Posted on 09/26/2006 9:33:20 AM PDT by Abathar
Children Were On School-Approved Field Trip
FRISCO, Texas -- A award-winning Texas art teacher who was reprimanded after one of her fifth-grade students saw a nude sculpture during a trip to a museum has lost her job.
The school board in Frisco has voted not to renew Sydney McGee's contract after 28 years. She has been on administrative leave.
The teacher took her students on an approved field trip to a Dallas museum, and now some parents are upset.
The Fisher Elementary school art teacher came under fire last April when she took 89 fifth graders on a field trip to the Dallas Museum of Art. Parents raised concerns over the field trip after their children reported seeing a nude sculpture at the art museum.
The parents had signed permission slips allowing their children to take part in the field trip.
McGee's lawyer said the principal at Fisher Elementary School admonished her after a parent complained that a student had seen nude art.
McGee said the principal had urged her to take the students to the museum.
Now, McGee, who was honored with a Star Teacher Award two years ago, is on paid administrative leave until her contract with the school district expires in March.
Other parents are worried about the future of the art program at the school, which they cite as a reason for moving into the neighborhood.
"Our main concern right now is what's going to happen to the children and what's going to happen to the art program at Fisher Elementary. It is the best art program. That's the reason we moved to this neighborhood. It's because of the teachers," said Shannon Allen, parent. "It was a principal approved trip. What's the big deal?"
Officials with the Frisco school district declined to comment on the matter.
I find it hard to believe that anyone who was opposed to letting their kids see real art, which even the most ignorant parent can't help but know includes nudity, would even have those kids in public school in the first place, let alone sign the permission slip to go to the museum.
Oh, as I recall, it ain't no big thang...
thats sick!
That stuff came later in his career. I have my own theories about it. But 99% of his stuff is very tame. Pictures of flowers, etc.
p.s. I'm not a Mapplethorpe fan.
Same thing happened in the mid-1970s during a class trip to Ottawa. Before entering the museum our teacher read the riot act to us and there was no problem.
No, I am not saying that at all. I made the assumption that many people on this forum are not privy to the actual facts of the case, and therefore might want to layoff the "stupid Texas hick redneck parents" rhetoric. I WANT to believe that the mainstream media would present a fair and balanced story...but I don't.
Interesting choice of sculpture. Sounds like the same mentality that smashed the genitalia off these immortal statues.
Hey MM, I usually tend to be on your wavelength...but how do we know there wasn't a "gay pride art exhibit" in that museum that day, and the teach purposely took the kids in there. Personally, I would hate to have my youngest son come home with questions about what he saw there. The MSM article just doesn't contain all the relevant facts.
But teaching kids about oral sex is OK.
You can blame pop culture for a lot of hysterical parents we have nowadays. Everything is about sex to the point of parents going overboard for what has been considered art for thousands of years. Kids don't even take showers in Jr. High after PE class now because they are taught from a young age that all nudity is wrong and sexual in nature. So I am not surprised some kid went home to Mom and told her the art teacher showed the class a bunch of dirty statues or paintings.
Thx for the clarification. I'm not a fan of any modern art - thought Mapplethorpe only did the pics of nudes etc..... the only stuff to hit the museums here as far as I know was that stuff, not the traditional stuff.....
Read the story on post 103. The teacher actually went to the museum prior to the trip and spoke with officials to make sure it was suitable. Also, the school board refuses to cite the work(s) of art that offended.
"which even the most ignorant parent can't help but know includes nudity"
Well, that's true, I suppose. The classical sculptures rarely depicted things in an exaggerated size. I suppose the models back then weren't John Holmes or anyone like that.
"might want to layoff the "stupid Texas hick redneck parents" rhetoric."
"how do we know there wasn't a "gay pride art exhibit" in that museum that day"
Highly unlikely for that museum. And if it were there, it would be in its own room, and the kiddies wouldn't have been taken there.
What's more likely is that some 10 or 11 year old boy made a little scene about some naked male statue, got the whole group giggling and pointing, and some other kids told their parents about it.
I have literally seen that happen in art museums, which I visit in every city I go to. I've been in the one being discussed here. They ain't having a "gay pride art exhibit" there, I can guarantee.
( . . . my great grandmother used to buy her sherry for her heart at the back door of the roadhouse under cover of darkness, but she died in 1963 . . .)
Why is this guy or lady fired??? I don't get it! You signed the permission slip to let your kid go to the art museum... they saw artwork... This board needs recalled! What a bunch of idiots!
HAhaHAhaHA! What a bunch of Goobers!
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