It's a sad day when teachers are no longer entitled to any opinion and issues of free speech are brought into play in a country like the USA. However, it has happened in a high school in Denver, Colorado, where social studies teacher Jay Bennish has been placed on leave for questioning George Bush. Denvish was tape-recorded by a student saying that the president's State of the Union address "sounds a lot like the things that Adolf Hitler used to say. We're the only ones who are right, everyone else is backward and our job is to conquer the world ". Bennish even closed his speech by saying that he wasn't " implying in any way you should agree with me …. What I'm trying to do is to get you to … think about these issues more in depth". Would this have happened if Bennish had praised Bush and a liberal student played the tape to his parent. I doubt it very much. Teachers are entitled to have an opinion and should not be in fear of questioning the government in a democratic nation. Education is the one place that should be free from too much government interference and if debate can longer thrive in this environment, where can it?
1 comment:
Hi, I was wondering if you would be interested in linking to my site and I to yours. I currently have a blog on the situation in Iran, updated daily, though not as much as yours. So if your interested could yah give me a hint. fpiran.blogspot.com
What a world we live in when our own teachers can't even express their own opinions. Tis a sad time.
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