My freshmen English class, along with many others, has been assigned to read The Laramie Project, a play about the 1998 murder of Mathew Shepard, a gay college student in Laramie, Wyoming. The book gives a description of what happened on the night of the murder, who was involved, and the reaction of locals in the small town of Laramie. It makes you feel guilty and ignorant if you have biased opinions of feelings against homosexuality, thus making you re-think some of your deep-seeded personal beliefs. I feel that as we are taught to think for ourselves and make our own decisions, we should be able to learn about the gay lifestyle and listen to others’ point

In classrooms, teachers’ beliefs and opinions on a matter hold high influence over how their students form their own beliefs and opinions on the same matter. Some would argue that this is not true and that part of a teacher’s job is to teach students to think for themselves. The reality is that teachers are human and if they feel strongly about something, they are not going to hold back expressing how they feel to their students. As a student in a classroom, you’re constantly taking in new knowledge from your teacher about anything and everything, and from that knowledge you’re forming your own personal beliefs. So when a teacher has a strong view on homosexuality and assigns his or her students to read The Laramie Project, during class discussion about the book only one side of the argument on homosexuality is going to be presented by the teacher and the other side will be left out. Because of this, the students will be forming their opinions on the matter based mostly on what they’re taught from one person with high influence instead of hearing both arguments from two equally influential sources. No matter how the teacher feels about the matter, the view opposite theirs is greatly left out and now the student isn’t thinking for themselves, they’re being taught to think as the teacher does.

Anytime a subject that’s highly controversial is b

Some topics in this essay:
Laramie Project, , Laramie Wyoming, Mathew Shepard, laramie project, opinions matter, read laramie project, beliefs opinions matter, read laramie, matter teacher, tolerance towards, beliefs opinions, day day, students class, peer pressure, taught classroom,