Maybe We Could Just Teach in School?
Why aren’t we teaching in our high schools? First, reformers try to slip creationism–in the guise of Intelligent Design–into science classrooms. Instead of teaching science, teachers are supposed to try to show the way to God. As a nation, we’re falling behind in the sciences, but there’s a vocal minority who want to take even more time to focus on things that have nothing to do with science. We’re falling behind in a lot of ways and it just seems to get harder and harder for teachers.
But now, rather than teaching facts and tried and tested theories, teachers are starting to misuse the classroom by pushing there own viewpoints–be it political or religious–on to their students. It seems to have started with Jay Bennishin February of 2006. Bennish was trying to pass off his slant on the world, the US, and his anger at President Bush to his students in Colorado. Then in December of 2006 there was David Paszkiewicz, trying to proselytize in his class in New Jersey. Both teachers were recorded by their students.
Now we have James Corbett, a teacher who was recorded bashing Christians in his class and Michael Nider, showing a video called “A Letter From Hell” to his health students in North Dakota. Parents Steve and Hannah Balaban heard about the video from their daughter and wrote a letter of complaint.
Is it something in the water? Why have these teachers gotten it in their heads that the classroom has become their private soap box, and not a place to educate students? Humanist support education as education, but not as indoctrination in any type of philosophy. I might agree with some of what Corbett said, and to a lesser degree, some of Bennish’s statements. However, they have no place in a high school classroom. It’s time to teach science in the science classes and history in history classes and be done with with proselytizing of all sorts.
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Everything’s a soapbox now, as the average citizen feels more and more like an ant in the big hill. That said, back in the deep, dark ’80s, I had teachers who would pimp their church groups or make snide commentary about news items. Of course, we had a prayer before every football game, and in the pep rallies beforehand, too. Because, you know, these are the sorts of things God likes to concern himself with.
People who feel small and unrepresented will find an outlet. I once worked with a mom’s-basement kind of guy at a bookstore who only really controlled one single aspect of his life: the History section at our store. You would’ve thought it was the goddamn Ark of the Covenant he was guarding over there. Something got moved out of place, he’d find the culprit and give them a talking-to. He held onto that one piece of real estate in the world where he had a say.
There are many such people in many such careers, and it makes sense that some of them would be teachers. Captive audience for whatever cockamamie theory you’ve baked up that day, who could resist?
Color me unsurprised. The real story, however, is that this sort of thing is making the news now. That’s a good thing. But teachers inserting personal beliefs into classrooms goes back at least as far as It’s A Wonderful Life:
“Teacher says every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings!”
“Your teacher obviously has never read the Constitution, Zuzu. How about we give her a nice subpoena for Christmas?”
Here is an exapmle of why government needs to be out of education entirely. Government education has the impossible task of needing to be all things to all people. It has to teach evolution and intelligent design to appease it’s constituents.
Suppose all schools were private? They could teach whatever they wanted and would have to please only the parenmts of the students. If all education were private it would be more affordable and of a higher quality. But best of all-all the bible thumpers who errantly believe the Earth is 6,000 years old and was created in seven days would be in schools that I would never allow my son to attend. i would not have to be concerned with them and they would not have to be concerned with me.
“If all education were private it would be more affordable and of a higher quality.”
On what basis are you making this judgment? I hear this sort of statement from libertarians all the time, and thus far I have seen not a scrap of evidence to support it.
It’s funny, libertarian friends of mine (and oh yes, I have them) constantly extol the virtues of the free market, when most of them would have never gotten an education without public funds. I certainly wouldn’t have; my parents were lucky to find the money to keep me fed and clothed.
I’m sick and tired of the Invisible Hand ramming its cold, pointy digits up my backside. The idea that the free market makes things cheaper is, to paraphrase Ayn Rand, the unknown ideal. Because no one has any evidence to suggest that it would work. When given the choice between public good and profit, what does private industry do? It makes as much money as possible and to hell with those who suffer.
You want to turn us into a theocracy, educate the rich and keep the poor ignorant, so they’re more susceptible to demagogues and mob mentality, which in the U.S. translates to More Jesus, Less Thinkin’.
Ha,ha,I’d forgotten the that Zuzu got the angel story from her teacher. How very appropriate. I agree that it is good that this sort of proseltizing, on all sides, is getting attention and that the students feel strong enough to report the infractions and say that they don’t feel right with what’s going on. And people are listening to the students.
I admit that my schooling had a fair amount of proseltizing but it was such a mishmash of information I just ignored all of it even to the point of not listening to those teachers ever.
So I’ll hold your point and keep a happy heart in the idea that we are making progress.
Happy Holidays
I think this needs an opposing viewpoint, but I cannot be very charitable here. I think anyone who thinks they can “teach” in an America of this era is foolish, but those brave who do try, they get calumny from all sides, even putative “humanists.” If you try to stick to just the “facts” in history, what is the fact about torture and military aggression and pollution and elite control that you wish to highlight for your class, Lisa? Your approach, - say nothing to offend, lobotomize your own brain as a teacher - do you actually run a classroom that way? “We are making progress”? Please. There is truth, after all, and we ignore it in our mind at the cost of our integrity. We can do so to protect our jobs, to protect our standing in families, but we should acknowledge our lies, our miseducation. Are you supposed to be proud of letting raw sewage pass by, untreated, to re-enter the water supply?
There is a difference between teaching about “what is the fact about torture and military aggression and pollution and elite control” and talking about “How you can’t see the truth with your Jesus glasses on.” or comparing Bush to a Nazi. I agree that Bush is a bad president, but Hitler was an evil unto himself and it is disrespectful and dulls the sense of horror that was Nazi Germany to compare too many people to Hitler. It dulls are senses to it. This is the line I see between proseltizing and teaching. It’s putting your personal taste and sensibilities above the pursuit of education
I had teachers who were able to get discussions going by having us bring in newspaper clippings and discussing the stories in class. I know he was a democrat, but we didn’t bash Reagan, we may have had heated discussion and disagreements within the class, but our teacher didn’t put his two cents in and made us all be civil.
I grew up in Montana so we had a lot of discussion as well about Native American rights and how the European settlers mistreated the Native Americans they encountered. Was this truth teaching or proseltizing? I think describing what happened wasn’t proseltizing. I also had teachers who told us things like “If you believe in the bible, then you know what you have to believe” when teaching about Mythology, English or History. That’s proseltizing. There is a difference between teaching the truth and proseltizing.
I agree that teachers need the freedom to teach the truth, but there has to be a line between teaching opinion and history, fact and theories.
How do other Humanists feel about this? I maybe approaching this all wrong and inviting more censorship than is good for teachers and students. Do other people have an idea of how to approach this in a Humanist manner with out being punitive? I would really love to hear more discussion about our schools as I think there is a real problem there, but I don’t think we have proposed good solutions yet
I would guess that the fellow who said “You can’t see the truth with your Jesus glasses on” was having a bad day, but damn, that is one hell of a line, perhaps the best lyric I’ve heard all year - give that man a recording contract. He also should immediately contract with Wham-O to put those Jesus glasses into the marketplace - I’d buy 20 of them! What a holiday gift!
As for the Nazi analogy, actually Hitler was in no way “an evil unto himself” - he had plenty of helpers, including the Catholic Church, including the German people, including American people, including American businesses, and you had better learn about that history of a western society, with its traditions and institutions so similar to our own.
As for when people make pronouncements about what education should be, the effect gets muted when “dulls are senses” gets issued. If you fine folks in Montana refrained from “bashing” Reagan in school, then you can take some responsibility for continuing to elect Baucus and ushering in the “compassionate conservatism” of our current president Bush, and coming-on contender Huckabee. There is also a difference between teaching the truth and getting the local yahoos after you - the difference being the amount of your mortgage, your pension, your chance of making a deposit at your local bank without the dominionist teller sneering at you.
Now, I know I am trolling here, but you just haven’t gotten the humanist uplift in response I expected. Happy Yule to the teachers - it’s a hell of a living.
I actually as far as the Reagan bashing meant we wanted to bash Reagan, and the teacher helped to keep us from simply Bashing by insisting we have respect for each other and who we were talking about. Mea Culpa as far as Baucus. He’s almost an institution in Montana, even though I don’t know why.
I know I agree with some of the statements the teacher made, but I don’t think school is where they should be. I want teachers to have freedom to explore controversial subjects but I don’t know how we allow that without the bible thumping going hand in hand with the “Jesus glasses”. I don’t think either is fair to students, but I’m trying to see how we can do that.
I don’t know what to say about the “dulls the senses” argument. Maybe I’m wrong. But I do think Nazi Germany is a special evil that we need to recognize and not make comparisons to Hitler or Nazi germany lightly. I see the fascist tendency of the dominionist but that’s fascist not Hitler or Nazis but you could argue me into that comparison. I just think we need to be careful how lightly we use our words.
But how do we help teachers and students? How do we make it possible to teach controversial subjects without proseltizing? I do want to understand and have a way to support teachers, but we can’t let proseltizing be the answer.
So Happy Christmas, Happy Human Light, and especially to teachers who I know have a difficult job. May the New Year bring us understanding and peace.
As the brother of a teacher, I will say that one thing we can do to help our teachers, and bring in good ones, is to pay them what they’re worth. You really do get what you pay for, and if education in this country goes downhill, I think you can trace it directly to a pay situation that pays little to no attention to rises in the cost of living. You’ll have a lot better chance of getting people who can parse intellectual quandaries of teaching style and content if you’re not just attracting martyrs or people with no other career options.
In my occasional fits of thought about becoming a teacher myself, I have often considered ways of approaching the political divide in the classroom. I wonder if it would make sense, in history and political science classes, to go ahead and bring the debate out in the open. Bring in local journalists and commentators, representing various sides, and let the sparks fly. I think it would enlighten the kids as to just how contentious this stuff is, and how perfectly intelligent people can disagree vehemently. Anything that tells the truth about how hard it is to know the truth would be a benefit to young people, in my estimation.
But you know, I’d probably get fired.