Posted on 03/02/2006 3:38:43 AM PST by Glacier Honey
The Overland High educator is on administrative leave. Cherry Creek's superintendent said a balanced viewpoint will be given to students.
An Overland High School teacher who criticized President Bush, capitalism and U.S. foreign policy during his geography class was placed on administrative leave Wednesday afternoon after a student who recorded the session went public with the tape.
In the 20-minute recording, made on an MP3 player, teacher Jay Bennish described capitalism as a system "at odds with human rights." He also said there were "eerie similarities" between what Bush said during his Jan. 28 State of the Union address and "things that Adolf Hitler used to say."
The United States was "probably the single most violent nation on planet Earth," Bennish also said on the tape.
Bennish, who has been part of Overland's social studies faculty since 2000, did not return calls seeking comment Wednesday. Cherry Creek School District officials are investigating the incident, but no disciplinary action has been taken, district spokeswoman Tustin Amole said.
Bennish was placed on leave "to take some of the pressure off of him" during the investigation, which could wrap up in a week, Amole said.
Superintendent Monte Moses, who received a copy of the recording on Monday from 850 KOA-AM radio show host Mike Rosen, said it appears "a breach of district policy" occurred.
"Our policy calls for both sides to be present ... in the interest of intellectual discourse," Moses said. Bennish's presentation appeared to be unbalanced, he said.
The district is looking into whether the incident was an isolated one and will ensure that a balanced viewpoint of the president's State of the Union address is provided to students, Moses said.
Moses also said the district will be fair to Bennish. "People in life make mistakes occasionally," he said. "We address them. We learn from them."
The 20-minute recording of only a portion of the class was made by 16-year-old sophomore Sean Allen the day after the president's speech. The recording has raised questions about what level of academic freedom is acceptable for high school teachers. It also has generated discussions about Bennish on dozens of websites.
Sean, who appeared on Rosen's show Wednesday morning, said in an interview he had been disturbed by the "political rants" he heard in Bennish's class. He added that he wanted to tape the session for his father, who later shared it with the media.
Sean, who described himself as a political independent, said the comments seemed inappropriate for a geography class.
"If he wants to give an opinion in class, I'm perfectly OK with that," he said. "But he has to give both sides of the story."
James McGrath Morris, an author who has written about academic freedom issues, said Bennish's comments are acceptable for an adult audience, but they are hard to defend in a high school classroom.
In a number of legal cases, courts have ruled that "up until the age of majority, children are easily influenced ... in a way that they don't have the faculties to sort out rights from wrongs," Morris said.
No! I haven't. Is it good? I've read a couple of Mr. Clavell's novels, but not this one.
It is very good and short. It shows how a teacher can brainwash a child.
I know when I was raising Cain in the early 90s about what was going on in the classroom.. folks just sort of eased away, quietly, from me. And when I wore a billboard in front of the school during "drop-off" time.. well, I guess I just wasn't very quiet about it all. And years later, so many strangers and not-strangers alike would sidle up to me at grocery stores, etc., to tell me how right I was ... "back" then. I spent 10 straight years being the "go to" person for people freaking out over what they were being put through via "pub ed", and aiming these folks in better directions, to contacts, to better educational means.
It was like an underground railroad.. moving kids and families to safety (from the unions and abusive "bureacrats"). The "they" definitely had my name on a list, and seemed to make it their supreme pleasure to torture me, annually.
I homeschooled my kids beginning in 1993. My kids are grown. Was it worth it?
Every last bit of it.
Over the last decade+, have been trial balloons floated by the usual control freaks, that parents should have to be licensed.. to be.. PARENTS. Cincinnati tried this. Got lots of press. Went down, real quick, real fast. No story on page B-22, either. It went underground. I'm sure the "thrust" will percolate again. It's what Underlies, methinks, Hillary's grat "health care plan".
The Robert Reich model of turning the schools into government "catch-all" centers. Centralized government resting at each and every PUB ED SCHOOL.
Hillary has to hate "private ed". You see, how can she pay off all her pals with government largess, unless for PUB ED.
Now I gotta read the book you are referring to. :) Sounds truly wicked and engaging. Unlike "her".
check on the internet, It is short and may even be on line.
Tape recorders will help.
Especially for the very young, IMHO. Young children are usually incapable of putting into words what they are being "fed" in the classroom.
My eldest two kids were very verbal. But even 6 months out of pub ed, was I learning what they had been learning. I was beside myself. I had blood in my eye. How dare these fatuous "adults" lie to my children?
It's the story of Hansel and Gretel, yeknew. The witch and her candy house ARE many of the teachers in PUB ed....
I couldn't agree MORE with you. I've written volumes on this subject. Of what is being "taught" to the wee ones. The ones who don't have experience or knowledge (or brain pan yet) sufficient to be able to tell mom and dad what is going on during the day.
Leftist twits like this only know one side of the story. The side that's a pack of lies.
Like Ronald Reagan once said, "the problem with liberals is not that they know so much, it's that they know so much that's not true".
That's the horror of it. They don't even know they've been metaphysically lobotomized.
They don't even know it.
Liberals invade everyone's personal space. They feed off the vibrations of other living souls and because the place they themselves inhabit has no warmth or vitality.
It's why Liberals get in your face: they don't have one. They look in the mirror and don't see anything. In their frustration and fear, they scream at you; praying you'll scream back and register to them that they are alive.
lol... Are you suggesting he be given a mineral bath?
ok. Thanks!
The teacher now has an ACLU lawyer..Same one the Ward Chrchill had ...I wrote to the school already ..We ALL need to do that and slam this Marsist pig and the school's principal.
trason laws ? Do they even exist anymore? seems like the do not to me..Sad.
"Sorry, from I see in classrooms this doesn't happen nearly as much as you think it does."
How do you monitor and see other classrooms while you are teaching in your classroom?
What a moron!
Well, he is a smug "intelligentsia" type. Ya know, the "I know more about everything than you" type of fella.
I get ya. I know what you mean.
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