I think the best advice that I could give someone who has yet to enter the classroom through this program is not to underestimate the amount of information that these students are actually capable of absorbing. I was very concerned that they were not going to be able to make effective arguments during our exercise as arguing points on how the US should handle the Iraninan situation is something you would typically think you would need a lot of background information in order to do. However, just using the 40 minutes worth of information that Rebecca and I gave to them, they were able to make some pretty impressive and cogent arguments. At the end of the class their homeroom teacher asked them all to recount at least one thing they learned in class and they all came up with something pretty good. I will be asking that question at the end of all my classes in the future.
In general, I have found that there will always be students who just don't care or are more interested in doing their hair throughout class. You can try and reach these kids, but if you can't then focus on the ones who are interacting with you. The teacher is our classroom was pretty good at controlling her kids and there were only 7 or 8 of them so we had a pretty well organized class however there was at least one "class clown." I found it best every time he asked a question or made a statement that was meant as a joke I would simply act oblivious to his attempt at humor and answer everything straight up. Overall it was a very rewarding experience and a lot of fun.
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"Nuclear weapons" huh? Gee, you aren't pre-judging the issue a little, right? You mean the "nuclear weapons" that the IAEA has failed to find after 5 years of investigations?
Hass (who I recognize from his similar posts on the blog armscontrolwonk) does bring up an important clarification. In teaching about potentially disputed issues it is important to be fair and present different sides. This was the reason the exercise had the students explore a range of policy options--all resulting from different assumptions about Iran. We pointed out to the students that many people think Iran seeks nuclear weapons, but that so far they do not appear to have any. We also stressed that Iran has a right to uranium enrichment per the NPT.
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