Posted on 10/30/2006 5:46:15 AM PST by paltz
As much as I agree with this guy's enthusiasm (and as much as I believe that a respect for innocent life should be instilled into our youth), I unequivocally believe what he did was wrong. He shouldn't have shown the film to kids that young. It's not necessary to be THAT blunt to a class of fourth and fifth graders.
If they're 15, 16, 17, 18 (or even in college)--fine. That's perfectly OK IMHO. But ten and and eleven year olds? Nope.
At the absolute bare minimum, he should have gotten written permission from the parents first. But evenso, getting the parent's permission doesn't automatically and completely dilute the wrongness of showing abortion gore to ten year olds.
Or, better yet, should have not only put the tape to the campaigns, but to SCOTUS as well--pointing out that this is the Right to Privacy that SCOTUS gave us...
You missed my irony..
"The guy was an ART teacher. "
It depends on the object of the art lesson.
I know in our local high school the students were encouraged to put together collages that made a political/worldview statement.
They could make any statement they wanted - liberal/conservative/pro-choice/pro-life...as long as it was not pornographic or loaded with profanity.
We can't tell from this article what the object of the lesson was, but art will often make a statement - express an opinion that people can agree/disagree with.
You don't think there art teachers out there making liberal pro-choice art in their classrooms?
"If it were anything else but abortion you guys would not only be calling for his resignation, you'd be calling for criminal charges. "
You are putting words in peoples' mouths.
On what grounds should this man be criminally charged?
This is an issue between teacher/administration/parents as to what is appropriate for the classroom.
"When it comes to abortion with you guys, all common sense and propriety go out the window."
It looks like you've got your own issues, and if this art teacher had made a film about the wonders of Planned Parenthood - you wouldn't be in such a snit.
No, and no amount of bloody propoganda will change that. Just because a 10 year old has watched some gay porn does not make him competent to enter into a sexual relationship, any more than watching crash footage makes him ready to drive. These are shock tactics, directed at young and emotionally defenseless children.
That is absolutely untrue.
All this does is instill at a very young age a callous indifference to human life. One of the greatest indicators of psychopathic behavior in adulthood is that of cruelty to animals in adolescence or earlier childhood.
However, the protest would be made that the children are taught to have a reverence for animals, such as the seven-finned paisely striped ditch minnow, or the three-toed yellow-bellied mosquito, and that swamps and trees are sacrosanct living things entitled to legal protection under the penalty of law. If somebody cuts down trees, or fills in a swamp, on their own property, they rightfully can (and should) be sent to jail as the heinous and egregious lawbreakers they are.
However, a fetus is merely a parasitical clump of inconvenient tissue that can, and should, be excised at a whim under the pretense that the womb being part and parcel of the mother's body, and that an abortion is nothing more than a liposuction procedure for weight loss. It is utterly irrelevent that this mass of cells, the fetus, could develop into the next Einstein, or creator of the next wonder drug.
No, such thinking espouses a "love Nature" mentality, a cult of Gia if you will, that decries the "artificialities" whith which Man has spoiled 'Nature'; the beaver's dam is a part of Nature, but Man's artificacts are an abomination to it. This is actually nothing more than an attempt to instill a self-loathing for self and one's species. The "hidden" contradiction of this prima-facie absudity goes much deeper however.
Some time ago I heard Ted Nugent talk about his encounter with some animal activists while he was visiting his newly born son in the hospital. After a short trip in the elevator, the door opened and Nugent began to exit, and the woman that shared the elevator that rode with him said to him, "You know, I respect your opionion and all that, but I'm really sorry that you feel that way about hunting animals." After a short exchange, Nugent presented a
hypothetical situation:
"Supposing you were driving down the road, and you witnessed a young boy walking his dog along side the road in front of you. You witness a car hit the two, and speed off. The impact sends my boy and his dog into the ditch besides the road. You stop and notice that both are lying motionless in the half water-filled ditch. Which of the two do you go to assist first?"
After a short period of time, Nugent said you could really see the women struggling and racking her brains, she answered, "You know, that'd be a real difficult choice and I don't know I could give a clear-cut answer at this time."
Such a person would have no issues whatsoever with aborting a fetus using any means whatsoever at any time whatsoever. And most likely wouldn't be all that averse in advocating "late-term" abortions, i.e., at 10 years of age (or perhaps even later.
And the biggest question of all is: why can't Johnny/Jane read or write, or arithmetic? After all, the expenditures per student is at historical all time highs, and likewise educators salaries, benefits and pensions make UAW, AFL/CIO union members compensation appear paltry in comparision (which incidently makes the average U.S. union worker prohibitively expensive and thereby contributes to layoffs and job outsourcing). The answer the that question: they're not teaching what the children need to know to survive, but garbage such as this. And everybody is scratching their head's wondering why public education is such a collosal failure, and violence is increasing everywhere you care to look.
In all actuality the movie that was should is an incredulous absurdity. Showing a movie intending to demonstrate "Good and Evil" to a world that denounces that such concepts actually exist, and that all ideas have equal merit, and there are no absolutes and that everything is merely displayed in shades of grey is the height of lunacy.
Excuse me, I CERTAINLY WOULD BE. Because I'm NOT A HYPOCRITE LIKE YOU ARE. These were not high schoolers. These were 10 and 11 year old CHILDREN. He had no right to do this.
Dear LWalk18,
Ordinarily, I'd agree with you.
However, folks who send their children to public schools have been told by the courts in our country that they don't have the right to have curricula meet their own personal standards. In that most public school systems in the United States have decided to indoctrinate their charges to accept perversion as normal, to accept murder of innocents as admirable, and often with graphic material to reinforce these lessons, my own view of this event is that it is one man fighting a bit of a guerrilla action against the overall war against human beings conducted by the NEA and its minions.
I'll be more alarmed with this man's actions after the pukes who are regularly stealing the innocence of children with officially-sanctioned condom-wearing bananas are thrown out of the schools. Children certainly have the right to have their innocence protected. Unfortunately, in most public school systems, this isn't what's happening. The solution isn't to come down hard on this man, but to come down hard on the folks trying to normalize what is evil. Until then, I'm not going to get worked up over this fellow's actions.
sitetest
"Excuse me, I CERTAINLY WOULD BE. Because I'm NOT A HYPOCRITE LIKE YOU ARE"
you have no idea who I am, but I'm getting the impression you fly off the handle pretty easily.
"These were not high schoolers"
I understand that...clearly you did not read my post or are intentionally ignoring points that I made.
"These were 10 and 11 year old CHILDREN. He had no right to do this."
Many teachers do stupid things. Sometimes they are written up and given a warning...sometimes they are not given tenure - sometimes they are temporarily suspended - and sometimes they are outright fired.
There are many teachers who offer the pro-abort message to young children and still have their jobs. There are teachers out there telling the kids Karl Rove was behind 9-11 and they still have their jobs.
They don't have a right to do this either.
That is where the parents come in - and administration.
The parents had every right to complain here - and administration will have to figure out how to deal with him.
On what basis do you think this man should be CRIMINALLY charged?
It's a private school...I don't know if parents gave permission. Clearly the administration gave permission or the kids wouldn't have been bussed over there.
Parents usually have to sign a permission slip - so it's unlikely the parents didn't know.
If anyone doesn't like what the school did - they don't have to spend thousands of dollars to send their kids there.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!
Every article I read about public screwels is worse than the last. They are nothing but indcotrination and mental/spiritual torture chambers.
Kids are affected, often for life, by crap like this. They turn into changelings. Kids are very, very affected by what they are taught, what they see, hear, listen to. That's why education and training are so vital. They can so easily go the wrong way.
Why do good parents sometimes have kids who turn into dope addicts, criminals, losers? Sometimes the parents did wrong, sometimes the kid hung out with the wrong crowd. But if a child is protected from indoctrination into evil through their high school years and is allowed to develop a strong sense of right and wrong, and self respect (not fake self-esteem) based on truth and good choices, the chance that they will not take the wrong path are much greater.
And watch out which institute of higher education they're sent to!
I think this country needs a real home schooling revolution. In the millions.
But this story here is concerning a charter school. And parents were NOT notified that their CHILDREN were going to see videos of dead babies. You truly think that's ok? Come on.
College age kids and 10 and 11 year olds are different creatures. These kids are not ready to see something that graphic. A film on the evils of abortion could easily be made age-appropriate.
I guess we agree then actually.
I agree, as stated in the posts above.
"But this story here is concerning a charter school. And parents were NOT notified that their CHILDREN were going to see videos of dead babies. You truly think that's ok? Come on."
Please direct me to where I said it is "ok"
If my memory serves me correctly - I said this was not the right age.
When my daughter was in 8th grade she was shown graphic images of the piles of corpses at Auschwitz. I didn't receive any notification prior to that.
I suppose I could have raised a stink, but I knew the pictures accurately represented the truth - and she was mature enough to handle it.
If these abortion pictures had been shown at age 10 I wouldn't have approved - 10 is too young.I would have called the principal and expressed my opinion.
And that is where parents and administration will have to figure what is an appopriate punishment for this fellow.
Is he normally a good teacher - and this was a one-time slip up?
Or...does he routinely display lapses in good judgement.
Is he tenured? Or will this come under consideration when tenure is discussed?
There is alot that is not in the article that will affect what is done to him.
I agree that the images should possibly be "toned down" for younger children. However, I would rather a young child be shown the true gore of an abortion than be told that it was just a lump of cells being removed.
Right on!
When I made my first comment I didn't get the import of the film. Duh.
Still, the kids were way, way too young to see this. Children that young could be shown a film condemning abortion but not showing such graphic bloody violence. And showing what happens when people choose life, including the option of adoption.
I am very familiar with children of that age. They need to be shown and told the truth in an age appropriate manner.
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