Posted on 05/25/2012 6:16:00 AM PDT by Paladins Prayer
Many of us have heard the story about the North Carolina schoolteacher who shrieked at her students that they could be “arrested” for criticizing Barack Obama. The teacher’s words speak for themselves and have been, as is only right, roundly condemned. But it’s not her behavior that bothers me most.
It’s no secret that schoolteachers often seek to instill their leftist tendencies in students or that conservatives recognize the problem. What conservatives don’t recognize so well are the leftist tendencies in themselves.
What do I mean? Consider the following exchange between said teacher (her name hasn’t been released) and the student she locked horns with:
Teacher: Do you realize that people were arrested for saying things bad about Bush? Do you realize you are not supposed to slander the president?
Student: You would have to say some pretty f**** up c*** about him to be arrested.… When Bush was President everybody talked s*** about Bush.
Teacher: Because he was s****y.
The problem is not just what the teacher said, but how she said it. Do you find it at all striking that profanity is accepted as part of dialogue in this classroom, on the part of both teacher and student? Because I haven’t heard any conservatives mention it.
(Excerpt) Read more at thenewamerican.com ...
Clearly the teacher had no control of the classroom. She had lost moral authority and respect, probably long before the taped incident. Who was the adult, and who were the children.
A speaker gets demoted several steps in anybody’s mind when he/she uses profanity. The Bible indicates a person will be held accountable for every word out of their mouths.
I often tell clients to answer questions in 10 words or less and then be silent. Even if there is air to fill.
LLS
I do, however, recall that the tone and demeanor of the young man's voice was calm and reasoned while that of the teaher was unhinged and shrill.
I am also tired of requiring our side to be calm, polite and reasoned while the enemy is allowed to be unhinged, uncouth and shrill. Yeah, it would be nice if we could always do so. Of course, it is best that we always try. Certainly, if we all had the command and mastery of words and ridicule as, say, a Mark Steyn, it might even be possible.
But sometimes, when fighting bullies, you have to hit back and you can't always aim it above the belt.
I’m not sure what your point is here. I’m all for waging just war and killing people when necessary, but what does that have to do with defining deviancy downwards?
Thomas Jefferson said, ‘Every so often the tree of liberty has to be refreshed with the blood of patriots...and of tyrants,’ and I agree. But he never said we should curse them out.
William Buckley was a pro at maintaining his cool while skewering verbally the opposition. Are we too dumb to do the same?
I don’t think anyone is saying that we shouldn’t be tough and always have to be polite. The point is that we don’t have to be vulgar in the process.
I have to wonder if you guys actually read the article or just what I posted here. The points are made very well.
It bothered me. It also bothered me how out of control the class room sounded. The kid was a lot more coherent than the sad excuse for a teacher, but he should not have ventured into profanity. The rest of the class room should not have sounded like hoodlums.
Yes, apparently many are too dumb. But there are better examples than Buckley. How about Bill Donahue of the catholic League? He rakes libs over the coals and is tough as nails, but he isn’t vulgar. Alan Keyes is also a fiery, take-no-prisoners speaker and he doesn’t have to curse either.
Why are people confusing toughness with being vulgar?
But the fact of the matter is that we do not have enough A team debaters to fight with every F team debater which the far left has ensconced in positions of public trust.
Yeah, the kid should strive to move up to our A team. But he's a kid, for heaven's sake! So if a C team debater is the best that we have available to fight their F team, then I say go for it.
This type of language is so common among the young these days that they do not see it as profanity. It is tolerated around the dinner table and in their everyday groups. It is a legacy of the "Days of Rage" back in the 70's and a gift from good old Dr, Spock who eschewed discipline.
Not exactly. It wasn't unanimous; in fact, the school defended her until the public outcry became too much to ignore.
Again, everyone’s missing the point. The article isn’t so much about the kid. The point isn’t to condemn him. It’s about the coarsening of our society and how we can’t remain a free people if we don’t have virtue.
He did with rare exceptions such as when he threatened to punch Gore Vidal in his G--------d mouth when he called him a proto-Nazi.
“The Bible indicates a person will be held accountable for every word out of their mouths”
hahahaha
I bet he even did that with more grace and aplomb than most
well I am too, esp for the times, many times, I have been mad at God
And cursing like a drunken sailor is not a virtue. Have you ever seen profane language in the Founders’ writings? What do you think they’d say about such loose use of the tongue in the public arena if you could ask them?
Suddenly, I am reminded of George Washington and that winter at Valley Forge. Washington, as you probably know, was a Godly man who never used profanity and was quick to reprimand any man or officer within earshot who did.
But fewer people are familiar with how that winter actually built a field army capable of holding their own with the greatest army in the world at that time.
A key to building that army was the tactics and drills taught by Baron von Steuben, a crude and profane man, but one whom Washington immediately embraced because e had exactly the knowledge and skill which his men needed. Further, there weren't a lot of William F. Buckley or Alan Keyes alternatives to choose from. History records that von Steuben, who spoke very little English, would launch into a profanity-laced tirade in German then demand that his translator pass it on to his men in English.
All George Washington would do was stand by and do his best to conceal a smirk, usually without much success. The men grew to love von Steuben and the rest, as they say, is history.
George Washington didn't lament that the only help which stepped forward to volunteer to do a job which needed to be done was a profane man who couldn't even speak much English. And, during this Valley Forge of the conservative movement, neither shall I.
I'm only grateful that this young man was there to fight a battle none of us were there to fight. I'm also hopeful that a good education will give him the polish and opportunities to continue to do so with a diminishing degree of profanity and an increasing level of effectiveness.
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