Posted on 03/07/2006 2:43:02 PM PST by Aussie Dasher
A high school social studies teacher who was put on leave after comparing President Bush's State of the Union address to speeches made by Adolf Hitler defended his lecture on Tuesday, saying he was trying to encourage students to think.
"My job as a teacher is to challenge students to think critically about issues that are affecting our world and our society," Jay Bennish said on NBC's "Today Show."
Bennish is on paid leave from Overland High School in suburban Aurora, Colo., while Cherry Creek School District investigates whether his Feb. 1 lecture violated a policy requiring that balancing viewpoints be presented in classes.
A student recorded at least part of the lecture in Bennish's world geography class and took it to a Denver radio station, which played parts of it on a talk show.
Bennish told "Today" the excerpts broadcast weren't representative of the full lecture.
"This is 20 minutes out of a 50-minute class. The rest of the class provides the balance," he said.
On the recording, Bennish told the students that some of Bush's speech "sounds a lot like the things that Adolf Hitler used to say. We're the only ones who are right, everyone else is backwards and our job is to conquer the world and make sure that they all live just like we want them to."
Later in the recording, Bennish said he was not claiming Bush and Hitler were the same, "but there are some eerie similarities to the tones that they use."
Bennish said no parents - including the family of the student who recorded the lecture - have complained to him. He said all the students' parents had seen his syllabus and that school officials had approved it.
"My job as a social studies teacher is to argue alternative perspectives and viewpoints so that students are aware of those point of views. They do not necessarily reflect my own views. They are simply thrown out there to encourage critical thought," he told "Today."
How about if the students discuss the actions of Benedict Arnold and decide who in America is guilty of treason.
Mr. Bennish, your job is to teach Geography.
Contrasting Bush and Hitler IS NOT geography.
If you want to poursue this angle, see to it that you are transferred so you can teach a Current Events class.
The little boy teacher needs to be spanked, fired, and sent back to first grade to learn how to live with civilized people.
Perhaps he can teach how the fallacy of the Holocaust in Austria. /sarc
You may be a social studies teacher, but this was a high school World Geography class.
Wait... Air America is actually making enough money to hire more employees? O_o
Sean Allen's father was on Rosen's show, and said a number of older students who took Bennish's class in the past, are coming forward and volunteering to testify that Bennish did the same thing in their classes.
Anyone who wants to witness Marxism in action should look closely at the federally funded "Close Up" program which is a substitute for civics, history, and social studies, in some public schools.
This is an odd reading of the SOTU. I do not recall W speaking even those concepts let alone using those words. Apparently Bennish is lacking in the ability to comprehend the meaning of the spoken word. Perhaps he should stop teaching critical thinking until he has mastered the behavior of understanding English.
Surprise! Surprise! He defended his actions. I would love to see him when he tries to defend it to the School Board, he broke the District's policy.
I happen to make my own current events questions because the internet company we use has very bias questions. Take a look at a few of them.
Data analysis by the NYT's showed that the Bush administration worked at fostering a more cooperative relationship with WHAT industry and has decreased fines for safety violations?
Mining.
After all the security concerns surrounding President Bush's visit to Pakistan on Saturday, he was first hit by a bouncer then fooled by a googly. Explain.
President tried his hand at cricket.
In 1994 OJ Simpson was at 18% approval rating as WHAT politician today???
VP Cheney
The latest CBS News poll had WHAT percent of Americans now approving of the job President Bush is doing??? a) 34% b) 39% c) 44%
a, 34%
At 56% a year ago, what western governor is now at 37% and voters are not inclined to re-elect him?
Gov. Schwarznegger
Whose note to Dr James Dobson, the influential Christian conservative, thanking him for his support in his appointment and confirmation to his new job was passed off by his spokesperson as one of score written in response to letter of congratulations received?
Justice Alito
What West Coast city's Board of Supervisors voted 7-3 to ask their Democratic Congressional to pursue the impeachment of President Bush?
San Francisco, CA
The US and Britain are planning to pull all their troops out of Iraq by the Sping of what year , two British newspapers reported in their Sunday editions?? a) 2007 b) 2010 c) 2015
2007
see, i don't agree with you on the discussion of current events in a classroom. i think that kids are simply too uninformed nowadays about current events, and it's okay to talk current events in any class, AS LONG AS it is a DISCUSSION, rather than a diatribe or indoctrination such as this.
i would hope there would be no current events class, but rather that daily events would be something that people feel comfortable just discussing.
but the problem is, really, that so many teachers are not trustworthy, i am sad to observe. they use the classroom as a pulpit to impose their ideological preferences on their students.
heck, i don't even care if a teacher talks about ideological and political preferences to my kid, as long as it is qualified that there is an open mind about such discussions and NO ONE is made to feel inadequate/unworthy/stupid for taking an oppositional point of view. NO GRADE should be faulted for having a differing point of view than the teacher.
just my two cents.
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