>There is only one China.
Yes, but there are two different governments with two different flags that claim to run that one country.
Posted on 08/23/2006 3:44:34 PM PDT by ncountylee
A Jefferson County geography teacher was suspended on the second day of school for hanging several flags from other countries in his classroom at Carmody Middle School.
Eric Hamlin said the flags were part of a world geography lesson plan and refused to remove them. Hamlin was escorted out of class and Wednesday morning by the school's principal after he refused to remove the flags of China and Mexico.
The school district placed him on administrative leave, citing a Colorado law that makes it illegal to display foreign flags permanently in schools.
"Under state law foreign flags can only be in the classroom because it's tied to the curriculum. And the principal looked at the curriculum, talked to the teacher, and found that there was really no curriculum coming up in the next few weeks that supported those flags being in the classroom," said Jeffco Public Schools spokeswoman Lynn Setzer.
But Hamlin said although his curriculum may not speak specifically about those flags, they are used as reference tools for world geography.
"It's much along the lines of a science teacher who puts up a map of the solar sysem. They may not spend every day and every lesson talking about Mars, but they want the students to see that and to see the patterns of the planets and the order, and the students will observe that, and absorb that learning visually," Hamlin said.
Hamlin said that the school district is not only depriving him of a teaching tool but also taking away from his students' education.
"The major problem I see here is with the law that limits educators," Hamlin said.
"We have to uphold state law. We really have no discretion when it comes to upholding the law," Setzer said.
Hamlin said he understands that the district is following state law so he's met with the ACLU and he said, if necessary, he plans on fighting the constitutionality of the law.
I see what you're saying, but let's not throw out the baby with the bathwater. It's a geography class. The entire curriculm in a geography class has to do with nations of the world. Seeing flags is an excellent way to get kids interested and asking questions; much more so than just having them read from a textbook.
Yes, there is a problem with leftwing teachers. But that doesn't mean that kids should be deprived of receiving the most complete education as possible. Let's look at the situation. I don't know which other flags were displayed, but right now let's take Mexico and China. Well, Mexico is a huge issue right now and a neighboring nation. China is a huge trading partner and the most populous nation in the world. Kids should learn as much as possible about countries like these because chances are they will in one way or another become even bigger issues in our nation's future.
As far as the Colorado legislature is concerned I really don't care. When it comes to the government beareaucrats and education I could care less what the lawmakers say. Let's not forget that the lawmakers there still allowed a true POS like Ward Churchill to teach, and get paid, at a State university after his blatant anti-American behavior. So, you can see why I really don't care what any government says about what can and cannot be taught to children.
My classroom is a hodgepodge of instructional aids including a full scale human skeleton, a patriot's corner (US Flag, poster of Preamble of the Constitution, wall flag of the statue of liberty and a poster of a bald eagle,} metric and other posters of scientific units of measurement, and biomes of the world.
There is also a section of the classroom reserved to display my students work.
Thank you for proving my point.
Our schools are a laughing stock precisely because of thinking like this.
They were freaking FLAGS, for cryin' out loud. FLAGS!!
It is a ridiculous law. And if it comes down to a choice between giving kids a well rounded education (and making it interesting for them at the same time) or following a truely assinine law prohibiting this, I'm going to go with the former.
You also mentioned that he could have displayed PICTURES of the flags instead. Since you seem to be such an upright, do no wrong, always obey the law no matter how stupid it is citizen, tell me how a picture of a flag is different from an actually flag, besides semantically. Are you saying that it is ok then to simply get around the law on a technicality?
Sounds good to me.
Your last paragraph is where we really diverge.
I don't know if this was case, but if there was in fact a problem with marxist (or La Raza, or fill-in-the-blank) high school teachers (wearing their stupid Che Guevara t-shirts, as I might imagine) hanging certain foreign flags having nothing to do with the curriculum but everything to do with their personal politics, and the Colorado legislature felt it had to adopt a "bright-line" rule to deal with the problem, then it's too bad the law sweeps up apolitical geography teachers who enjoyed permanently hanging a large number and variety of flags, but I blame the left-wing teachers who caused the problem in the first place, and the apolitical geography teacher still does not have the right to simply disobey. The better course for him is, together with parents, to try to get the law refined, and if they are unsuccessful, that's too bad, and will have to use a poster of flags or a book or some other teaching tool. Individual teachers do not have the right to pick and choose laws they wish to follow, that is more of a liberal than a conservative philosophy.
Well, there aren't over 190 planets. Maybe the science teacher could display maps of the planets that are the most populous, that we are major trading partners with, and that will greatly influence the future of our nation.
What he should do - to stay in the classroom - is different than what is in the best interest of students' education. In this case, if he wants to stay in the classroom, he should just take down the display and then whip 'em out when he needs them.
That's what I did when my principal objected to my saying "Merry Christmas" - I stopped saying it. Does that make you happy? After all, you want us to shut up and teach what these kind of principals tell us... and that's what they're telling us.
I quit teaching public school after that year; but I finished my year, by God's help, and the last thing I told my children was how special they were to me, and to God.
But it is still beyond stupid to say that this DECADES OLD practice - of hanging foreign flags in American public schools' Geography classrooms - should be "illegal". This is common sense, and the reaction fits in perfectly with the "zero tolerance" insanity that is pervading our public schools today.
....
Gangster punk with Switchblade knife in boot? Expel him.
Honor students returning butter knife to school band hall? Expel him.
Mexican students hoisting the Mexican flag on the school flagpole? Ban it.
Geography teacher diplaying the flags of the world in the classroom? Ban it.
....
That's the kind of liberal, nanny state thinking that is destroying American public education.
I propose that the principal is the one making a federal case out of this - and not for patriotic reasons. The principal might even be working with the ACLU as well - they have done this kind of thing before.
Good post. I guess an apt analogy would be for an anatomy teacher to display two models at the beginning of school: one depicting the female labia, and another of female breasts. No other depictions of anatomy, just those. Who could complain?
That is when we read, James Clavell's, A Child' Story.
In the span of 1/2 hour the teacher in that story had convinced the small children in her care to abandon all the things they believed.
I recommend the reading to anyone. Truely frightening.
In almost any other case I would agree with you. However, we all know that government moves like pond water; very slowly, if at all. Kids in school don't have that much time. They need to learn all they can in a relatively very short period of time. Waiting for government is not an option when it comes to a child's education as far as I'm concerned. Actually, this situation illustrates perfectly why I am very much against government provided public education.
Excellent. They need to know just how easily people can be manipulated... and we must tell them how to defeat it. Critical thinking skills are the most necessary component of any complete education.
I love the way your room sounds!
Why the principal? It would take the teacher to be an injured party in this situation. Are you suggesting the unsuspecting teacher bit on the principal's ACLU bait? That doesn't make sense.
I wish the company I work at would stop honoring communism, and take down the gigantic Chinese flag in the hallway...Of course, I also wish they they'd take down the "gay pride" posters as well.
The geography unit is 6 weeks, not the entire year. He could legally put up the display during the geography unit... The law says there can not be a *permanent* display.
One of the one things I loved about geography in school was precisely seeing all those world flags in each unit of the textbook (usually broken up by continents), and then memorizing them. One flag is above them all, ours, but a lot of those flags were cool. Heaven help us if little kids can't memorize flags as part of school study. I guess we ought to just unplug ourselves from the rest of the world completely, too. (no outside telephone, no world travel, no foreign language study, not foreign students, no world maps. then, maybe we would be safe as a country, if we could only dig our bomb shelters a little bit deeper)
They could be in it together to create a case to challenge the law.
If the principal was trying to create a "test case" for the ACLU, in all likelihood he would do it in tandem with the teacher. I'm not saying that's an absolute - but in this case, the question is not whether or not the injured teacher has a case against the school, but whether or not the law is constitutional.
Of course, the principal could just be trying to enforce the law, and the teacher could be trying to make waves. Regardless, it will serve the purpose, and that is to get the law overturned.
As I said earlier, the law needs to be clarified so as to keep foreign flags from being elevated or equal to the American flag in public places, while allowing for the subset display of flags as teaching aids.
This is the only way it could possibly be revoked, and unfortunately, it sounds like they have found the "chink" in the armor and exploited it.
>There is only one China.
Yes, but there are two different governments with two different flags that claim to run that one country.
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