In a recent ruling at the US 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, they ruled that a teacher’s in-class curriculum in primary and secondary schools is not protected by the First Amendment.
“Only the school board has ultimate responsibility for what goes on in the classroom, legitimately giving it a say over what teachers may (or may not) teach in the classroom,” writes the Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit in its decision.
Evans-Marshall, who taught English to 9th and 11th grade students and a creative writing course to 11th and 12th grade students, distributed a list of banned books to students in her 9th grade class. The students were required to form groups, pick a book from the list, examine the reasons the book has been banned, and lead an in-class debate about the book. Two groups in Evans-Marshall’s class chose Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman, a children’s book about a girl with two lesbian parents.
Some of the parents of the students in Evans-Marshall’s class complained about Heather Has Two Mommies and Evans-Marshall was told by the principal to have the students choose another book. She complied with the principal’s request, noting her students had “actually experienced censorship in preparing to debate censorship.”
After completing the banned books assignment, Evans-Marshall had her class read Siddhartha by the German author Hermann Hesse. The book, about the spiritual journey of a young man in India during the times of the Buddha, contains descriptions of sex and has references to the Kamasutra.
At a meeting of the school board in October of 2001, about twenty-five parents complained about the curricular choices made by Evans-Marshall. At a subsequent meeting in November, nearly one hundred parents complained about her curriculum.
I am curious as to what everyone thinks of this decision. Since this is an opinion site, I will give mine. I actually agree, although very tepidly, with the Courts decision. I think its important in a democracy to allow the local school boards to decide what is taught in their schools. Even though when schools shirk their duties, as we see in examples like this or this to support a misguided ideology harms all of us! Even in Wisconsin, we had to have a had to have legislative action to teach the history of the American Labor Movement. Seriously!
While I believe we should defer to the School Boards(and hence the local community), we should also expect more from the School Boards(and hence the community). As one parent put it in Ohio:
“You should be embarrassed,” one parent told the school board in regards to the sexual themes found in Siddhartha.
NO! The parents and school board should be embarrassed that they so adamantly supported censorship and banning books! This has shades of the recent discussion here, about facebook and students, where the West Bend School District was worried that “students…may be inadvertently exposed to adult ideas”(Heaven Forbid). Nice lesson to teach the children.
Maybe next we need to legislate that we teach the history of banning books in the US.
“I think its important in a democracy to allow the local school boards to decide what is taught in their schools.”
Thank you! Then you shouldn’t have a problem with teaching creationism.
http://bloggingblue.com/2010/10/16/another-view-of-the-tea-party/
http://bloggingblue.com/2010/09/01/i-really-really-really-want-to-like-dave-westlake/
I actually have no problem teaching creationism, as long as it is in a philosophy class. It does not belong in a science class. Unfortunately, most schools are lucky to have art and music much less philosophy.
Why does it matter what class that material is taught in?
The danger we face is that myth, legend, and lore is taught as fact and it does not matter if it is presented as science, math, history, politics,philosophy,logic or religion.
The other danger is that theory unsubstantiated by logic,observations, fact, and not subjected to scientific method is taught at all.
Remember the clapper? (Clap ON. Clap OFF) If we were to teach that elderly people can turn electronic devices on and off by clapping their hands, we would be deceiving our children that being elderly was important and that clapping was the sole reason for operating devices. It would not matter what class this was taught in (except maybe Urban Myths 101)it would be wrong.
We need to remind everyone that a theory is not simply an opinion.
In my High School some Bible-bangers made a stink and so the Admins let a special program be held on Creationist Theory. I attended (it was voluntary) along with about 15 others in a big empty auditorium. The presenter was this really starched anal type, not exactly a fun Bill Nye Kinda guy. Everyone seemed really bored.
He basically just kept showing images of how various creatures have structural similarities. He like diagrams of eyeballs, I remember that.
Why does a FISH and a DOG and a SNAKE and a MAN all have so much similarity in EYEBALLS??? Obviously the ad-hominem-iest explanation which totally avoids any kind of LOGICAL Fellatio is
(drum roll please)
That GAWD Almighty made this. It PROVES beyond a reasonable doubt that there is a Big Designer in the SKY
it is IMPOSSIBLE for these similarities to be the result of a common ancestors during millennia of adaptation and specialization.
THAT would be ridiculous.
Clearly these animals were formed after Adam was made from River Clay and only for the purposes of amusing him and meeting his needs.
You could fight to keep Creationism out of schools, or you could let it be taught, while the Children of America sleep safely through the whole thing.
zzzzzzzzz
and just to be clear, the crux of the Big Designer Theory seems to be that Gos is both unimaginative and a protege of Henry Ford. He did all his creating assembly-line style. he never got bored with EYEBALL structure and thought- hey! what the F? I’M EFFING GOD! I can do what I WANT.
I will make ALL kinds of Eyeballs wheeeeee! Nope.
He had that one idea and that was it. so he stuck a feather here, a bit of fur there, and called it good.
So God maybe was the Big Designer, but like George Bush, he was a C student and he had to keep doing that same thing over and over. So the ultimate designer with un-limited power – Just had a lot of Artist’s Block and handed in the same project for every class.
mmmm-hmmmm
Diggin’ the logic and irrefutable evidence of it all.
You say that, but obviously you don’t believe it.
Locke i absolutely believe it, but as I said very tepidly.
And PB it matters because of where it belongs, it belongs in a philosophy course where you can talk about the philosophically and not scientifically. Since there is no science to it.
This isn’t talking in school, it is teaching. And there are logical constructs and observations in philosophy as well as science. Political science is not taught in the science department for example.
You really need to read something about logic. You live on ad hominems & guild by association. You can’t seem to recognize when issues are mutually exclusive and when they aren’t.
You cannot say, you believe in local control, that it’s important for democracy and then say things like:
we had to have a had to have legislative action to teach the history of the American Labor Movement.
and
You can’t support a legislature repeatedly stepping in and dictating curriculum and say you believe in local control.
It’s not that I disagree with you that I find so incredibly frustrating. I disagree with Zach, MCM, Jason, Ed and others probably as much as you. Hell I disagree with everyone who posts here at some point. But they don’t throw out such a steady stream of non sequiturs and other logical fallacies. They are generally able to separate statements of fact from opinions.
Add Hominems and Guild Buy Association?
LOLwhut?
Talk sense, Boy.
The Little Mermaid, now SHE was Gilled by Association
YOU really need to read something about Faith. Your reasoning processes are obviously hobbled by your deistic misconceptions. I suggest Søren Kierkegaard’s work concerning the leap to faith, or even (since he was already mentioned in this thread) Siddhartha Gautama’s ideas on non-dualistic perception.
It seems to me all that Logical fallacio has left you blind to reality.
Locke, I do not now or ever support “a legislature repeatedly stepping in and dictating curriculum”. I do however support them doing so when it is needed. As I said, I “tepidly” support the people making their own decisions. BUT when they continually screw up that responsibility, then we need to step in. Why we would need to mandate teaching the history of the labor movement in history class is beyond me but we obviously need to! To make matters worse it was a controversial decision, people are still mad we are teaching the history of labor.
Annie, I understand your point but we cant give up on democracy becuase people do not vote or get involved.
Ok so you don’t. Not really. Except sometimes. Like whenever they feel like it. But otherwise, no legislature shouldn’t dictate curriculum. Unless you like the mandate.
I’m in favor of the first amendment. Except sometimes the feds should just shut people up when they say things I disagree with.
Locke, excellent example of the first amendment, while the protected right of speech is explicit, there are still some cases and people who abuse it to the point where they no longer have it.
I support local school boards determining the content of classroom teaching. I support the state determining what constitutes academic achievement for a high school diploma or for a college degree. Too often the teaching institution is the sole arbiter of determining the quality and content to issue a degree. We should re-think that premise in this age of e-degrees and online courses. I am not confident that ‘buyer beware’ is a sound process in this area anymore.
d00d
How’d you get the Avie?
I want an Avie.
🙁
I do NOT think School Boards should decide classroom content.
You do not have an elected board of citizens from other walks of life, who merely decide to “get active” or are bored or like feeling important and collect a few names, get on a ballot because no one else has time or inclination and wins after ONE simplistic statement in your local paper of page 3, with 85% of the voters having NO clue who you are but just liking the sound of your name
– the kinds of groups do not sit in judgment over Doctors, Lawyers, or Local Business.
The School Board should be a liaison between community and a group of professionals who are ultimately answerable to a highly trained group of people with awareness of best practices. People who do not rest on what has always been done but continually strive to improve in all areas. Am I saying an ELITE!? OH yeah, sure am. Our children deserve that.
I never yet saw a School Board that wasn’t a conglomerate of Dingbats, Blowhards, and hopeless Fucktards.