifications. A recent study found that only "11 % of students reported spending

time in their classes on 'problems facing the country today"' (Wolk 667).

Further research has found that such issues "receive little attention in schools

because in the culture of schooling, and the culture of society, many controversial

topics and issues are taboo" (Evans, Avery, and Pederson 295). Ultimately,

these cultural taboos "impose severe disabilities on teaching and

thinking;' impacting the decisions instructors make concerning course content

and classroom management (Evans, Avery, and Pederson 295). Resistance-

perceived or real-from students, parents, or administrators result in

curricula that are divorced from contemporary events pertaining to social

inequality. As a result of this self-censorship, students exit the educational

sphere ill prepared to be active citizens of the world.