HOME | POLITICS | SPORTS | LIFE | SCI/TECH | OPEDS | HELPFUL TIPS
|
Mar. 4, 2006 And now we have the latest example of left wing hubris as a high school Geography teacher, Jay Bennish, in the Cherry Creek School District in Colorado was recorded by a student in full blown anti-American, anti-Bush rant. His audience wasn't a group of fellow teachers, a political association or the local branch of the Optimists Club. No, his captive audience was a group of students, his students, who were somewhere around the age of 16. The recorded portions of this speech that I heard sounded more like something that might be played over loudspeakers in an enemy POW camp. And, despite the fact the now suspended teacher claims his words were taken out of context, the angry passion evident in Mr. Bennish's voice seems to contradict that notion. Among the thoughts expressed by the teacher were that the American flag is symbolic of the nazi flag to many and that America is the most violent nation on earth. He also added the perspective that the World Trade Center, White House and Capital buildings were all justified military targets. There was no let up or questioning tone in his voice. It was full-throttle guns blaring left wing propaganda. Almost as soon as the teacher was caught on tape and suspended, he hired an ACLU attorney who began screaming about "freedom of speech" rights. Sure, this guy is entitled to his opinion, whatever it may be, and the Constitutions of the "violent" country he lives in guarantees that he can speak his mind; however, that constitution does not guarantee him the right to impose his views, unchallenged, on a room full of children. Teenage students are sent to public school by their parents to learn to use their minds. As part of this one would guess that it would be beneficial to introduce some controversial, even provocative, topics to help generate discussion and free thought. In this way it is probably a good thing to present alternative viewpoints and offer opportunities for students to develop their own ideas and share them with the group. When, however, overzealous teachers (and the term is used loosely) use a captive audience of impressionable minds as a forum to unload their one-sided and semi-factual tirade, the trust employed by parents in sending their kids off to be educated (by strangers) is broken. This intimidating environment offers no chance for students to offer their perspective, and that assumes they are the bright ones who are aware enough to formulate contrary thoughts when blasts of anger are coming from an adult who happens to be in a position of authority over the students. The true problem, though, is not in this one instance of a teacher overstepping his bounds. It is the fact that this scenario is repeated far more often than we know in secondary schools and colleges across the U.S. and even the world. It seems that every year there are a few stories of a teacher or professor somewhere or another who has been spewing liberal messages unchallenged within the classroom. Some say, that perhaps the teacher in this latest case has been framed, that he was just presenting one side of an argument before moving on to another position. We cannot know for sure until more facts our out. One thing is clear, though, I know of no cases where a conservative teacher or professor was recorded ranting right wing messages to captive kids. I have not heard of situations where students feared receiving a lower grade for turning in a paper endorsing liberal policies or candidates or an anti-Bush thesis. I know of very few far left speakers who are refused access to college campuses for speaking engagements. And I also have the personal experience of hearing my own nineteen year old college freshman niece this past Thanksgiving tell me that she doesn't like President Bush, because "he's imposing Democracy on the rest of the world." Nineteen year olds just do not develop thoughts like this on their own and nor do they even use a phrase like that without hearing it somewhere else first. She was obviously parroting what was told to her by some teacher or Given this, I think I'm going to side with the student, Sean Allen, in the Colorado school case. I think that's where the odds lie. In terms of my niece, I had to point out to her that 80% of the voting population in a former dictatorship would not risk their lives standing in line for hours for the right to vote in a truly free election for the first time in decades if the free society was being "imposed" on them. She looked at me with a blank stare after this comment. It was apparent she had never been exposed to a different perspective, and did not know entirely how to handle it. ------------ About the author: Ed Abraham is a concerned citizen living in flyover country, U.S.A., who happens to be truly disgusted by the loss of common sense in our society and is doing all he can to try to reinstall it. Email: eabra@myway.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
