ABSTRACT
When I [Hess] started teaching, one of the most controversial political issues facing the body politic was whether the Equal Rights Amendment should be added to the Constitution. I remember searching for good pro/con articles for my students to read and then moderating heated and often exciting discussions about the issue in the social studies course I taught. As a new teacher, I was unsure about how to respond to students’ queries about my own views on the issue, but I remember feeling vaguely pleased when I heard two students debating what I thought about the issue as they left the classroom. Their debate was a signal to me that my strongly held personal views were not readily apparent to my students. It was evidence, I thought, that I was not a biased teacher.
