Introduction

While this may have been intended to be amusing, the aim of these comments was to show clearly that the issues this case study was bringing up could be considered too politically sensitive for the classroom. What is more, the reviewer’s comments prompted the editor to consider removing the case from the book. After some discussion about academic freedom and the value of a liberal education, the case stayed in the text. But a lesson was learned: Something has changed. The classroom is no longer as insulated from politics as it once was. It is no longer a place where sensitive issues can be discussed without concerns about repercussions. The makeup of the students is also different from what it has been in previous decades, and educators fi nd themselves facing an unprecedented variety of educational, ethnic, and religious backgrounds in their students. Last, today’s students are facing an entirely new set of problems compared to the world of as little as ten years ago.