Education in Colorado
A high school geography teacher in Colorado is in deep water, and rightfully so, for going on a left-wing political rant in a 10th grade geography class. Michelle Malkin has a ton of links and a transcript here.
A couple of things I'd like to note on this issue: My high school history teacher was a Gloria Steinem liberal, and everyone in class knew it. She never, not once, went on a kind of tear like Colorado teacher Jay Bennish did.
This guy and his lawyers can claim "First Amendment rights" all they want, but it's not going to fly. If Bennish's First Amendment rights allow him to do what he did, then there is zippo stopping conservative teachers from doing the same thing. Or Christian teachers from indoctrinating kids in Math classes. Or Buddhist teachers indoctrinating students in gym class, etc.
The truth is that if Bennish is allowed to do what he's been doing, then it will mark the end of public education in this country. Parents on the left and right will not stand idly by as this sort of indoctrination goes on, and public schools will cease to be.
Also, if the students quoted in the Rocky Mountain News article are evidence of Bennish's teaching, he needs to go back to school and read some history books.
"It's not fair," said Stacy Caruso, a 17-year-old junior. "He spoke his mind. We have Christian groups in school, and they're not censored."
Caruso has taken Bennish's classes for the past two years and praised his approach to teaching. When studying China, his class learned about sweatshop labor. When they read about Japan, students learned about the Japanese imprisoned in American concentration camps, she said.
"We want to know what's going on in the world," she said.
Believe it or not, little Stacy Caruso, Christian "groups," as long as they are students, have more freedom of speech on a high school campus than teachers do. Teachers cannot prosletyze -- whether it's religion or politics -- in a high school because they are authority figures.
Second, while the internment camps during WWII were not our finest hour, I'd be curious what Mr. Bennish taught you about Japan in the 1930s and '40s. Have you ever heard of "Bataan"? Or the "rape of Nanking"? Or "comfort women"? If the answer to any of these is "no," then your Mr. Bennish did you a great disservice.
And then there's Bennish's lawyer:
"I know about 10 federal judges who are more than willing to teach the Cherry Creek School District what the First Amendment is all about," his attorney, David Lane, said Thursday.
You may be able to find 10 federal judges who will side with your client, Mr. Lane, but he will ultimately lose.
One final thought: My senior year of high school, I had the same liberal teacher for civics that I'd had for that history class. To get an "A" in civics, we had to spend X number of hours doing something civics-related, attending some protest, helping count ballots on election night, attending a city council meeting, etc. I didn't end up doing it -- but I approached her to see how much of her goat I could get -- but I asked her if I could get credit for protesting outside an abortion clinic. Being far more fair-minded than Mr. Bennish, she said that I could get credit for doing that. But when I asked her if I could get credit for time served in jail if I were arrested -- well, that was where she drew the line.
*UPDATE* I can't help you if you don't follow the links. The link above going to Michelle Malkin's site has a transcript of the tape. You can find the audio itself here. I'll say it again, Bennish was way over the line. As to the issue of going to the media first, rather than the school -- that's definitely not the way I would've done it. However, I also wouldn't have let the school take care of the issue "quietly" as they would probably be wont to do.
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Just saw the teacher on the Today Show and it appears there are two sides to this story. Apparently the parents of the objecting students didn't contact the teacher, principal, or school board, but went to conservative talk radio. Maybe we should hear the tape of the entire class before we make judgements.