the parents flunked

[Baruch Menachem]

got this from Dr. Laura.

Teacher wrote a blog on her experiences as a teacher. It didn't identify her, the school, the kids, it just talked basic issues in education, among which is students who don't get the message.

Collins says her posts never identify her school or anyone from it, though she does give her name and occupation. That day she wrote about a recent classroom assignment in which each student was to give a speech that advocated a point of view but did so in a conciliatory manner. She had told her students to use Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address as a model, she wrote.

"One thing I told my students is not to gloat, not to strike a hostile tone in their speeches," she wrote on prettyfreaky.blogspot.com. "Then, of course, I heard a speech that did both of those things."

Collins added that she felt "annoyance" because she disagreed with the politics of the speech and "dismay" that her message about the right tone was not getting through.

(Though she never said so on her blog, in an interview Collins said that the student had given a speech about "Obama's lies." She provided The Inquirer with copies of documents from the school and the family about the events leading to her firing, and her responses.)

In Collins' post, she responded to the speech by writing one of her own, saying she was "modeling" the correct approach to the assignment. Her piece encouraged students to move "beyond knee-jerk joining of their parents' political party, and not become one-issue voters, to open their minds and consider the ramifications of their votes."

The essay criticized many George W. Bush administration policies and defended the Obama administration.

It looks like she lost the thread too, of course.


The parents, who read the blog, wrote the administration at the private school, which canned the teacher.

While I think the teacher is a bit of an idjit (anyone who praises 0bama qualifies for me as an idjit) the fact remains the student did not do the assigned homework, but did something totally different. This is a frustrating thing, when we ask that things be done, and the opposite happens. Must be even more so for a teacher. the teacher followed the rules. I think she was unfairly dismissed, and I think the parents did their daughter a disservice by complaining. You do the assignment. That is the big life lesson of high school

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Not to belabor the obvious, but if her only beef was that the student wrote an essay called Obama's Lies I don't see that as not fitting the assignment. It is entirely possible to write an essay with a conciliatory point of view by using Obama as an example of how not to be conciliatory. It wouldn't be easy for a high school student, I admit, but it is possible.

 

[chanel]

It's a slippery slope, but I'm with BM. Hyper-sensitivity about controversial subjects has a chilling effect on education. If teachers can be fired for taking risks, they will never encourage their students to. Let's see - Johnny gets a bad grade on an assignment bringing his GPA down a fraction of a point. Teacher loses job. Yeah - that's fair. NOT.

In the very near future teachers will be like robots reading from a script - lest we not offend.

 

[IanC]

it is odd that teachers seldom get fired for poor performance but if a teacher says something contraversial...

 

[Baruch Menachem]

This kind of thing is the reason the teachers are so heavily unionized and the unions are so ferocious and anal.

This was not a public school, which has to go through procedures. This is a private school.

I do think the teacher should have done more homework, as the 2nd inaugural wasn't that conciliatory. Parts were, because the war was very nearly over. Sherman was in North Carolina, Appomattox was three weeks away. But a bunch of it was "They started it, and now we are going to finish it."

The teacher made an assignment which the student blew off. That is not how you get ahead in the world.

At this second appearing to take the oath of the presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement, somewhat in detail, of a course to be pursued, seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention, and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.

On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it--all sought to avert it. While the inaugeral [sic] address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war--seeking to dissole [sic] the Union, and divide effects, by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.

One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war, the magnitude, or the duration, which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has his own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!" If we shall suppose that American Slavery is one of those offences which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South, this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offence came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a Living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope--fervently do we pray--that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether"

With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.

 

[chanel]

Well I just read the whole article, and it seems she wouldn't let it go. She was asked to discontinue blogging about it, and she didn't.

At a March 3 meeting attended by school officials, Collins, the Whites, and their daughter, all agreed that Collins would not blog about the daughter and that the school would "take appropriate internal remedial action," according to a letter to the school written by A. James Johnston, an attorney for the Whites.

The school showed the document to Collins and she wrote a reply in which she said that at the March 3 meeting, the Whites had "proceeded to harangue me, raising their voices, pointing at me, slapping the table." She added that James White had demanded her resignation and threatened to sue the school.

In a March 4 blog post, Collins wrote about a fictional encounter between a "Mr. Bratwurst" and "Miss Petunia Fluffyglow" that included remarks similar to ones she said James White made to her at the meeting the previous day.

Read more: Ex-teacher learns the hard way: Watch what you put online | Philadelphia Inquirer | 06/09/2010

It seems she cared more about her blog than her job. Oh well.