I once was an on-call substitute teacher. I spent the time in an environmental class deconstructing the activist video the regular teacher had me show one day, pointing out its fallacies and that it advocated lying and illegal activity for "the cause." The students seemed interested (they were bored with the video, which was clearly one of many they had seen).

Needless to say, I was never called back to help with that class again!

This whole episode was part of the interview process for a cushy teaching job in Aspen or Vail. Apparently, he scored well.

Now we have to insure that the intolerant left does not try to ban tape recorders from classrooms. Sun light is a good disinfectant.

Sun light is a good disinfectant.

As a teacher, I would have LOVED to have a camera going at all times while I was teaching. I'd even put it on the web. Several times I would have been very happy to play back for a parent the behavior of their little darlings--or refute a kid's accusation about something I'd said or done.

Sun light is a good disinfectant.

...for thoughtcrime, it seems.

On Monday, Michelle Malkin was indignant, among other things about a book, unabashed propagandha textbook by a peace studiess activist teacher that he used in his class, much of which featured aphorisms of Gandhi. By the same logic, I suppose that Bush being photographed in India today, throwing flowers on Gandhi's memorial, might be considered the act of a unabashed liberal propagandist for peace as well.

Hmmm.

On Monday, Michelle Malkin was indignant

*shrug* If you want to bitch about Michelle Malkin, particularly on something so off-topic, why not bitch TO Michelle Malkin and leave the rest of us out of it?

There is a funny post about this over at HoT:

http://hammeroftruth.com/2006/03/02/teacher-suspended-for-insulting-hitler/

He's also wrong on all the substance:

http://lawnrangers.blogspot.com/2006/03/dissecting-rant.html

Bill Metzger:
"...for thoughtcrime, it seems."

Attempting to infect impressionable young children with BDS is not a "thoughtcrime", it is an abberation that we're lucky was caught by a concerned young man.

What so often gets ignored by teachers of this ilk is that they are not being paid to push off their political opinions on kids, but to teach the subject. All you hear from immature and overbearing 'teachers' like Ward Churchill and Bennish is what they think, and it's all about them. Most of the time, these ego-dorks get away with it because lower grades are the price of disagreement in class, and it's a subtle form of tyranny.

I'm happy that Bennish is being exposed but I wonder if this has anything to do with it?

http://blog.timowensby.com/2006/03/04/well-i-wonder-if-jay-bennishs-class-is-one-of-the-two-that-sean-allen-says-he-is-failing/

I listened to the recoding of the lecture. While clearly from a feftist perspective, every fact he cited seemed to be correct.

I invite Wizbang posters to refute the statements of fact that the teacher enunciated. Use good sources to be deemed relevant.

Yeah, he gave a facualy correct, but not a balanced lecture.... But he did say this:
"I'm not in anyway implying that you should agree with me, I don't even know if I'm necessarily taking a position. But what I'm trying to get you to do is to think about these issues more in depth and not to just take things from the surface."

God forbid we should not teach our children to look at both sides of an issue............

Demonizing liberals is cutting of your nose to spite your face.

I'm sure the teachers' unions are now going to bully all schools into adding all audio/video recorders to the list of "zero tolerance" contraband.

As a High School Baseball coach for 12 years, I can say this with absolute conviction. School Teachers need to be DRUG TESTED not athletes. If Mary K Letourneau would have had to prove she was not on DOPE, she may not have got Knocked up by a 6th grade student. The Left Wing-nut teachers across this land think their ideologies must be force feed the young to give their political party the best chance.

The day we drug test Teachers and the arts like we do Jocks? Is the day I will have as much respect for artist and teachers as I have for a JV player.

Signed the Freaking Coach

This is sheer insanity, people! Is everyone really that asleep?! Suspending a teacher for....voicing opinions, wow. I don't care what the topics for the class were, I don't care what the political makeup of the class is. The BOTTOM LINE IS, PEOPLE are allowed to voice ANY and ALL opinions in any forum they choose, and if it is considered dissent, then so be it. You may choose to disagree, you may ignore it, you may organize an argument in oposition. But, you have NO right to censor ANYONE for ANY reason, period.

Here is the beginning and the defnintive END to any and all greivances presented by the numerous stormtroopers looking to persecute political dissenters.......

"Those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither"

-Ben Franklin

Thanks for this last reasonable post. Without the understanding that an informed, critical public is the bedrock of a democratic government, the structure can collapse. Dictatorships, totalitarian regimes suppress critical thought. Just look at the cultural revolution that took place in China where citizens were encouraged to 'inform'on others -- people who were 'critical' of the 'People's' Republic of China. We need to be concerned about what is going on in Colorado (and the rest of the country) and support our educators. Education is supposed to challenge us to improve ourselves. Not the way of 'blind faith' but through the path of critical reasoning. While the founders of our country may have not been perfect, we can appreciate the model they gave us. A model to avoid tyrrany (like England at that time) rather than become one. But it seems as if we are going down that road, through blind patriotism.

Intolerant left? Posted by Ra.
Its the right that seems to like all this spying
& informing on fellow citizens.The last thing the right seems to want is to shine a light on whats going on in our country.I believe that we need to be more transparent ,Starting with this administration.& why didnt the boy just go to the principle & lodge a complaint ,instead of bringing the tape to a radio talk show host.This story seems to have a bit of preconcieved sensastionalism to it.
Also I wish I had a teacher that would have engaged me like that. Whether I agreed or disagreed it would have been great to be able to argue & dissent rather than just sitting with a text book & taking tests like I/we did in the 50s

What's all the fuss? G. W. Bush will retire rich in Jupiter, FL at our expense. All we're doing is "scrapping" over nothing. All G. W. Bush cares about is $$$$. The American people will retire in poverty, while Bush and all is RICH croneys will be retired in weatlh. Also the torturned detainees are now uing the USA and guess who's paying for it? Not Bush. We are. Again, we'll retire in poverty and Bush and Co. will retired weathy and with the best of everything, while the American people will be scrapping over "freedom of speech." G. W. B. & Co. are laughing at all of us - all the way to their banks!