A digest of the top blogger thoughts and ideas - The A listers

I suggest that for the sake of balance you provide a link to the offensive video shown the children.

Taking the context of the video into consideration, I'm going to take a real leap of faith here and make the assumption that the conservative point of view was not presented by teacher Scott White.

Its interesting to note that when conservatives express a dissenting opinion of an issue, they wrap themselves in the flag. When liberals dissent, usually a flag-burning ensues.

I'm entirely supportive of anyone expressing their freedom of speech & expressing dissenting opinions of political ideas that they do not agree with. However, expressing a dissenting opinion also comes the responsibility of communicating the dissenting message in a mature and meaningful way.

Teacher Scott White's stunt was juvenile and irresponsible. He simply comes across as another flag-burning liberal & has NO place imposing his leftist views in the classroom. His job is to teach not indocrinate. The same goes for conservative teachers as well.

I think what needs to be taken into consideration is context. The guy was supposed to be teaching science. I fail to see how a political propaganda piece fits into that (it would be just as much propaganda if it was "Clinton is an a**hole"). If it had been a political science course it would be understandable if it were to serve as an example, but that is not the case.

As a teacher in training, I find this to be abhorent. Two of my personal icons are two of my highschool history teachers. One was VERY liberal, one was VERY conservative. Both would discuss politics in class if asked, but they would make it clear that what they were saying was simply their opinion and encouraged us to look into other viewpoints as well. Otherwise they stuck to accepted historical fact. I really admire the liberal teacher -and I say this as a conservative- because he would tell us where to look to get both sides of the issue without us having to ask for that too. The teacher in question here seems more interested in forcing his view on the kids rather than encouraging any kind of intelligent debate.

Lastly, on the mother should go listen to 13 year olds. I agree that if she thinks they don't swear, she's in for a big surprise. However, it's not the 13 year olds swearing that is the issue here. Teachers are supposed to be professionals. Last time I checked it was unprofessional for teachers to employ swearing and other 'vulgarities' when teaching a class.

For Patrick-
Link to the video: http://filmstripinternational.com/

Original news article:
http://www.enewscourier.com/local/local_story_096210918.html?keyword=topstory

Thanks, Ranba for including the link and thank you to Patrick for the insightful comments. I do agree that showing this video was outside the scope of a science curriculum. Where it would fit in well is in history class - especially in a discussion of the US and war.

In high school I also had two outstanding history teachers that taught together. One exercise we had was to lead a small group discussion arguing as devil's advocate for an explosive topic. A video like this would actually be useful in this kind of situation.

I feel there are three questions here: (1) Whether the video should be shown in science class, (2)Whether it should be shown in history class with appropriate discussion or (3) Whether it should be shown at all.

I feel that it is OK to be shown in school, to 8th graders, as part of an open discussion.

Diane -- are you sure you really believe such stuff?

After all, I AM a high school history teacher.

Do you really want your child to be expected to parrot back MY views on political topics as a condition of passing my class -- or even being allowed to leave the room?

Do you really want your child to be expected to parrot back MY views on political topics as a condition of passing my class -- or even being allowed to leave the room?

No, of course not. However, as a part of a discussion in a history class, I think the video is fine.

"No, of course not. However, as a part of a discussion in a history class, I think the video is fine."

The only way it would be "fine" would have been in the context of teaching the kids about PROPAGANDA.....had the teacher shown this film and then contrasted it with another film supportive of the president, and then engaged the students in a discussion about how propaganda is used by all sides in politics, I might agree. For a Bush-bashing democrat running for Congress to use the bully pulpit of his classroom to attempt to indocrinate young skulls full of mush to HIS way of thinking is so far beyond appropriate that one has to question the competence of this teacher.

Max