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Yes, this news article is posted by "great Satan" of media coverage (though from the Associated Press, but I hardly think anyone will give notice to that). Yes, I don't care. No, I was not perusing FOX's web page to find articles to stir up KMC. If you're going to contribute nothing but bitching about FOX News, please don't reply.

Thoughts?

(It is my opinion that the teacher simply not put anything political into this type of exercise, avoiding even completely neutral statements.)

(EDIT: Also, I would like to know if the entire test was filled with statements like the example shown or if it was only one or two.)

This is so frustrating especially from the point where the teacher points out

"Chenkin, 36, a teacher for seven years, said he isn't shy about sharing his liberal views with students as a way of prompting debate, but said the quizzes are being taken out of context."

Yeah know the problem right there is that he can prompt debate then he can also keep the debate in HIS line of reason and control the direction of presentation. Put a cap on the presentation of political views brought to the table in Highschool classes like this.

Now I think that might be interesting in an after school debate forum or political science group but not in the class.

Liberal's trying to corrupt our youth.

Idiot. Did he really believe he would be able to give this quiz without a negative reaction from both the parents and his higher-ups?

Unless it's for a course that focuses on political debate, or that's one of the points the class teaches, a teacher should not be able to impress upon the students his political position, especially in a quiz.

I could see if it was more of a relaxed paper where the students were able to share their opinions, but this guy took it a bit too far.

Originally posted by FeceMan
(It is my opinion that the teacher simply not put anything political into this type of exercise, avoiding even completely neutral statements.)

agreed. im as much against this as i am for prayer in public schools.
kids go to school to gain knowledge, not the opinions and beliefs of someone with a teaching degree.

of coarse, others will reply as if this is just a liberal thing, which is bullshit. both sides are disgustingly guilty.

and feceman, do you think fox would have been all over this story if the teacher was putting anti-liberal questions in?

example: the dirty hippy was not (coherent, eschewed) when he spoke, because he was strung out on heroin and leftist treehugging lies

Originally posted by PVS
and feceman, do you think fox would have been all over this story if the teacher was putting anti-liberal questions in?

example: the dirty hippy was not (coherent, eschewed) when he spoke, because he was strung out on heroin and leftist treehugging lies
I do not know, and that is not the purpose of this thread.

(And I would hardly consider FOX being 'all over' the story; they posted it without comment.)

in English its pretty common for students to have to do critiques of newspaper articles of political issues...i myself had to do them on articles with viewpoints i didn't agree with...

its benefits are that it may inadvertantly get young people interested in politics and help combat apathy among the young for the political process

on the flip side...it can give a political bias either way

The teacher shouldnot be giving politically biased ideas to the students......

That said, some of those were pretty funny.

i personally would encourage teachers to show all pupils the donald rumsfeld "there are things we know we know and things we know we dont know and things we dont know we dont know" speech as easily the worst use of English in the history of the planet

Unfortunately many teachers and most curriculums are bias..Influenceing students in one way or and other and counterproductive to them developing their own thoughts...More critical thinking skills...and debates should be encouraged and let students come to their own conclusions.

Originally posted by FeceMan
Thoughts?

(It is my opinion that the teacher simply not put anything political into this type of exercise, avoiding even completely neutral statements.)

(EDIT: Also, I would like to know if the entire test was filled with statements like the example shown or if it was only one or two.)

I believe a wise man once said..teaching multiple viewpoints on a particular subject is "education." Teaching only one viewpoint on a particular subject is "indoctrination."

A teacher should be able to present his/her political views to students..as long as the opposition to his views is taught along with it..and all arguments are presented to the classroom are taught in a non-doctrinal fashion.

On another note..it's getting a bit scary that issues like this are coming up. It seems like our government is slowly beginning to move towards a secularist agenda. One where the only doctrine taught is the one that supports the government.

True...our Education system is really just government politics...What they want you to believe....Not true education....always both or many views should be studied........Especially when it comes to history.

Originally posted by KidRock
Liberal's trying to corrupt our youth.

Originally posted by debbiejo
True...our Education system is really just government politics...What they want you to believe....Not true education....always both or many views should be studied........Especially when it comes to history.

How so?

Originally posted by RedAlertv2
How so? True education is not dictated to you...It's seen at all view points and thought upon for one to ones opinions from it....Unfortunately, our education system is dictated by our government...It's funded you know.....Can't talk about other governments though.....but do suspect they do the same.....It's a hand me down view on history and or science, to make sure the next generation sees things as the older generation did.....God help if they do not....

Take any scenario....What view do you get?....What should happen in my view is get the views from all that was involved in it and then make your opinion from it...learn from it....history especially....all bias depending on what country did what to whom.

In the US, you could look at view from the south instead of the north, and vs..in WWII, you could look at what happened with Japan.......Just need to look......Why 2 bombs...and why even why...OH..it ended the war...OH, the Japanese didn't get the message to us liked we liked....but why 2 bombs.....?

Only making observations....things need to be looked at from all view points, talked about, then there will be some real learning.....

Not sure I see a problem with it. A teacher can state his opinion: there's nothing wrong with that. I had a Catholic teacher, for example, that told this joke: "How many Protestants does it take to screw in a lightbulb? None: They live in eternal darkness!"
A philosophy teacher stated rather clearly that he thought Existentialism was bunk.
Incidentally, these two were the best teachers I had in high-school.
A third, an English teacher, had our class do an analysis of an editorial letter she wrote about abortion (Her position was pro-life).
There's no agenda here, students are under no compulsion to believe what their teacher believes. Seen as it is an English grammar test in question where there's only one word that works in the given sentence, the content is in no sense normative. If it was a political science class and the correct answer was something supporting a certain ideology, that's another matter entirely, but there is nothing wrong with a teacher being honest about his opinions which is all this is.

Originally posted by debbiejo
True education is not dictated to you...It's seen at all view points and thought upon for one to ones opinions from it....Unfortunately, our education system is dictated by our government...It's funded you know.....Can't talk about other governments though.....but do suspect they do the same.....It's a hand me down view on history and or science, to make sure the next generation sees things as the older generation did.....

Well its hard to resit when Bush can't even say the word syllable properly.

It seems the ameircan education system is F'ed up. SUCKAS!!!

Originally posted by debbiejo
True...our Education system is really just government politics...What they want you to believe....Not true education....always both or many views should be studied........Especially when it comes to history.
Where the hell did you go to school if there was only ever one viewpoint taught.? I was certainly never educated like that.

I'm tired of teachers trying to impose their values on kids. Keep that sh*t to yourself.

Originally posted by Black Rob
I'm tired of teachers trying to impose their values on kids. Keep that sh*t to yourself.

Dam right

Originally posted by Zarathustra
Not sure I see a problem with it. A teacher can state his opinion: there's nothing wrong with that. I had a Catholic teacher, for example, that told this joke: "How many Protestants does it take to screw in a lightbulb? None: They live in eternal darkness!"
A philosophy teacher stated rather clearly that he thought Existentialism was bunk.
Incidentally, these two were the best teachers I had in high-school.
A third, an English teacher, had our class do an analysis of an editorial letter she wrote about abortion (Her position was pro-life).
There's no agenda here, students are under no compulsion to believe what their teacher believes. Seen as it is an English grammar test in question where there's only one word that works in the given sentence, the content is in no sense normative. If it was a political science class and the correct answer was something supporting a certain ideology, that's another matter entirely, but there is nothing wrong with a teacher being honest about his opinions which is all this is.
They being examples of good teachers has little to do with the topic at hand.

I think the teacher was jealous of that chick in Texas who's always on the news and wanted their share of air time, too.

Originally posted by BackFire
The teacher shouldnot be giving politically biased ideas to the students......

That said, some of those were pretty funny.
agreed.

Originally posted by FeceMan
They being examples of good teachers has little to do with the topic at hand.
How so? They stated opinions, just like this English teacher. There was absolutely no negative side effect to any of these statements and to say that they are indoctrination is just silly. It's the same situation, so I'm using it as an analogy. It doesn't matter what opinions an educator holds. What is relevent is whether or not he can teach the curriculum properly. If he can, there's nothing wrong with him stating an opinion in class.

Originally posted by Zarathustra
How so? They stated opinions, just like this English teacher. There was absolutely no negative side effect to any of these statements and to say that they are indoctrination is just silly. It's the same situation, so I'm using it as an analogy. It doesn't matter what opinions an educator holds. What is relevent is whether or not he can teach the curriculum properly. If he can, there's nothing wrong with him stating an opinion in class.
The point isn't the negative effects; the point is the inappropriate nature of doing so. I could walk around with a swastika on my shirt and it wouldn't hurt anyone, but it would be a very *******-ish thing to do.

Originally posted by FeceMan
The point isn't the negative effects; the point is the inappropriate nature of doing so. I could walk around with a swastika on my shirt and it wouldn't hurt anyone, but it would be a very *******-ish thing to do.

Good point. I guess there are definately lines that shouldn't be crossed by the teacher in the classroom, regarding their personal opinion. Condemning a particular race/religion/sexual creed would definately be among them. I guess my biggest concern is that of over-censorship.
For example..many could make the same arguments over whether or not a teacher should be able to express certain religious views. In fact in recent years...many who oppose various religious doctrines are actually doing this very thing.

Maybe one of the solutions during situations such as this would be to have teachers notify parents/principles of what type of curriculum they'll be teaching in their class, with parents being able to opt their children out of particular assignments and discussions based on their content.

I guess the biggest question to ask is "How much censorship is too much?" I don't think anyone wants our Government to become a Communist one, which censures anything that doesn't support the Government's political idealogy.

I do believe that some censorship of personal opinion is needed in the classroom, particularly when kids are at a young and impressionable age. I don't really think the teacher in this particular scenario was crossing the line though. In my highschool government class, I used to have a teacher who would poke jabs at Clinton from time to time. Didn't really effect me/others any. Now if the teacher were to teach an entire unit which focused on how "evil" a particular political ideology/leader was..then I would have some concerns. But I don't think one sarcastic question on a multiple choice test will have any long term effects on anyone.

Originally posted by Zarathustra
How so? They stated opinions, just like this English teacher. There was absolutely no negative side effect to any of these statements and to say that they are indoctrination is just silly. It's the same situation, so I'm using it as an analogy. It doesn't matter what opinions an educator holds. What is relevent is whether or not he can teach the curriculum properly. If he can, there's nothing wrong with him stating an opinion in class.

This topic has already been discussed on the "why can't you wear a T-shirt with the word F*ck on it on an airplane" thread a few months ago (before you joined). I'd suggest you catch up on a bit of research.

In case you don't feel like bothering, one example brought up was for you to walk around your town wearing a shirt saying "F*ck your Momma" for a few days and see what happens. Also, try not bathing for a few months. You may already do that, so I may be a little redundant. You're not hurting anyone, right, so it must be OK?

I have no problem with the teacher stating his opinion.. it's the teacher injecting his opinion on politics into a completely unrelated english quiz that's unnacceptable. I can't stand it when teachers use opinion based questions on tests where there's a "right" and "wrong" answer, my health teacher used to do it all the time. Felt like writing "matter of opinion" in the little blanks but it just wasn't worth it.

Originally posted by FeceMan
The point isn't the negative effects; the point is the inappropriate nature of doing so. I could walk around with a swastika on my shirt and it wouldn't hurt anyone, but it would be a very *******-ish thing to do.
The point there is the negative effects, though. People are offended by a swastika on your t-shirt, and that is why it is frowned upon. It has nothing to do with your behaviour (which is on its own rather innocuous unless your intention in putting on the shirt is to offend people) and everything to do with the negative reactions of others, thus the effects of your wearing it. Response dictates what it appropriate. If the general public didn't notice one way or the other, or tolerated or celebrated the fact that you wore the T-shirt there would be nothing inapproriate about it. There is no such thing as an inappropriate "nature". Inappropriate is always based on the situation.

I accept that if students are so very offended by their teacher stating his opinion, than yes they should approach him about it and he should abstain from doing so. If they are not, it is not inappropriate. However, that hardly seems like the sort of thing that should warrant a news article and attention from administration. Also, it seems that students are far too easily offended if they have a problem with a tongue-in-cheek remark on a test.

It's gotten to the point that so many people (conservative and liberal) are offended by so many things that it's offending me!

Originally posted by botankus
It's gotten to the point that so many people (conservative and liberal) are offended by so many things that it's offending me!

this comment offends me

I'm not offended yet by your offensiveness, but if I offend you one more time, I"ll probably have to decide that I'm offended as well.

i find bush to be offensive to chimpanzees.
stereotypical imitations is just wrong! apes have feelings too!

Why don't we start following the most intelligent student school system? Is it Japan?

Originally posted by justdecent
Why don't we start following the most intelligent student school system? Is it Japan?
Have you seen their cartoons?

That's why.

What a shithead educator. This is exactly the kind of mental state that most colleage professors get involved and want their students to follow. He has every right to express his political views and opinons. But don't bring them to your classroom or even worse impose them on the students.

Tarded

Wow...

Another example showing our schools as a benchmark of intellectual and unbiased teaching strategies.

This is just shameful.

Originally posted by BackFire
Wow...

Another example showing our schools as a benchmark of intellectual and unbiased teaching strategies.

This is just shameful.

It's no more shameful that curriculums which teach entire units on Evolution, sexual deviance, and Atheism.

Oh yes it is.

None of those promote prejudice towards other people.

Sexual Deviance is a subject option... man I sure went to the wrong school...

Originally posted by Adam_PoE

Yeah, that essay was really 'anti-gay'.

I'd still say that it shouldn't be done, however...unless in response to an essay contest in which pro-choice and pro-homosexual marriage are lauded.

Originally posted by KidRock
Liberal's trying to corrupt our youth.

He sure is.