Teachers responsible? Heh.

Here in Michigan public school teachers closed the schools and took an unofficial day off to protest charter schools.

The agenda of most public school teachers is skewed towards pushing their liberal viewpoints and getting as much money as possible for as little work possible. So much for "what's best for the children".

BTW, teachers here are NOT underpaid. $50,000-$60,000 on average for nine months work is pretty good for a so called 'vocation'.

I'm not surprised by what the Brooklyn teacher did, I'm sure many more have done the same. Probably with the consent or direction of the NEA.

In dealing with my own children's teachers, except for a few, I've never met a less intelligent more mis-informed group of people.

Students in one classroom had to contact the school board to get their teacher to remove campaign signs for the dem candidate for governor from their room.

It's elementary, Watson!

Remember the F-16 that bombed a school in NJ?

What else do you expect from glorified babysitters? I have about as much respect for the average grade school teacher as I do for personal injury lawyers, used car salesmen, and street people who beg for money.

Kevin: You missed the best part:

"While we would never censor anything that our children write, we sincerely apologize for forwarding letters that were in any way inappropriate to Pfc. Jacobs. This assignment was not intended to be insensitive, but to be supportive of the men and women in service to our nation."

What the hell does he mean they "would never censor anything that our children write"? They're fucking kids! And if they wouldn't censor them, then the following apology is total b.s.

Sounds like this teacher had some input to the tone of the letters. SHAME on him/her!

No wonder our kids are behind every other country in Math/Science. There is way too much time spent on non-3 R's activity in schools.

I have a nephew in middle school and he couldn't tell you much about the Iraq war. Kids that age don't watch the news. They get their biases from what they are told by teachers (and parents.)

Let me guess, the kids parents "Support the troops" but hate the war, right?
-=Mike

This just goes to show you how much the anti war rhetoric pervades our media and schools.

I do wonder though, if the kids didn't need a bit of a geography lesson as Korea isn't anywhere near Iraq.

For an article that bitches about grade school education, you gotta love the caption on the picture:
"Pfc. Rob Jacobs of New Jersey received scathing letters from Brooklyn sixth-grader."

Also, I don't understand where the teacher's bias comes into it at all. See this paragraph:
"Most of the 21 letters Jacobs provided to The Post mentioned some support for the armed forces, if not the Iraq war, and thanked him for his service. But nine of the students made clear their distaste for the president or the war."

IMO this was not an act of bias on behalf of the teacher. Now, had the teacher actually dictated which opinions kids were and weren't allowed to express -- that would be an act of bias.

The Post also ran this paragraph:
Most of the 21 letters Jacobs provided to The Post mentioned some support for the armed forces, if not the Iraq war, and thanked him for his service. But nine of the students made clear their distaste for the president or the war.

Lets see, 12/21 = Most and 9/21 = minority report.

Hmmm. No way a teacher could collect all 21 and not notice that over a third of them were derogatory. Oops, I mean assuming teacher had integrity and intelligence.

The sadest part here is this would be a fantastic real world chance for not only the class and teacher, but the school to learn a little more about tolerance, diplomacy and thinking about the consequences of what you write, etc. Doubt it will play out that way though.

Since there aren't any mosques near the DMZ, who is to say the troops didn't destroy them? ;)

Epador ~

It is interesting that the left, who believe that everything should be solved with diplomacy, is so darned bad at it.

When you call them on bad manners, lack of diplomacy, consequences or intolerance they start to shriek about their right to free speech.

21 marines should write back. I wonder if the teach would censor _that_.

I like how epador and mayfore quote the same passage but arrive at different conclusions. Point goes to epador!

It's the teacher's job to tell his student's what is, is not, an appropirate letter. It was his job to review them before they were mailed. It is the teacher's job to censor the student's letters if they were offensive either by making the student rewrite it or refusing to mail it.

That the teach failed to do any of the above, is evidence of bias or just plain incompetence. And the principal's statement stinks, too.

That teacher SHOULD BE FIRED!

They are glorified BABYSITTERS!

God help them if they actually had to WORK FOR A LIVING!!!

For this Liberal crazy to be brining kids into his push on propaganda is below despicable. Fire the bastard.

"It is interesting that the left, who believe that everything should be solved with diplomacy, is so darned bad at it."

Well, they seem to think socialism is what is needed to draw in red-state voters.
-=Mike

still no caption contest winners eh? its Monday already!

Mayfore

Either the teacher is incompetent or irresponsible. There is a claim that this was an assignment. So, did the teacher read each letter? If not -- incompetence. If so, and still allowed the wholely inappropriate ones to be sent -- irresponsible.

Either way, from the principal's mealy-mouthed statement I'm not going to hold my breath for any consequences for this teacher.

Long term solution -- VOUCHERS

now please

hey julie!

You beat me this time. :-)

I almost wonder if the parents of the kids who sent the noxious letters were the true authors, either directly ("Dad, what should I write?") or through the crap they're telling their kids.

Still, the teacher should have reviewed and excluded the objectionable ones. (I can just hear the moonbats now: "CENSORSHIP!!! THAT'S CENSORSHIP!!!! YOU HATE THE CONSTITUTION!!!")

Lee: You don't know the half of it. My wife's stepsister (I'll call her Hazel) is a sixth-grade teacher, at one of the worst schools in town, no less (when you don't have seniority, you get the crap assignments). She's told us lots of horror stories about people who get into early-grade teaching not because they want to teach second-graders, but because they want to be second-graders. Their idea of teaching is all-day playtime. Hazel says that about half of the students she gets entering the sixth grade each year are reading at least two grade levels behind, and that many of them have had imprinted in them an anti-intellectual attitude that makes them proud of their failures. They bully any student that "blows the curve".

Hazel tells us that she is one of the very few teachers in the school that writes up daily lesson plans. She says that most of the teachers keep a boilerplate lesson plan or two in a drawer, so that they have something to whip out when the school board comes around to inspect. They use the same ones over and over and nobody ever gets wise to them (or, if they do, they don't care). The principal is just marking time until retirement and has basically told the teachers with concerns to buzz off.

During the campaign last year, for about a week, there was a large Kerry sign posted at the school's student dropoff/pickup entrance. It took complaints to the city council and a TV station report to get it taken down. The school administration never owned up to who put it there.

They could call it censorship all they wanted to, but writing that kind of drivel to the guy in uniform is uncalled for.

The teacher should have graded the assignment and not sent the letters.

Not content with keeping their hate to themselves, the left is now resorting to teaching their children to hate as well. How nice. A whole new generation of brainwashed little Nazis are being raised by their leftwing fascist parents and knuckle dragging teachers.

The real tragedy here is that kids are being indoctrinated, either by their parents, or teachers, to believe this crap. It is a disservice to the troops, to our country, and the child's development. All we need is more non-working commie whiners on government aid...

Sounds to me like this teacher is ready for a promotion... the the PhysEd dept. Those who can, do. Those who can't, Teach. Those who can't teach, teach gym! :¬)

The solider is from Jersey, and the idiots are in Brooklyn?

Sounds like a great chance for the parents of that soldier to visit the class and set them straight

Do you suppose that this 'teacher,' on top of his other failings, did not comprehend that Korea and Iraq are not the same place?

It would sort of fit with the idiocy of the whole event.

That teacher ought to be fired.

One of the first things that must be removed to be an idiot like this teacher is common sense. BTW, the New Jersey school was not bombed. It was hit with live cannon rounds instead of the target laser that was supposed to be used. Still a potential disaster, but a bomb would have leveled it instead of putting a few holes in it. I must presume here that the pilot is no longer a pilot.

The agenda of most public school teachers is skewed towards pushing their liberal viewpoints and getting as much money as possible for as little work possible.

What else do you expect from glorified babysitters? I have about as much respect for the average grade school teacher as I do for personal injury lawyers, used car salesmen, and street people who beg for money.

And people wonder why they can't get enough good people to be teachers. Hmm.

It is interesting that the left, who believe that everything should be solved with diplomacy, is so darned bad at it.

Middle school children = "the left"

many of them have had imprinted in them an anti-intellectual attitude that makes them proud of their failures. They bully any student that "blows the curve".

Sixth graders are graded on a curve?

Oops, sorry to interrupt the "hate teachers" fest.

Reminds me of a British school teacher who encouraged her pupils to write letters to a fur trader. Oh, did I say letters? I meant death threats.

When our class wrote letters to soldiers last year, our teach proofread them.

"Middle school children = "the left""

Nope just means "indoctrinated by the left."

However I don't think teachers are glorified baby sitters.

I do think the teachers union has done a lot to screw up education in this country. Probably one of the best ways to immediately make schools better would be to ditch the NEA, kill tenure, and frankly get the feds out of the education system as much as possible.

mantis

Sixth graders are graded on the curve?

And that's if they're lucky! School Admins make it clear that teachers are pretty well forbidden from flunking kids at all!

Might hurt their little self-esteems, ya know. (and ruin the stats the school presents to the state to show how wonderful they are)

I know lots of really good public school teachers..many of them have left public schools or been forced out or slug away attempting to really teach under harassment from their mediocre peers and hostile school admins.

No need to wait for the year 2081, the world of Harrison Bergeron exists in our public school system.

Not content with keeping their hate to themselves, the left is now resorting to teaching their children to hate as well.

That wouldn't be quite as objectionable -- but they're also trying to teach other people's kids to hate.