Posted on 12/01/2005 11:27:55 AM PST by Spiff
This is the benefit of a charter school. You had a complaint, and someone quickly took action. I guarantee this would not happen in a regular public school.
A classroom during the day is like a community . Teaching is not the only thing that goes on . Teachers are parents,lawyers,nurses,doctors and prison guards at various times during the day . Many things that happen are truely private . Things happen that can be the result of many weeks or months in the making . A person, even an administrator might take the happenings in a negative way without prior knowledge of what led up to the action . Many students also do not want their words taped without prior knowledge . In our district, there are specific guidelines for the taping of a class by a student or parent and the teacher does have the last say in these issues .
My main concern is that you should review all appplicable rules before mentioning to third parties that you privately taped the class. Remember, people have been fined for taping phone calls over the air and relaying information to the Democratic operatives in Florida.
The government also needs a permit to wiretap .
I personally think this teacher has some serious issues , primarily an insecurity complex .
I also think that the administration in this building is lacking in professionally handling your request for disallowing a textbook to be used as a primary source of information that is not approved by the district .
Thanks for the update; fyi, the attitude of the teacher is extremely similar to that of a teacher (a counselor, the principal, the curriculum head, the superintendent, and a few others) I had to deal with when my daughter was in Kindergarten....and, again, for the "values" being taught rather than subjects, such as reading, writing, and arithmetic.
You have GOT to be kidding. I would have been playing it back in the car, probably in the school parking lot. :D
I don't know anything about the legality or ethics of taping a classroom but common sense tells me it shouldn't be a big issue. I think you underestimate what you refer to as "laypeople." If I heard a tape of what was happening in a classroom, I think I am quite capable of comprehending the fact that you are coming in on the middle of things that may have begun earlier. As for a teacher's role, I think you underestimate us here too. Anyone who is paying attention to the news these days, knows what is happening in schools. Oh, BTW, my baby brother has been teaching 20 years in an urban district in the worst school in the district. Last year an administrator was attacked with a chair (by a parent!). This year a student wrestled a security person down and tried to wrest the gun from the security person. There are so many incidents, I couldn't begin to name them all but I am well aware of what kinds of things happen in schools. Try not to think we are so dumb! Frankly (no offense to you personally), I think a lot of teachers are pretty incompetent, unintelligent, and even, downright ignorant. I give you all the credit though because it's not like it was when I was a kid.
Well...?
Spiff, this teacher/missionary did say he might be killed for preaching Christianity in a Muslim country. That's a lot more honest and non-PC than most school presentations ever get. Also non-PC was having a Christian talk about Islam, instead of a Muslim to totally sugar-coat things.
Now this missionary may have seen things to admire in the Muslims he met, or admired certain aspects of the particular society he was in. Nothing wrong with saying that.
I think you have something of a treasure-trove in this missionary, and your son should realize that, and ask for more information, IF he wants to learn more- but not insist that the answers all reflect as badly as possible on Muslims and Islam - because that wouldn't be honest inqiry.
Matter and energy are intergeable; the total is conserved.
I agree completely. I never said anything bad about the teacher who gave the presentation, or at least I didn't mean to. I discussed the whole thing with my son last night and he was disciplined for his bad behavior. He had to write letters of apology to all involved and to rewrite the original letter in a more appropriate tone and to be more accurate. He chose to leave out any protest about Islam since, after we learned better and discussed it with him, it appears that the teacher did attempt to cover some of the topics that my son addressed in the original letter. Maybe not to my son's satisfaction, but my son never spoke up and asked about any of them.
Today they held their tolerance and diversity assembly. My wife attended because she was invited by the science teacher. The presentation consisted of the teacher who is a former Christian missionary who served in an Islamic country. He gave pretty much the same presentation that he gave to my son's class, but this was for the upper grades. Then the science teacher gave a presentation and spoke about some religion that nobody had heard of and my wife couldn't even remember what it was. It is something from Malaysia and it starts with the letter P. She had a little more info about it and I've Googled, but can't find it.
It was lame, but it wasn't really offensive in any way as far as my wife was concerned.
I hate to disagree with you, but in a taxpayer funded public school and with a teacher who draws his salary from taxpayer funds, there is never anything that happens in a classroom between the class and the teacher that is ever private nor should there be.
Scrutiny and outside observation works. After the initial fireworks caused by the teacher's extreme reaction to our presence, the scrutiny that we've brought to his classroom has done wonders. The students report a significant improvement in how the teacher is treating them. We'll see how that works out over time, but we see some immediate effect when we're there and even after we've left based upon reports from our daughter.
It also sounds like he's ready to back down on the book and he said that he's going to retool his entire lesson plan over the holidays to eliminate the offensive "science" book entirely. He's not the most honest person (his story keeps changing about why the book was there in the first place and how he intended to use it) so we will take a 'wait and see' approach and watch him closely.
My wife has volunteered to serve as a Teacher's Aide in his classroom and he has accepted. This way, she can keep an eye on him AND be helpful. So, I think we may have won on this one, but we won't know for sure until some time in January.
I don't know why you seem like you are going off on me . I am stating a FACT. You can't legally tape a class without the permission of the instructor and/or the administration. If you do it secretly ,and it damages the teacher in question by becoming public knowledge, you are liable. This is common law in lieu of common sense . All I am doing, is suggesting you don't mention the taping to the wrong people or you might get your arse in a sling . If you don't believe me , ask a lawyer .
BTW, I never said you were "dumb" . I realy can't figure out why you made that statement . However there are things in education you are not aware of as you were never a teacher . I feel for your brother also . If he was smart he would try to transfer out of that hellhole while he still has a mind . The conditions he is teaching in are the main cause of early burnout and depression in teachers. I have even advocated that select teachers in a building should be licensed to carry . They would have to pass a psychological and training The teacher(s) in questiion would not be identified . People would think twice before trying to take over a school building like they did in Columbine and elsewhere.
Good luck with your quest . The teacher in question has so much insecurity that he probably will not be around too long anyway .
Merry Christmas !!
I don't know what you're talking about. You never called me dumb, I never said you did. I don't know what you're talking about when you mention my brother since I don't think I ever mentioned him and he's not a teacher anyway. I think you've misposted or something. I'm not going off on you. I think you have me confused with someone else.
My mistake .Somebody named PavedParadise replied . Didn't notice the tagline ...
Merry Christmas anyway and good luck !
I don't know why you seem to be going off on me. You can't
legally tape a class without the permission of the instructor and/or the administration. If you do it secretly ,and it damages the teacher in question by becoming public knowledge, you are liable. This is common law in lieu of common sense . All I am doing, is suggesting you don't mention the taping to the wrong people or you might get your arse in a sling . If you don't believe me , ask a lawyer .
BTW, I never said you were "dumb" . I realy can't figure out why you made that statement . However there are things in education you are not aware of as you were never a teacher . I feel for your brother also . If he was smart he would try to transfer out of that hellhole while he still has a mind . The conditions he is teaching in are the main cause of early burnout and depression in teachers. I have even advocated that select teachers in a building should be licensed to carry . They would have to pass a psychological and training The teacher(s) in questiion would not be identified . People would think twice before trying to take over a school building like they did in Columbine and elsewhere.
Good luck with your quest . The teacher in question has so much insecurity that he probably will not be around too long anyway .
Merry Christmas !!
However, I've done some intensive Googling and could not find anything about this person. Then, my wife attended the "diversity and tolerance" assembly yesterday and the science teacher's presentation came from a website. He made enough of a note of the website's content for me to find it. The site was packed with the science teacher's writings. He has a PhD and is a prolific writer and does so in PhD-speak.
Anyway, his writings are completely in line with the eco-spiritualist nature of the "laws and principles" of human ecology that brought this textbok to my attention. His beliefs on world governance is also in line with the textbook's political bent. In fact, he makes the argument that a world police state with big brother controls is, while not optimum, a better alternative to our current environmental destruction, wasting of finite resources, world poverty and wealth inequity, and wars between nation states. Heck, from reading his writings I could easily assume that it was he that wrote the "laws and principles" himself since they are completely unsourced in the textbook and I've been unable to find a source on the Internet other than the dozen or so occult/wiccan/pagan sites that they appear on.
So, I think I've disabused myself of the notion that the science teacher may not have been trying to brainwash the students with a bizarre eco-socialist worldview. His writings betray him.
As I said earlier, it appears he's retooling his lesson plan and eliminating the book. We'll see... I'm really going to have to scrutinize what he's doing to make sure that his bizarre ideas are not injected into the lessons. He's got several other science books in the classroom that he will be using that he purchased himself. I'm going to have to inspect them too to be sure they aren't as objectionable as the first one. He's welcome to his weird ideas, but he better keep them to himself when he's teaching science.
Nobody was "going off" on you. If you are a teacher and that sensitive, I'm amazed you survived that long. As for my brother, he takes the bad stuff because he's a good teacher and knows that a lot of the kids want to do well. It's an urban school and if nobody had the guts to teach those kids, then it would be a sad day for the ones who are poor but have a desire to learn. He does it for them. The few times he's thought about leaving, the kids would beg him that he has to stay and do it for the other kids. He's one of the few "true teachers" out there. He's not a nutcase and he's not burned out either (amazingly).
I'm not sensitive at all . Matter of fact I probably would have smacked you if it was in person. Cut me a break dude ,I only stated a fact. You want a lawsuit, go ahead and tape someone without their knowledge . That's how lawyers make mucho $$$$$$.
As for your brother , God bless him. I paid my dues for 35 years and now enjoy Corona and cigars during the cold winter months while the rest of the ( left wing idiots ) I taught with freeze their a$$es off .
Merry Christmas .
That's funny. Honestly, I don't know what I said that seemed to irk you so much. I was talking more about laypeople understanding more than you think about what goes on in today's classrooms. I don't remember really commenting at all about taping stuff so maybe you are confusing me with another Freeper. Meanwhile, just the tone in your replies sounds like you need to chill out just a bit, bro! Relax. As you said, you paid your dues, so just relax and enjoy!!
C'mon, I'm still waiting for a "Merry Christmas !"
Oops. Merry Christmas!!!! God Bless you in 2006! And thank you for all the years you served teaching your young people! How's that?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.