Needless to say that I didn't get up early this morning to watch NBC's "Today" show with Colorado teacher Jay Bennish (transcript here). However, I am somewhat sympathetic to this analysis of host Matt Lauer's questioning of Bennish.

Lauer: "They shopped it around to conservative media outlets and finally released it to one and created an uproar. On the tape you can hear Sean Allen [the student in question] asking you questions that seem to be egging you on a little bit. Do you feel you were set up?" (More of the transcript here with thanks to Geoffrey Dickens.)

Wait a second, Matt. Isn't the essence of the teacher's defense that he was trying to provoke discussion of these issues? Didn't you just hear him say that "my job as a teacher is to challenge students to think critically," that he was trying to "encourage critical thought" and that students would "get extra credit regardless of their viewpoints"?

But when a student does just that, he is "setting the teacher up"?

It's been a long time since I was in high school, but I don't think it would've been different if this was an advanced placement American government class full of 18-year-old seniors -- Bennish's rant was one-sided. Yes, it contains some caveats and disclaimers, but I doubt the vast majority of high schools students would have the knowledge or skills to competently debate Bennish. If Bennish was truly interested in provoking critical thinking in his students, he would've tried coming at them from both sides -- left and right. There's no indication he ever did that -- and frankly that would be my first defense.

Honestly, look closely at what Bennish was saying:

"'It's our duty as Americans to use the military to go out into the world and make the world like us.' Sounds a lot like the things Adolf Hitler used to say. 'We're the only ones who are right, everyone else is backwards and it's our job to conquer the world and make sure that they all live just like we want them to.' Now I'm not saying that Bush and Hitler are exactly the same. Obviously, they're not, okay? But there are some eerie similarities to the tones that they use."

Set aside the Bush Derangement Syndrome symptom of Bush=Hitler for a moment. Is Bennish accurately characterizing Bush's position on the job of the American military? Is Bennish accurately characterizing Hitler's reasons for going to war? How is he helping to educate his students when he spews these falsehoods?