A monarchy no more
Freedom marches on; the latest heartening news is from Overland High School in Aurora, Colorado, where the out-of-control rant of leftie Geography teacher Jay Bennish was taped by a fed-up sixteen year old student. The rant, replayed, has turned the story into a national one and the teacher (one hopes) will soon be selling fries and shakes at Burger King.
The rants and rages of bad teachers are nothing new. We all resonate to this story, whatever our political beliefs, because we have all been held captive by a teacher who abused their authority. Who hasn't sat through a lecture wishing to challenge the teacher but knowing that your grade depended upon your submissive (and inwardly seething) silence?
Teachers have long known this, and the bad ones abuse it. The really bad ones use their authority and position to sexually abuse their students. Other bad ones use their position to indoctrinate their students into a political belief -- the mind-numbed, incoherent students of Overland High are a perfect example of children fed so much propaganda that they have no idea what an argument is, much less how to make one.
Public school and university teachers are the last bastion of monarchy; they reign in their kingdoms with the serfs of their classrooms helpless to challenge them. Upset the teacher, and your grade dives to a "D". Toady up, and you get an "A." (This is not true in the hard sciences, of course; your teacher can loathe you and if you know how to calculate the quadratic equation, they have to give you an "A." But then again, teachers in the hard sciences don't spend any time in indoctrination; they're too busy actually teaching.)
Now the monarchy is trembling on the throne. Any student with an IPOD or a cell phone or a cheap digital recorder can make public the king's madness, and prove to the disbelieving that yes, this is abuse.
The student at Overland High told his Dad about the teacher's ravings, and just like Roald Dahl wrote in Matilda, his parent did not believe him. But technology gave the boy the tool to prove to his father that the abuse was real. The teacher cowers in his home and the student stands astride the broken throne. Miss Trunchbull was driven from her school in a shower of leftover lunch food; one could only hope Jay Bennish meets the same fate.
Long live freedom. And may every teacher think twice before they spit their hatred and bias into the classroom. The students are serfs no more.
The rants and rages of bad teachers are nothing new. We all resonate to this story, whatever our political beliefs, because we have all been held captive by a teacher who abused their authority. Who hasn't sat through a lecture wishing to challenge the teacher but knowing that your grade depended upon your submissive (and inwardly seething) silence?
Teachers have long known this, and the bad ones abuse it. The really bad ones use their authority and position to sexually abuse their students. Other bad ones use their position to indoctrinate their students into a political belief -- the mind-numbed, incoherent students of Overland High are a perfect example of children fed so much propaganda that they have no idea what an argument is, much less how to make one.
Public school and university teachers are the last bastion of monarchy; they reign in their kingdoms with the serfs of their classrooms helpless to challenge them. Upset the teacher, and your grade dives to a "D". Toady up, and you get an "A." (This is not true in the hard sciences, of course; your teacher can loathe you and if you know how to calculate the quadratic equation, they have to give you an "A." But then again, teachers in the hard sciences don't spend any time in indoctrination; they're too busy actually teaching.)
Now the monarchy is trembling on the throne. Any student with an IPOD or a cell phone or a cheap digital recorder can make public the king's madness, and prove to the disbelieving that yes, this is abuse.
The student at Overland High told his Dad about the teacher's ravings, and just like Roald Dahl wrote in Matilda, his parent did not believe him. But technology gave the boy the tool to prove to his father that the abuse was real. The teacher cowers in his home and the student stands astride the broken throne. Miss Trunchbull was driven from her school in a shower of leftover lunch food; one could only hope Jay Bennish meets the same fate.
Long live freedom. And may every teacher think twice before they spit their hatred and bias into the classroom. The students are serfs no more.
posted by Bonnie at 1:51 PM
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