I’ve stated in a different forum that Sept. 11 was Karl Rove’s and George Bush’s Reichstag fire. Many people have pointed out the fascist tendencies and the Nazi Like thuggery practiced by the far right wing of the Republican Party, which pretty much is the whole Republican Party.
In Aurora CO a teacher was suspended for having the intellectual honesty to say that “some people” compare George Bush to Adolf Hitler. That’s upsetting enough. His class was taped by a student who then brought it home to Daddy who confronted the Principal who caved and suspended the teacher. The Colorado teacher’s union in a craven display stated that because the teacher wasn’t a member he was on his own. There’s enough crap in the sandwich that all those involved have to take a big bite.
Here’s the AP story.
AURORA, Colo. (AP) – About 150 high school students walked out of class to protest a decision to put a teacher on leave while they investigate remarks he made about President Bush in class, including that some people compare Bush to Adolf Hitler.
The protest came Thursday as administrators began investigating whether Overland High School teacher Jay Bennish violated a policy requiring balancing viewpoints in the classroom, Cherry Creek School District spokeswoman Tustin Amole said.
“It was peaceful. The students yelled, but there was no fighting,” Amole said. “Most of them did return to class.”
A telephone number listed for Bennish, who has been teaching social studies and American history at Overland since 2000, had been disconnected.
Sophomore Sean Allen recorded about 20 minutes of Bennish’s class during a Feb. 1 discussion about Bush’s State of the Union speech and gave the recording to his father, who complained to the principal, Amole said.
“After listening to the tape, it’s evident the comments in the class were inappropriate. There were not adequate opportunities for opposing points of view,” she said.
Deborah Fallin, spokeswoman for the Colorado Education Association, which represents about 37,000 union teachers, said it will not represent Bennish because he is not a member, but said that Bennish has hired an attorney.
This is America. Little nazis afraid of their own shadow and what anyone might say about them, and students who to be able to think and learn. James Madison is beside himself. I can hear him screaming right now: “Way to go kids, Never give up, Never give up, and by the way Harry Truman says give them hell.”
The irony of course is that the good people of Aurora who are so afraid of loose opinions of the fearless leader actually act like the nazis the teacher was referencing. The hallmark of the right in America: hubris and incompetence and the willingness to express them both.
Great diary!
I was listening about this on the radio on the way home tonight from work. What a sad day we here in America have come down to. I hope this teacher gets his revenge on someone there. I really do. For he does speak the truth.
“some people” — like 2005 Nobel Prize Laureate Harold Pinter, who famously does not hesitate to liken B*sh to Hitler? Pretty sad day when one cannot even mention a view held by a Nobel Prize Winning author!
Nice diary.
Just as a number of incidents have demonstrated that “creative” work involving artwork, the writing of fiction or poetry is for safety reasons, unsuitable for schools in the US at this time, educators who employ “current events” classes and activities would be wise to heed the words of Mr. Danger, who had called for an increased focus on science.
As long as the science does not contradict previling US Christian religious beliefs, which might make biology, for example, a bit tricky, and chemistry might go there too, but if I am not mistaken, Mr. Danger has also mentioned the importance of mathematics.
To my knowledge, none of the more influential clerics have as of this writing, issued any edicts regarding theorems, or the impiety of pi, so it will probably be better for all concerned if schools confine their efforts to basic literacy and mathematics.
This would not interfere with the schools’ primary purpose, to train children to go somewhere every morning, sit quietly, and follow instructions.
And speaking of basic literacy, congratulations are in order – the other day I saw on CNN where now 51% of US high school graduates are able to read!
This is quite an improvement from the last figures on this I heard, somewhere in the forties.
My speculation is that this benefit is due to the NCLB-born emphasis on standardized tests. The child sees
A) a probable answer, but couched in such a convoluted sentence structure that it’s hard to tell which part is supposed to be the answer
B) something affluent white kids will be more likely to know
C) a really absurd answer that would be the one chosen by 73% of adults
D) another probable answer, but worded to sound like it’s the really absurd answer
E) none of the above
Years of drill with such tests were bound to produce students who know at least the first five letters of the English alphabet.
I’m not sure where you’re going with your comment. But it led me to this, so thanks.
The Radical Right wants education to be about creating consumers and cogs for the capitalist gears that support the investment class in America. But that is not the original intent of public education, the greatest American Invention Ever.
The intent of public education is the creation of citizens who will be have the intelligence to sustain a republic. The attacks on public education from the fascist Right in America are expressly for the purpose of deflecting education from its original intent. Unfortunately, they’re winning because too few people really understand the genius of public education; to create citizens who think and act rather than sit at home and watch American Idol (Go Lisa).
So I’m heartened by the responses of the students as much as I’m not surprised by the fascist leanings of the Aurora school.
You just said it with more clarity, grace, and I would say also with more brevity than I did, but that would be damning by faint praise. 😉
That genius of the idea of public education was and is not appreciated, nor intended, by the elites of the haves, even from its inception. The history of US public education is the history of educators’ struggle to wrest that genius from the “system.”
Well said by both of you… :^)
It isn’t just that most American businesses and the theocon-crats think “eduction” (in the classical liberal sense) is a waste of time. It’s positively dangerous.
They want high schools to churn out ignorant wage-slaves, and they want colleges to function basically as white-collar vo-techs. While pushing theo-corporatist doctrines in their spare time.
MBA credential-driven crony-network business culture is KILLING this country. I see it at my workplace, and it destroyed the company my wife worked for for 15 years.
Ignorance has a cost. Thus I have formulated a corollary to the Peter Principle (I’m sure others have realized this too):
“Incompetent Managers are unable to recognize incompetence, and thus many employees actually tend to rise at least one level above their level of incompetence”
Dammit, I previewed that and I still missed “eduction”. Given the topic there’s a certain irony there…
An overdose of edjumication can certainly put a person on edge. 😉
What a great phrase.
Here in the land of the unwashed poodle there is great excitement about the importance of correctly placing one’s apostrophes while writing examinations.
Apparently the greengrocer’s apostrophe shall flourish no more in this green and pleasant land.
Know Your Isms
FEUDALISM
You have two cows. Your lord takes some of the milk.
SOCIALISM
You have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else’s cows. You have to take care of all the cows. The government gives you a glass of milk.
FASCISM
You have two cows. The government takes both, hires you to take care of them, and sells you the milk.
COMMUNISM
You share two cows with your neighbors. You and your neighbors bicker about who has the most “ability” and who has the most “need.” Meanwhile, no one works, no one gets any milk and the cows drop dead of starvation.
DICTATORSHIP
You have two cows. The government takes both and drafts you.
PURE DEMOCRACY
You have two cows. Your neighbors decide who gets the milk.
REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY
You have two cows. Your neighbors pick someone to tell you who gets the milk.
BUREAUCRACY
You have two cows. At first the government regulates what you can feed them and when you can milk them. Then it pays you not to milk them. Then it takes both, shoots one, milks the other and pours the milk down the drain. Then it requires you to fill out forms accounting for the missing cows.
CAPITALISM
You don’t have any cows. The bank will not lend you money to buy cows because you don’t have any cows to put up as collateral.
PURE ANARCHY
You have two cows. Either you sell the milk at a fair price or your neighbors try to take the cows and kill you.
ANARCHO-CAPITALISM
You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.
CORPORATE CAPITALISM
Both cows are bloated with toxic steroids. They are set out to graze on privatized public parks, release massive amounts of flatulence that destroy the ozone layer, die from excess ultraviolet light, and are processed into meat-like products that look great as a result of unprincipled marketing strategies. You mortgage your artificially devalued farm at high interest rates to buy meat, and you consume the poisoned material and develop terminal illness because there is no health care plan to treat you. The corporate management uses your purchase price to acquire THEIR meat from cows raised “naturally” on tree-free rain forest land outside of the country where labor and resources are cheap.
LINK
PREDATORY CAPITALISM:
Someone who is not your neighbor, but who has heard about the lovely cows you have on your property makes the trek over to your place, knocks down your fence, tramples all the chickens, children and dogs in the yard, makes off with your cow, milks it for all its worth, patents the product, then kills the cow and leaves the rotting corpse in your yard. When you come out your front door with this “wtf-look” on your face, the predatory capitalist who just destroyed your life chains you to the fence and leaves you there to stare at the spoils he left in his wake.
ooops….
leaves you there to stare at the spoils he left in his wake while he moves on to greener pastures in search of another cow to milk and another way of life to lay to waste.
This is a wonderful metaphorical expression of the history of the European Invasion of America.