A Call to Arms for Parents Upset About Obama’s Public School Address
I am a teacher at a middle school. I consider myself an independant and try my best to sort through both sides of each argument before having an opinion. Those opinions are never shared with my students. Every teacher I know takes their job very seriously. Though it may be impossible to eliminate all bias from any discussion, we understand it as our duty to give both sides of issues during discussions. When I heard about the uproar of parents regarding this speech, I jumped online and started reading through conservitive blogs to hear the arguments against showing the speech. I must admit that no matter how hard I try, I cannot understand the point of view that the president is an evil man bent on the destruction of America. I don’t believe he is a terrorist. I don’t think his is a communist, or a Marxist. I’ve done the research and just don’t see the evidence.
I will be watching this address with my students with their parents permission. We will have a discussion in which I will moderate between the students, asking question to promote and encourage thought, and making sure all students feel safe to voice their true feelings. That is my job, and that is what I’ve been trained to do.
I don’t understand the villafying of public education by some posters. The NEA is nothing to me but a sender of junk mail. They don’t control me, my teaching, or my political leanings. Though there are admittedly more lefties than righties at my school, you wouldn’t know it by sitting in their classrooms. A collegue of mine who teaches US history lead a discussion after Obama’s Innauguration Speech. This guy is the shining image of bleeding heart liberal and is proud of it. I had a planning period so I sat in to see how the students would react. His students were so well trained at the skill of group discussion and debate, that he said not one word for 30 minutes. Those kids had the most thoughtful, careful discussion I had ever heard from a group of 12 year olds. It was inspiring to me and I learned a lot from them.
Point is, educators are professionals who go through many years of college in order to pursue their goals of educating the youth of our country. Do you really think we are all a bunch of leftist puppets who waist your childrens’ time trying to promote the presidents politics?
Sorry for the long post. I just had a lot of reactions to this discussion.
Cheers
