RoR: Forum

Now that is really disturbing. The teacher should be fired.

Post 1

Sunday, April 14, 2013 - 8:18am

My impression of this and of a similar story out of New York (http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/04/12/new-york-school-district-apologizes-for-jews-are-evil-assignment/) is that the teachers were trying to rouse their students out of habitual ways of thinking and encourage critical reasoning. I should think Objectivists would welcome this.

Post 2

Sunday, April 14, 2013 - 8:52am

If that is the teacher's goal, the teacher should have sense enough to warn parents before the fact.

Post 3

Sunday, April 14, 2013 - 10:44am

Parents need a warning that their children will be encouraged to think for themselves? Some would say that's what schools are for.

Post 4

Sunday, April 14, 2013 - 2:08pm

I would question any system that extorts money from parents and then feeds their own children ideas squarely at odds with the values of those robbed in the first place.

The father himself said it best:

He said he just wants to see a "proper, unbiased education" system and doesn't want any kind of religion or politics brought into the classroom.

"I believe in our Constitution. I am a veteran, I served for six-and-a-half years proudly and I served to protect our rights," he said. "Now whenever I have someone coming in and trying to pollute my child's mind with biased opinions...there's no education in that."

Post 5

Sunday, April 14, 2013 - 9:08pm

My thoughts exactly Luke.

Now if it had been high school and the teacher asked the students to write an essay refuting or supporting that statement that would have been different. However these were young children who at that stage of life often swallow concepts without critically thinking because teachers are an authority figure.
The teacher should be fired.

Post 6

Monday, April 15, 2013 - 9:59am

Which Constitutional rights is the teacher willing to give up? How about her right to due process? Jules called twice for her to be fired, so just fire her without a hearing. Seems fair.

We had such debates in high school. They were not popular with the administrators. They did not want parents upset. When I was in the 11th grade, a senior on the school newspaper, wrote an opinion piece called "Hodgepodge from the Hill" in which she contrasted two contradictory press releases from the White House. (The White House is not on Capitol Hill, actually.) The school rounded up all the papers the morning they were delivered.

Yet, on the other hand, we had the Model United Nations every year sponsored by the Council on World Affairs.

So, what is allowed and how it is presented depends a lot on context, but I agree that as presented in the news, the teacher was not really encouraging children to understand anything relevant to civics, but to memorize something of her own invention.

Post 7

Monday, April 15, 2013 - 9:55pm

Ok ok she should have her hearing first.

Post 8

Tuesday, April 16, 2013 - 9:07am