Posted on 09/15/2007 10:23:45 PM PDT by george76
Bidwell Junior High School administrators said a letter sent home with students in an eighth-grade class Tuesday was a good idea for a history lesson, with bad execution.
The letter, which appeared to ask parents to renounce their U.S. citizenship, prompted phone calls to the school from several irate recipients.
He concluded the letter with "After careful consideration of the facts of our current situation, I have decided to announce to everyone that I am no longer a citizen of the United States, but a free and independent member of the global community."
"The point was, I wanted to ask parents if they would sign such a letter if conditions that existed prior to the Revolution were happening now,"...
Parsley said Brooks sent the letter out with no explanation or disclaimer, and was relying on students to tell their parents it was part of a lesson plan.
She said several parents reacted adversely to the letter, but a few sent them back signed.
Chico resident Michael Hill said he was told by his daughter, Kaytlen Hill, 13, that the assignment was to have parents sign the letter and return it to class Wednesday.
"The lesson being taught in class was that the U.S. kidnaps innocent people and takes them to Cuba, where they are kept indefinitely and tortured," Hill said he learned through his daughter.
When Hill asked her if Brooks mentioned Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the U.S. imprisons terrorist suspects, he said his daughter replied "yes."
He said his daughter broke into tears when she talked about Brooks mentioning illegal wiretaps and other surveillance directed against innocent people.
"I think I was more irritated by the classroom discussion than the letter,"
Principal Joanne Parsley said she doesn't believe Brooks has any political agenda to advance.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicoer.com ...
Graduation Rate
| 2004-05 | |
| Yonkers | 66% |
| Buffalo | 65% |
| Syracuse | 59% |
| New York | 58% |
| Rochester | 52% |
I have a GREAT idea for a lesson plan - re-enact the French Revolution with teachers playimg the aristocrats!!!!
I did not know it has gotten that bad :
” Rochester is the (per capita) murder capital of New York State. Thirty to forty years of liberalism and they still don’t get it. “
I read that. Boy, what a steaming pantload. Thanks for the ping, george76.
This kind of behavior is what you expect from bullies, when confronted and stood up to, say: “Oh that wasn’t what I meant...”, “I was misunderstood,,,”, or “I was taken out of context...”
The left has completely taken over our public schools, and has probably been that way since the 1960’s or so.
FYI, I will post here what I posted in that other thread about Bennish, since it applies equally here. Thanks for the opportunity.
************************************************
He is absolutely entitled to his opinion and has every right to preach his opinions when he is on his own time.
When he is being paid to do a job, with money paid by taxpayers, he does not have the right to his own opinions. Period.
If you cannot differentiate between the two situations, then you are either ill equipped to do so, or you have never taken the time to do so. I will make the presumption that you have never taken the time to think it through, because I do not know you and would like to give you the benefit of doubt.
If you had children, would you like to have a teacher at school telling them that any activity they wish to engage in is acceptable? Perhaps bestiality? Or pedophilia? That using any type of drug imaginable is fine, including heroin, LSD or PCP? That the teacher might even describe to them how they can obtain such drugs? Or how about if the teacher decides to tell students that using a handgun to intimidate other people is a good idea?
If you think this is acceptable 1st Amendment material in a classroom of 12 year old kids, then there is no reason to discuss the matter further.
If you agree that these types of lectures should not be allowed, then we may continue. Because we both would then agree that there are limitations.
If you agree there are limitations, then reasonable people can agree to disagree on the parameters to be allowed in a given situation.
I happened to take the time to download and listen to the entire tirade by this person. If he is privately employed by a school similar to the ones that American Communists deliberately sent their “Red Diaper Babies” to in the 50’s, then that is your decision to send your child there to listen to that tripe. I feel that should be considered child abuse, but that is my opinion.
If I am paying money to send my child to a college, and the professor is spouting crap like that, I have choices, and my tax dollars are generally not being spent to subsidize some intellectual predator who preys on kids who may either not know any better, or are too intimidated to do anything about it. But I do have choices. I can pull my child out and send them to another college. It is my money.
But in a public school, there is no right to free speech. Teachers are there to teach. Does a receptionist at a company have the right to free speech? Of course not. There are limitations. They cannot greet customers with “This company sucks. You will get screwed if you spend your money here. Turn around while you can.” If they did, they would be fired, and rightly so.
This is the heart of the problem, isn't it?
I know he said this is the Declaration of Indepencence he is trying to mangle (I doubt if this leftist Bozo even knows the difference between the two) but one of the biggest talking points you hear from the Left is that the US Constitution is hopelessly obsolete and doesn't apply to the modern world.
I guess they want a constitution like this:
The EU Constitution (Be sure to click on the links to the right and read the fine print...and be sure to put your PC cap on)
What is perhaps most troubling is that we have someone teaching US History to our kids who does not have any idea of why the US War of Indepndence happened or an understanding of the forces that led up to it.
As Ann Coulter is fond of saying (and I paraphrase) "For Liberals, history begins yesterday..."
Thanks and the same to you. Let us also pray for the poor students and parents that have to put up with this stuff.
Exactly correct :
“For Liberals, history begins yesterday...”
These liberal teachers really have no clue.
The school principal is no better.
"The point was, I wanted to ask parents if they would sign such a letter if conditions that existed prior to the Revolution were happening now,"]
This "teacher's" lame attempt at plausible deniability is laughable in and of itself. Of course he should be fired, and of course nothing will happen.
Nearly the entire public school “curriculum” is a political opinion.
Also; Interim Superintendent: kstaley@chicousd.org
There. Finished it!
>>Public school teachers know that they are supposed to keep their political opinions to themselves.
That surely is one of the first things they learn.<<
One would think that would be the case...in reading through my education textbooks (I’m currently enrolled in a graduate level education program) it’s quite obvious that very liberal “multicultural education” is the right (and only!) way to teach and “conservative writers” who “oppose any lessening of the dominant culture in favor of marginalized cultures” (taken verbatim from one of my texts) don’t know what the h-e-double toothpicks they’re talking about and are just narrow-minded hatemongers anyway.
It’s really something. Teacher education in this country right now is about as liberal as it gets...
Maybe this is why so many people seem to ignore the basics. Even people with advanced degrees are prone to making very basic mistakes and don’t seem to care that:
to = go TO the store
too = ALSO
two = 1, 2, 3
Their = it belongs to them
There = over there on the table
They’re = they are
Fewer = items counted - such as fewer pennies
Less = amount - such as LESS money
Not LESS pennies or FEWER money
More time spent on the basics of math and language and LESS time spent on indoctrination would be so refreshing.
There have always been bad teachers from the public schools’ opening days. But they’ve never been stocked with left-wing ideologues like this one. Now, it seems every large high school has at least one.
Public education has gone off a cliff, but that doesn’t mean that parents have to send their children over that cliff with them.
“Principal Joanne Parsley said she doesn’t believe Brooks has any political agenda to advance...”
I’d fire her. And the superintendent. And jail the teacher.
As a teacher, I just have to make a comment about this one.
The teacher in question deserves to be fired. His judgement is, without question, not just poor. He gave 13-year-olds homework designed to promote an agenda - those are innocents at Guantanamo Bay? - and potentially insult the parents of the children he is paid to serve.
This guy works for the parents of the children. His first obligation is to teach the students reading, writing, math, history, and science. That’s a full plate. His job description doesn’t include indoctrination. His job DOES include an obligation to provoke thinking and to remain cautiously neutral in matters of public cotroversy. I usually don’t have these concerns in my classroom because I spend all my class period actually doing my job.
If my son came home with this assignment with the explanation given in the article, I’d be at the school board the very next meeting.
For instance, I post here at Free Republic. I have definite opinions. Those opinions do not have a legitimate purpose in my classroom, especially since I’m an English teacher. If I do voice an opinion, I make it very clear that it is my opinion, and that opposing views are not only heard, but those views are welcome. Of course, if we ever got into a discussion about imprisonment during wartime, I’d better have a text about it in front of a student to justify the discussion, and I had better be prepared to create a professional distance from the students to moderate the debate instead of promoting a viewpoint.
Good night! The guy should be delivering pizzas next year.
Thank you for your service as an excellent teacher. Your students, parents, and community are lucky to have you as their teacher.
This would be funny if it weren’t so sad.
I remember when civics and social studies were taught by football coaches who had no agenda other than making sure the jocks passed.
Man, those were the days. . .!
compromised by the Left.
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Marxists and Useful Idiots.
Please call them what they are. We will not win this philosophical civil war unless we identify the enemy for who they are. Marxism is our nation´s most serious threat, and government schools are their most important and effective weapon.
We can survive nuclear suit case bombs, economic depressions, World Wars, and plagues,,,,but,,,,we will NOT survive if the Marxists, who have thoroughly infiltrated our government schools, succeed in indoctrinating the next generation of voters.
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