Here's the story.
Students in Tukwila are rallying around a group of teachers in trouble with the school district for taking part in an anti-war protest.
That war protest turned into a full-fledged controversy at Foster High School in Tukwila. Should teachers have encouraged students to walk out of class to protest the war in Iraq? The civics lesson is now under the microscope.
Students at Foster High School rallied outside a Tukwila School Board meeting Tuesday night and rallied to the defense of their teachers.
The Tukwila School Board is sorting out whether anyone should be punished over the issue. A Foster High School social studies teacher remains on paid administrative leave after the district says he participated with students in a walkout and protest of the war.
(For those not familiar with this area: Tukwila is a poor suburb of Seattle. It is not famous for having outstanding schools.)
This strikes me as, if you will pardon the phrase, a "teachable moment". Firing the teacher who walked out of his job, in order to indulge in a political protest, will help these students learn how to be responsible adults. You are free to demonstrate, but on your own time, not your employers'. The teacher who didn't know that is in the wrong profession.
And the teachers who encouraged students to be truant? They may be right about the value of their own classes, but they should realize that other classes may be worth attending, even at Foster High. Some punishment would be appropriate, but I don't know what is possible, especially in this state.
Cross posted at Jim Miller on Politics.
(This morning I saw one of the protesting students on another television station. She seemed to think it was mean to punish some one who was just expressing their feelings. Sigh.
Here's a story on the "anti-war" protest.)
Posted by Jim Miller at November 28, 2007 10:33 AM | Email ThisBut at the High School level, kids are already far too disobedient and they are still very much in need of academic focus.
Sadly, Progressive school leadership is all too willing to exploit students for political ends, and all too unwilling to simply teach the core curriculum students need to prepare for university level competition.
One more reason to privatize schooling, where parents would have a much greater say in keeping teachers and administrators focused.
Posted by: Jeff B. on November 28, 2007 10:47 AMSecond, what were the teacher told ahead of time? If the teachers were instructed not to participate, nor to discuss the matter, then the teachers were not following school policy and should be punished for insubordination. If they had a problem with the policy, then the place to raise it is to the board (and/or their teacher union). They shouldn't use the kids as their proxies.
Posted by: tc on November 28, 2007 11:15 AMThese people are using kids for political stunts.
Posted by: Ray Borbon on November 28, 2007 11:20 AMIt's sort of unthinkable given the groupthink of media editors and producers, but an article headlined TEACHER TRADES EDUCATION FOR A MESS OF POTTAGE, detailing the future cost of ignorance, would be great to see.
And since there are plenty of protests that occur off school grounds and off school hours, there's no argument for ditching school to prance and ululate for the TV cameras.
Posted by: Insufficiently Sensitive on November 28, 2007 11:32 AMIf these teachers and students were to attend and participate in a March for Life rally - during school time - would the resident liberals defend them?
I seriously doubt it.
Posted by: jimg on November 28, 2007 11:39 AMQuite honestly, that's bullshit.
It is a public employee using his or her position of power to prop up students as political pawns. At public expense.
I ask you specifically, WVH - would it be a superior learning experience of the rally was pro-life? Anti-illegal immigration? In support of a Tim Eyman initiative?
Or is it only a superior learning experience if the agenda suits you?
Posted by: jimg on November 28, 2007 11:44 AMAre you talking about Kenawick man?
Which the tribes couldn't wait to bury him fast!
If students truly believe in this cause, they should be encouraged to protest after school hours, I bet then you would see a difference in the amount of students that participate.
Teachers need to realize that tax payers are not paying them to be politically active. I hope the teachers are docked some pay for this.
BOTTOM LINE: They should have done this on their own time!
Posted by: Agent99 on November 28, 2007 11:54 AMYour kidding right. Our kids are having more & more trouble in school because of the lack of good teaching. So if they don't know their ABC's that's fine.. maybe protesting can earn you better grade.
It's no wonder this nation is falling so far behind other nations when it comes to learning.
Posted by: Army Medic/Vet on November 28, 2007 11:56 AMThis is a superior learning event for the kids. Thanks be to Almighty God that I had an activist teacher in high school who encouraged being involved.
Posted by WVH at November 28, 2007 11:11 AM
The first and foremost duty of a teacher is to teach. What they do on their own private time is their business. They should be careful because children are impressionable at the high school age. If there was an event on a controversial topic both sides should always be preesented.
To the KKK member who posts under my moniker, I will continue to fight you despite threats.
Sorry. I thought that was strange coming from you.
Posted by: Army Medic/Vet on November 28, 2007 12:05 PMI have a cyberstalker and have been stalked for some time. I cannot monitor all threads and when I find they have posted, I disclaim the post. I am active in fighting against Nazis, Aryan Nation types and the KKK and people that do that will attract cyberstalkers. I simply wish my cyberstalker was more intelligent. I will continue to fight against those groups and cystalker will not scare me off.
Posted by: WVH on November 28, 2007 12:07 PMMust be some 18yr old punk and a high school drop out.
Such a life. )-:
Posted by: Army Medic/Vet on November 28, 2007 12:11 PMMy view is even if they were out supporting the war in Iraq in a march or supporting anti-abortion rallies in a way that doesn't have a wholistic neutral effect on their students, they should be fired on the spot. Washington state cannot allow it's teachers to destory students minds and this does that.
Posted by: Doug on November 28, 2007 12:40 PMYOUR tax money folks, but hey who cares if the kids can't read or do math!
The protest matters most.
This is what you get with Gov/lib run schools.
I noticed Duffman's particularly weak, non-responsive effort to address the matter. But they all seem so... well.... "quiet" on the issue.
So, how 'bout it, leftists? You know who you are... Goldy... you here? Andrew? Eric? Check in.
If you support these kids and their teacher's non-existent right to disrupt the school, leave their classes on school time, and fail in their job on THIS issue.... where are you at on the right-wing issues?
Given your typically default setting of hypocrisy and your silence on the question, it's not too terribly difficult to figure out.
Posted by: Hinton on November 28, 2007 01:08 PMThey've exposed the school to so much liability it's unbelievable. Suppose someone had gotten hurt (ie look at the POOP riot). Firings or time off w/out pay has got to come from this...This is right up there with student teacher sex. But then again that's not punishable anymore either.
ah- public schools :-(
Posted by: Andy on November 28, 2007 01:29 PMWhat if the teachers took the students out of class to protest gay marriage? Or are the anti-war protests "really a form of protesting gay marriage...as you see it"?
You were asked a direct question and bobbed and weaved. So either please explain to us how anti-war ptoestes are really aking to gay mariage protests or simply tell us that you don't realy support any "right to protest" only the right to protest that which you dislike.
This outta be rich.
dufu already got swatted this a.m. and though he ventured out from his lair, he may have scurried back.
What if my daughter protested the study of Muslimism in the 7th grade as compared to American History? Is that a fair protest she can do? You say, aaah, she should go to the School Board and you would be right. Foster teachers should have gone to their senators, representatives and president if you use the same analogy.
Posted by: swatter on November 28, 2007 02:52 PMScratch the surface of every anti-war protest and there are socialists and communists behind it all, just like they were behind '60's Vietnam protests.
Indoctrinating youth in socialist thought is nothing new. What is new is now even public school teachers are brainwashed socialists. And the media not reporting the protest movement's socialist roots? Just an expected example of their deliberate leftist dishonesty.
Posted by: Bill Cruchon on November 28, 2007 03:59 PMIt was all done during school time.
150 kids marched down to I-5 overpass and then on to city hall. (about 3 miles total).
One teacher encouraged and led them, other teachers encouraged them.
After they marched, they returned to school. (guessing it was 2-3 hours total).
they apparently fired the one teacher, disciplined 5 others. Then last night (apparently) the school district caved to all the press/media attention and reinstated/removed the discipline.
end of fact, on to opinion:
Clearly the school district can't allow kids to wander off campus when they feel like it nor can it allow their employees to encourage the behaviour. If one of those kids was hit by a car, no one would have been cheering their rights to protest, it would have been the schools fault for allowing it to happen.
Posted by: TukwilaDad on November 28, 2007 10:16 PMIt was all done during school time.
150 kids marched down to I-5 overpass and then on to city hall. (about 3 miles total).
One teacher encouraged and led them, other teachers encouraged them.
After they marched, they returned to school. (guessing it was 2-3 hours total).
they apparently fired the one teacher, disciplined 5 others. Then last night (apparently) the school district caved to all the press/media attention and reinstated/removed the discipline.
end of fact, on to opinion:
Clearly the school district can't allow kids to wander off campus when they feel like it nor can it allow their employees to encourage the behaviour. If one of those kids was hit by a car, no one would have been cheering their rights to protest, it would have been the schools fault for allowing it to happen.
Posted by: TukwilaDad on November 28, 2007 10:17 PM"It was all done during school time.
150 kids marched down to I-5 overpass and then on to city hall. (about 3 miles total).
One teacher encouraged and led them, other teachers encouraged them.
After they marched, they returned to school. (guessing it was 2-3 hours total).
they apparently fired the one teacher, disciplined 5 others. Then last night (apparently) the school district caved to all the press/media attention and reinstated/removed the discipline."
1. The teachers, in my opinion, abused their authority. They have a First Amendment right to their opinion. They could take vacation or personal leave to express their opinions, but to expect taxpayers to subsidize them was wrong.
2. A lot of the PC thought police which one finds in universities is apparently filtering its way down to k-12. Would the teachers have given a lower grade to those who wouldn't participate? I wonder?
3. The first and foremost duty of a school is to give each child a good basic education. I agree with Michele in #45. I fear that social conservatives have pretty much lost the game as secular progressives run the universities and departments of education. The union structure is fairly entrenched and younger teachers pretty much buy into the NEA secular progressive agenda.
What I fear is the kind of parents and students that are needed to make public schools successful will continue to flee and for the children left behind for whom a good basic education is the ticket out of poverty, will in the words of Tim LaHay truly be left behind.
I hope the parents keep pressure on the School Board, although I know the School Board is worried that the ACLU and People for the American Way will come in with a squandron of lawyers and cost them high six figures in lawuits for wrongful termination and harassment.
Posted by: WVH on November 29, 2007 01:36 AMA key passage:
"Having spent the past year studying educational success stories, I find myself increasingly convinced that much of what ails American schools can be traced to a bureaucracy that: (a) doesn't pay enough; (b) does too little to encourage and reward creativity; (c) doesn't give principals authority over who works in their schools; (d) makes it nearly impossible to fire bad teachers."
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2004040826_lenny29.html
The piece discusses charter schools. A charter which is free from many regulations and the greatest freedom the charter has is to hire and fire staff. By the time the School Board in this instance went through the process of hearings and appeals, five years and several hundred thousand dollars would have passed. There has to be competition in education.
Posted by: WVH on November 29, 2007 01:53 AMMost people getting involved in YAWAR here are already solid lefty activist-type students. I'm not saying that I'm a fan of the organization (the name alone is pretty much inane enough that I decided it wasn't worth looking into). But characterizing them as the Pied Piper leading the helpless high school students away with promises of missed school is maybe a little perfunctory to the reality of the situation.
Like Bible Club, it's mostly preaching to the choir.
Posted by: Benjamin Johnstone-Anderson on November 29, 2007 09:54 AM