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.
Get a mouse with a scroll button, and then scroll between post 62 and post 12. (Hint: look for the feet in the second picture)
Hawaii Channel.com, which was one of several news outlets which ran this story, had a reader survey which showed 98% of the people responding to the poll said NO, they wouldn't have a problem with kids seeing nude sculpture. It seems to me that the response wouldn't be much different anywhere in the country; and the 2% who, for whatever reason (Muslim? Amish?) say YES we have a problem with it, probably wouldn't have signed a permission slip in the first place.
Doesn't prove anything, but I think there's something fishy about this story.
Frisco is a new, modern community just north of Dallas. Lots of the folks that are in Frisco grew up in Dallas, and have moved out to Frisco where everything is new.
I can't imagine too many of them not understanding what was going to be in the art museum.
Most of the folks there are Yankees (or Muslims - a lot of those in the area,as well), not Texans. They even had to change the school mascot in the name of diversity.
I'm kinda surprised the parents have any kids at all. Soundslike they're so uptight they'd have a cardiac if they ever saw themselves nude in the mirror!
And in a way, it taints the experience for all the other kids as well. It'd be nice to think that they could go on in their lives and think about the trip to the museum as a sorta mind expanding day.
But now it will forever be an item of scandalous proportions.
The parents are downright selfish.
GROTESQUE.
You know, I hadn't thought about the Muslim angle. If she offended a Muslim (and who hasn't?) - of course the school system would fire her, no questions asked.
Very well said. We all use the tools of art in our lives, in some way or another. Imagination, intuition, non-literal ways of looking at things.
It's a shame when someone doesn't see the art all around them.
Me too. Since the school board has made a world-class knee jerk reaction over what appears to be a non incident, I have to wonder at other possible causes.
Could the "offended" parent be someone who likes his women in burkas?
Who knows, maybe the kids will start cutting school and sneak off to museums, or start reading Shakespeare, Byron and John Donne...
Well, if a Muslim would be offended by something in a art museum, then shouldn't they refuse to sign the permission slip.
==> 
Gee, does this mean that they can't see the Venus de Milo? Or the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel? Or the Kouros bronze?
What the heck are these people thinking?
It's big enough to have a major league soccer franchise, a minor league (AA) baseball team, a training center for an NHL team, and a first class bicycle race facility. They are bigger on sports than they are on art.
During HS, some prof from the local college came and talked about Shakespeare.
Turns out some of his stuff is pretty racy, if not outright pornographic, but you have to know the language and references.
Even though he was married, I imagine old Willy boy got more than his share of time in the saddle!
Oh dear I have a nude little boy statue squirting water into my koi pond. If my neighbors children see it I may be sued or asked to remove it? There is so much BS floating around these days its really sad. I hope the teacher sues and gets a lot of money. If the parents are so upset over a nude sculpture and signed a permission slip what did they think the kids would see in a museum? I wonder if the parents have ever been in a museum. I see nude cupids all over the place. I guess they are ok. So far....
Nobody who is an expert on the matter has identified whether the statues in posts #12 and #62 are of the same artwork. They certainly aren't taken from the same perspective. I'm sure there are recreations of this famous sculpture in hundreds of places all over the world.
~ Blue Jays ~
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