Posted on 11/23/2005 6:11:37 AM PST by UB355
Principal rejects anti-war assignment Madison students' planned letters set off dispute By BOB PURVIS bpurvis@journalsentinel.com Posted: Nov. 22, 2005
The principal at a Madison elementary school where teachers assigned third-graders to write a dozen letters urging an end to the war in Iraq sent a letter of apology to parents and ordered teachers to rescind the assignment Tuesday.
A letter sent home Friday with third-graders at Frank Allis Elementary School explaining the assignment to parents said students would be assigned 12 letters to write to third-graders at other Wisconsin and out-of-state schools, federal lawmakers, the media and President Bush.
If the war hadn't ended by the 12th day of letter writing, students would have had to start the process all over again. The letter gave parents an opt-out option and said the assignment was intended to teach civic responsibility, composition and handwriting skills.
The assignment irked U.S. Rep. Mark Green (R-Wis.), who sent a letter to the school's principal.
"It's a profound misjudgment to use third-grade students as political pawns regardless of the issue," said Green.
"If I received letters from third-grade students saying, 'Dear Congressman Green, please vote for the war,' I would be equally as disturbed."
School Principal Chris Hodge said the third-grade teachers came to her with the proposal last week. She believed it violated district policy but wanted to check with administration officials first.
Hodge said the teachers misinterpreted her comments and sent a letter about the campaign to parents anyway. She immediately canceled the project after finding out.
The campaign violated two district policies: one that bans teachers from promoting their personal political beliefs to students; and another that requires teachers to address opposing views when presenting controversial topics, said district spokesman Joe Quick.
"It was a mistake on the teachers' part," Quick said. "They were very enthusiastic about what they were trying to do and didn't realize it violated School Board policy."
Most of the calls made to the district about the assignment were from media outlets, not angry parents, Quick said.
"This was kind of a moot point by 10 o'clock this morning," Quick said.
The teachers won't face any disciplinary measures, Hodge said, but she planned to remind staff at their December meeting of district policies.
Several of the teachers who signed the letter did not return calls to their home or office phone numbers; another teacher reached at home declined to comment.
Sharon Johnson, Frank Allis Elementary PTA president, said she was disappointed to see that the envelopes and stamps she sent to school with her daughter, as requested in the assignment, were returned Tuesday.
"I got the letter, and I had no objection," Johnson said. "Her world is pretty much made up of the Cartoon Network. I thought it was a good idea to get kids to open up their eyes."
Johnson, a Democrat, had no problem with the assignment but admitted that it if the campaign had promoted the war she would have.
Green sent another letter to Hodge after she canceled the assignment suggesting students write letters to troops thanking them for their service, which he described as a non-political cause that everyone could get behind.
Hodge had not responded to that letter late Tuesday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
My son's previous third grade teacher had the children send care packages to the soldiers.
Name the teachers!
Conservatives tend to be smarter and more successful in their academic pursuits, so they end up going into fields with higher standards for admittance and higher rewards for high performance.
The "teaching" community is so desperate for teachers, that standards are low. With low standards come low rewards. Thus the best and brightest are attracted to other areas and the pool of teachers is made up of (1) mostly incompetent liberals, and (2) some good teachers who are motivated by a desire to teach and excel in spite of the terrible environment and low pay. That is why you have a few good teachers who tend to be conservative, and a lot of incompetent public-sector union-protected educrats who steadfastly resist any reform that would introduce competition or base compensation on performance.
Were these teachers hired to "teach" children left wing "civic responsibility" or basic reading, writing and arithmatic?
If the latter, then they violated their contract and should be fired.
Until parents start suing teachers who use classrooms as political platforms, this waste of taxpayer dollars on Marxist dolt teachers will continue. It's time to turn the tables on the ACLU and use contract law against the leftist indoctrination system called public schools.
I'm glad you took the opportunity to speak up for our veterans!
A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.
STOOPID cow. Why not let your little darlin write her letters from home, then?
Modern day Baldur von Schirach's.
If this doesn't wake up parents that teachers are out of control, they are beyond help and they deserve what their children get taught.
I would bet that this is just the tippy tip of the iceberg.
American,French and Cuban sitting in local bar.French says"today i was waiting in long lane to buy some food".American asks"what is long lane"? Cuban asks" what is food"?
Please don't dump public school. Remember, it's the bad ones that get the headlines.""
Detail, please, the good public schools........
That will be a VERY short list, IMO.
The teacher needed a diaper?
"The "teaching" community is so desperate for teachers, that standards are low. With low standards come low rewards."
Could you elaborate on the "low standards" aspect please? As an interested observer, I've see the teacher's costs in time, trouble and money when they get post graduate degrees, and it seems pretty high.
They want to be a closed profession tho.....why shouldn't someone who is skilled in math or science be allowed to teach without taking all those "education" courses to be certified?
How smart can they be? Frankly, I think teachers are pretty well paid and have a great vacation schedule.
I heard the teacher on Rush's program recently talking about putting in 60-70 hours a week during the school year, but I suspect that is a personal work style - not necessity. I also think most professionals routinely work 50 hours a week.
The standard for teaching in public schools is typically a teaching certificate and/or completion of "education" courses, rather than demonstrated competence or education in the field one is teaching. Thus, an engineering degree with specialization in geology and chemistry would not qualify you to teach high school science, but completion of an "education" degree would.
You do not need to be able to write or diagram coherent sentences with proper grammar and syntax to teach "English" in a public school, just be able to pass a certification test that is in reality little more than a high school equivalency exam.
That's what I mean by low standards.
This is not a "non-political" issue to the antiwar left. To them, it is an advocacy of the Iraq war and the reason for it. The loony left would have us believe they "support the troops" like good little patriots, while they constantly try to subvert their cause and bolster that of the enemy. They are traitors, just like they were during Vietnam.
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