Chick tracts, dodgeball, and budding racists - a day in the life of high school

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

OR, Win Some/Lose Some.

I’ve had a lot of stuff I’ve wanted to post online about my student teaching at Vista High School in California. I’m having a blast. I love my kids. I can’t wait to do this for a living.

My first story is from a couple of weeks ago, and you can find the media’s take on it at http://www.nctimes.com/news/112200/mm.html.

I was there. The students were the first to complain when members of a Baptist church started handing out Chick tracts just off school grounds. During the protest, I stood just on school grounds, maybe five feet beyond these guys, holding open a trash bag. Probably half of the students walking by accepted a track. Anywhere from two-thirds to three-fourths of them immediately dumped the tracts in my trash bag or one further down the line.

Since the protest, there have still been two or three of these nitwits out there in the morning, but I suspect that their efforts aren’t paying off nearly as well as they’d like. The day of the protest, the organizing teachers were told by many people - students, teachers, faculty members, and staff - how glad they were of the protest. The principal, a man who apparently loathes controversy, has finally spoken to the school district attorney and Vista district attorney in an effort to keep the nitwits from bothering the students. I’m all for the First Amendment, but I don’t believe it covers soliciting minors without the express permission of their parents.

Second story - this one was sent to me by a friend in Dallas. It appears that some schools are finally beginning to question the use of “dodgeball” by PE coaches as a legitimate activity. Gee, you mean it’s no longer fair play to pick an outcast and abuse the hell out of him or her? How unfair! How unAmerican! How else are our children supposed to get their exercise? After all, playing soccer and other team sports just isn’t violent enough.

And, finally, a third story from my turn at school yesterday. My team and I are doing an “Action Research” project for class. It entails identifying a problem with the school - hassles during lunch have taken on nightmarish proportions due to the overcrowding - and propose a solution. As part of this, we’re surveying around 500 of the students. A whole bunch of surveys got back to us yesterday, and included was the following comment:

So, it would seem, racism starts early and often includes really bad grammar. Well, maybe I can do something about both as an English teacher.

2

EW…Chick tracts. I read one I found SEVERELY offensive the other day, about how Adolf Hitler was aided by the Catholic church to destroy the Jews, how it was merely another Inquisition. IT was worse than the Death Cookie. Bastard. And the one about the Rabbi who goes to Hell.

Yeah, I guess JESUS is in Hell since HE was Jewish.

3

Reading the article on dodge ball-my friends and I liked it because we’d PURPOSELY get hit out so we could stand around and gossip.

4

How does having two groups of 10 running around on opposite sides of a line throwing foam rubber balls at eachother pick out an outcast?

5

Because sometimes it was just a free for all-no teams, everyone just in one big game, or something like that.
Plus, sometimes you had all the jocks on one team (if they picked their own teams.)
I guess it depends. Like I said, we got out on PURPOSE, then sat on the sides and talked.

6

I was always very unathletic, dogeball was the one of the few thing I enjoyed in gym class. I liked it best when we used some strategy, like waiting until our side had all the balls, having somone be a decoy, or pretending to be out. There was also a version where the goal was to knock down the other team’s bowling pins.
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7

It took me way too long to figure out that approach, Guin. Before I did, I was a favorite target of the opposing side and sometimes my own “teammates”. Blackwell, when you give a bunch of unsupervised kids carte blanche to throw things at each other, there will always be a few picked out for special abuse. It’s like Lord of the Flies with underinflated rubber balls.

8

Oh, sure you are in favor of it. Just not when it disagrees with your ideas. You were doing it when you stood there with your trash bag.

You, their teacher, were saying “that person’s ideas are wrong, here’s your chance to agree with me.” I’m amazed that even 50% of the students were even willing to pretend they would look at those pamphlets. And there you were encouraging them to not even look at a new idea.

It just so happens I agree with your opinion of chick tracks, just not the way you went about showing your opinion.

In fact, I would say the activism of the protesters was more appropriate than your activism. You, as a teacher, at least have an obligation to foster divergent ideas. It reminds me of my high school chemistry teacher who told us all that the Gulf War was wrong and that we should participate in any demonstrations against it.

You do it again later when you announce that you are going to disabuse your students of racist ideas. Are you going to get the explicit permission of their parents before doing that? (Again, I agree with the idea here)

9

I was always pegged in Doldgebal immediatly. I never felt like an outcast. I’d just wait for my friends to get pegged soon after (we weren’t an athletic clique0 and we sit and talk while the boys played. I think this is ridiculous. Unless it becomes a “free for all” and kids are deliberatly injuring other students, don’t get rid of that great excuse to socialize on a rainy day. (we always played it inside when it rained.)

10

Gym classes aren’t unsupervised and I never saw anything like that happen at any of the 5 schools where I played dodgeball. If anyone was an outcast in middle school, it was me. I was never singled out. Oh well, difference of opinion/experience I guess.

11

Ob, I don’t think that’s fair.

I am not, by any means, saying that Jack Chick can’t print all the tracks he likes, and that church members can’t hand them out. To adults who willingly accept them. Without impeding traffic. Without the numerous restrictions that are placed on our everyday speech, First Amendment and all.

It’s my personal opinion that First Amendment doesn’t necessarily cover prosletyzing to minors without the permission of the minors’ parents and/or guardians. If that turns out to be untrue, then I’ll shrug and look for other ways to protest the garbage printed in those tracts. I will not, however, take any action that is illegal or contrary to the purpose of the First Amendment.

School attendance is required by the state of California and if their parents choose to have their children attend public school, the kids don’t have any choice in the matter (legally speaking that is. Practically speaking is a whole other topic). However, the school district is part of the community, and as such, is responsive to the community’s values - within the framework of the state and national Constitutions. Two of those community values, espoused by both the Vista Unified School District and Vista High School are tolerance and respect. If a parent has a problem with that, they are welcome to contact the teacher, the principal, and the school board.

During the protest, I stood holding a trashbag just off the path to the S and T wings of school. I didn’t approach the students. I didn’t speak to them unless they spoke to me. I made sure my expression and body language was as pleasant and non-confrontational as I could make it. I specifically corrected students in the protest who tried to talk others into getting rid of their tracts. Had any of the students with tracts or without paused to discuss it with me, I would have done so happily. We did discuss the protest, the tracts, and the concepts of racism and tolerance in two classes that I observed and participated in.

There is absolutely no way I would stand in the way of a student wishing to voice their opinion - whether I agreed with it or not. I would do my best to protect their right to speak their mind. There’s also no way I’m going to pretend that I don’t have opinions of my own on particular topics.

So take your knee-jerk reaction somewhere else, Obfusciatrist. I did not sign away my conscience or my voice when I signed up to teach.

12

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I loathed dodgeball in school. We played it often, but not with foam or rubber balls. No, we had to use volleyballs (did I mention that this was in high school?).

My definition of fun includes some pretty strange things, but having some hormone addled jock with emotional problems winging rock hard volleyballs at my head, suprisingly, isn’t one of them.

Those guys didn’t throw to get you out, they threw to knock you out (and in my case, they succeeded once).

Of course, the teachers think it’s all in good fun, naturally.

Damn gym teachers, scarred me for life.

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13

when I got to Junior High, Dodgeball (anyone else call it Killball?) was replaced by a great game called slap tag… kids laid on their stomachs in groups of three…
one kid would be the rabbit, and one would be the runner… the rabbit got a 5 count headstart, and the runner would chase him trying to slap him… anywhere but the head… and not hard, oh no, just enough so he knows he’s been tagged…

You had to drop into a triune, wherein the kid at the end opposite from you became the runner, and had to haul ass…

real fun… I got a handprint on my back that lasted for 8 days…

14

I do, so I guess we will just have to agree to disagree.

**

Never claimed you did. In fact, I agree with you that Chick tracks are hateful, inflammatory, and generally a waste of good trees.

What I was saying is that your protest against these tracts is equivelant to the “proselytizing to minors” being done by the pamphleteers. Handing out those pamphlets is a moral/religious discussion. You protesting those pamphlets is a moral/religious discussion. You felt those people should have to get explicit permission. I was just saying that, in that case, you should have to get explicit permission as well.

I didn’t go this far before, but I think of the two, demonstrations by teachers - on school property - are worse. The students can choose to ignore the pamphleteers but they can not so easily choose to ignore the teachers. Also, I do believe that schools and their employees are barred from taking religious positions on school property. How pissed of would you and ACLU have been if there were a teacher standing there encouraging students to take and read the pamphlets?

I would disagree with you vigorously, but with the way the First Amendment is going in this country, I wouldn’t be surprised if you are eventually right.

That is why your protest is so insidious (and exactly the reason public schools are forbidden from taking religious positions). This is why those pamphleteers were not allowed on campus. And yet your protest was allowed on campus; I don’t really see the difference.

See, this is where I had the problem with what you originally said. People who disagree with your (and your school’s) values should get explicit permission from parents (opt-in) while the school gets automatic passive permission unless the parents call you and say otherwise (opt-out). And really, can they opt-out? If a parent called you and asked that you not teach “diversity” to a student would you? Or would you just laugh with the other teachers in the teacher lounge?

I’m not saying that opt out is not the way it should be, but if you are going to get opt-out when it comes to teaching “values” to children, why shouldn’t everybody else?

**

That’s good. That is the way teachers should handle such things. But out of curiosity, was it really a discussion? If a student had said “I think homosexuality is wrong” would the teachers have allowed that sentiment to stand unopposed? Further, how do you discuss this without taking a religious stand (you obviously feel that this particular branch of the Baptist faith is wrong)?

I’m genuinely asking. When I was in high school we were similarly pamphleted by Aryan Nation. There were many classroom “discussions.” I use quotes because there was little discussion and we were pretty much informed of the correct position.

You are right, there is no reason to ever stop a student from expressing an opinion. However, when acting as an agent of the state there are certain issues on which you are prohibited from expressing an opinion. Religion is one of them and when you are on school property you are acting as an agent of the state.

I don’t think my reaction was knee-jerk. What you describe doing is exactly the type of activism I despised in several of my teachers when in school. Though most of my personal examples were of teachers supporting a religion I don’t really see how your act in protest of a religion is any different.

And no, when you became a teacher you did not sign away your conscience but you did sign away your unfettered right to a voice. There are certain things our government is not allowed to say, and in your act of protest you said one of those things.