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'll be wearing my fig leaf!
I disagree.
For what they have and are doing to her, she should sue for enough to retire -
It's the "Thinker" by Rodin.
Different casts by the same artist from the same molds.
The cast in Cleveland is in front of the Art Museum, and was hit by a bomb by domestic terrorists in 1970. The original is in Paris. An undamaged cast in Denmark is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thinker
the damaged Clevaland one here: http://www.case.edu/alumni/stay/wsched.html
http://imdb.com/name/nm0000414/
LoL like the Simpsons episode.
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"The male student is allowed to 'spank the monkey' once per class."
You can't be series! That is a hugh problem....Does this kid report the events to his teacher? Why on earth would there be a need for the parents to document this..
Apparently, Teri Garr is going the way of Annette Funicello: she went public that she has MS in 2002, and has traveled the coutry as an ambassador for MS victims ever since. Even with the steriod-induced puffy-ness (which I know all too well), she's still a babe:
Thanks for the art ping, but if I were you I'd wait for a Paul Harvey style "rest of the story" before passing judgement on this. The teacher's version of her firing (which is the one making the rounds) is conveniently lacking a few details.
There were other issues with the principal & her fellow teachers, it seems. Read Elyse's link in post #103 to an Aug 24 article in the Dallas Morning news for some insight.
I'm kinda familiar with Frisco (a suburb of Plano...er, Dallas). This story (as reported in this article, at least) ain't flying with me.
The sort of art that has any real value emerges from real knowledge and experience, not from gawking at art in museums or taking classes in how to make art. And the notion of government-sponsored art or art education should make any thinking person cringe. Government-sponsored art will serve the government.
A great deal of what passes for "art" in present-day museums is nothing more than sloppy messes made by self-absorbed individuals. Parading a bunch of 5th graders around a museum, telling them that everything they see there is "art", from intricate landscapes and religious and battle scenes in oil by highly skilled artists of past centuries, to piles of rubble at risk for being carried off by janitors who reasonably assume it to be trash, conveys the message that any stupid thing you make is worthwhile. Meanwhile, these kids don't have a clue as what the images depicted in the real art are all about, because nobody thinks it's important for them to learn any facts about history. The Black Death? Is that like what those Goths kids are into? The Civil War? That was way back before the Revolutionary War, right? So the main thing they remember about the day is giggling at the naked statue -- and that's what they told their parents about when asked "What did you see on the museum trip today?".
A few years back, I was briefly acquainted with a very nice young Jewish woman who had recently graduated from one of the top 20 liberal arts colleges in the US with an English major (another pursuit that we're supposed to believe has value). During a casual discussion with some other (better informed) young people, someone made a passing comment about Jews still waiting for the Messiah. "But there's no Messiah in the Jewish religion", she protested, saying she'd would certainly know if there was, since her grandmother was Orthodox. She literally had no clue that the Christian religion is founded on a belief in the fulfillment of Jewish prophecy. But she did enjoy going to the big art museum in the nearby city, like all the other English, art history, philosophy, etc. majors. I lost track of her when she moved away to go to graduate school in English. She's probably ended up teaching "language arts" in some middle school, encouraging kids to think that anything they write has artistic value.
We really need to get serious about our schools before it's too late. We've got a whole generation of teachers who are mostly clueless, because they themselves were educated in this no-standards ideology. And then we wonder why voters can't see through the vote-buying financial schemes that politicians keep thrusting down their throats, and why we can't find competent security screeners for our airports.
He was a jelly donut? :)
Your #67..........ROFLMAO!!!!!!!
An Amerikaner.
?
On another aspect of this, it's precisely this sort of small-mindedness and, dare one say it, yahoo-ism, that many highly-educated people associate with evangelical Christianity. It may be unfair, but the stereotypes persist because of stories like this. You can be sure that the Frisco school board doesn't consist of "high church Episcopalians," "New England Congregationalists," or "Quakers" who occupy the upper reaches of the class hierarchy or American Protestantism; rather, one is inclined to suspect "fundamentalists" or "hard shell Baptists" or "evangelicals" or "no cards/no drink/no dancing Methodists" or "Missouri Synod Lutherans". The left has a field day (and deservedly so) with stories like this.
A muslim would have never ever signed a permission slip for thier children to go to the museum its unislamic according to them
Did the parents have the kid taken away from them when the child saw himself nude in the mirror? This is just sick, Taliban-type shit.
Did the parents call police when the child saw them nude in the shower? What kind of stupid morons are these "parents"? They ought to be sterilized.
There is this also:
Ms. McGee said principal Nancy Lawson called her into a meeting the day after the trip to admonish her about the parent's complaint. Shortly thereafter, she received a negative review and a series of directives about displaying student artwork and creating lesson plans.
See as how that did happen after the trip, the teacher might have a point.
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