Teacher presents “fact of the day” about Romney allegedly being a bully back in high school.
Student: “Didn’t Obama bully somebody, though?”
Teacher: “Not to my knowledge.”
Students tell her about Obama, in his biography, telling the story about bullying someone.
Teacher: “Stop! Stop! Because there’s no comparison. He’s running for president. Obama is the president.”
… students object that that’s not a fair debate
Teacher (talking over the student): “You got to realize, this man is wanting to be what Obama is. There’s no comparison.”
… students object…
Student: “If you’re gonna talk trash about one side, you gotta talk trash about the other.”
Teacher: “You will not disrespect the president of the United States in this classroom.”
Student: “I’ll say what I want.”
Teacher: “Not about him, you won’t!”
… students bring up that President Bush was constantly maligned when in office.
Student: “Whenever Bush was president, everybody talked shit about him.”
Teacher: “Because he was shitty.”
… no disciplinary action has been taken against the teacher.
This is unacceptable in my opinion. The teacher’s position should always remain neutral whenever possible.
But, I imagine this kind of interaction has been quite common for a number of years, especially after the GOP started support for a reduction or elimination of the Department of Education.
The fact that this interaction was recorded is notable.
I only wish my teachers had been similarly recorded when they were treating certain students poorly.
While I don’t support the teacher’s position, I also don’t really see why this warrants disciplinary action. It’s not like she threw someone out of her classroom for having a differing political opinion. She just said some stupid shit.
ETA: I can’t watch the video right now. Was she screaming or something?
I didn’t listen/watch the whole thing, just the first few minutes, but I think she seemed like an annoying teacher but nothing about seemed like it she needed to be disciplined. Being a bad debater doesn’t mean you need to be fired.
Every time she told the kids to knock it off because you can’t disrespect the POTUS but Romney is just a candidate I was hoping the kid (who was doing a fine job of holding his own) would have said “Obama is a presidential candidate as well”.
Yes and no. She wasn’t screaming, per se. She was frustrated and seems to have a rather shrill voice. The part I listened to, just the first 3 minutes or so, I don’t think anyone would have heard her from more then 10 feet away from a closed door.
I couldn’t stand to listen to much of that but from what I heard, the teacher had completely lost control of her class. It’s not that she was winning or losing the argument - both sides were presenting some pretty stupid statements - but that she shouldn’t have been engaging in sophomoric squabbles at all.
Your point about the DOE is baseless, education has always been overwhelmingly a State and Local thing in this country, the DOE is mostly a toothless waste and always has been. It has nothing to do with classroom behavior of teachers and never has.
Well, that’s kind of a fresh chunk of bullshit, it’s the first time I’ve heard the “don’t criticize the sitting president” shit be applied to anybody but Bush.
It’s still stupid bullshit of course, just a bit different. Different chunks of corn in it maybe. Do bulls eat corn?
Social studies teachers are the ones most likely to have to teach controversial subject matter, and it’s often a matter of walking on eggshells. Teachers are trained to be neutral, and if they aren’t trained, they learn real quick-like.
That being said, I can see teaching respect for the office of POTUS no matter who occupies it. However, to expect kids to respect one specific president over another isn’t professional. Of course, I wouldn’t have chosen that “Fact of the Day” because it is so loaded. But I don’t see any evidence of lack of understanding of content, just overwhelmingly obvious (and blind) partisanship. She should be spoken to and required to remediate, but it’s not a firing offense.
This teacher was out of line. I had one teacher very much like that in elementary school. He got called on it a couple of times. Teachers in public schools ought to keep their political opinions under wraps, and in any discussion where political views are validly discussed, all students should have a chance to present their own opinions. No evaluation or comparison of students or teachers personal opinions should occur based on their content.
Maybe the teacher made a mistake in this case, but a pattern of this behavior would warrent dismissal, if the school had the sense to draw classroom guidelines about this kind of behavior. Which if they haven’t done, they should do now.
Can you name other ways in which she is “utterly ignorant” of the subject she teaches, or is defense of Obama the only thing that drives you to outrage?
How is that ignorance of the Constitution? There is nothing in there that says that you have to defend a president, sitting or previous, or that you can’t say bad things about a president, sitting or previous. In fact, if anything, the First Amendment to the Constitution says we can. It’s just not professional to do so when you’re teaching a class.
If I’m wrong, then please enlighten me with chapter and verse from the Constitution, not some right-wing blog.
The teacher shouldn’t get into shrill political debates, I’d say. But she’s right in that there is no comparison between Obama’s bullying, pushing a girl when he was what, ten? And Romneys bullying, getting a gang of high school senior jocks to hold a “sissy” down while they publicly humiliated him by crudely cutting his hair while he screamed for help and openly wept.
Children push each other. Only complete twats get gangs together to publicly humiliate and assault people they perceive as homosexual.
Teacher here for going on 30 years. DOE controls some funding, mainly for special education, and otherwise is pretty well invisible to a classroom teacher. Teachers who believe it controls their behavior probably also believe the CIA is monitoring their personal phone calls.
Because the Constitution protects the right of citizens to criticize - in this dimbulb teacher’s terms, to “disrespect” - a sitting President.
She is also ignorant of her subject because she claimed, falsely, that the student could be arrested for criticizing Obama, and that others were arrested for criticizing Bush. Both statements are (obviously) false.