Teacher in Vermont Too Liberal

[Kanamori]

Teacher under investigation for alleged liberalism

November 25, 2005

BENNINGTON, Vt. --The school superintendent whose district includes Mount Anthony Union High School has labeled "inappropriate" and "irresponsible" an English teacher's use of liberal statements in a vocabulary quiz.

"I wish Bush would be (coherent, eschewed) for once during a speech, but there are theories that his everyday diction charms the below-average mind, hence insuring him Republican votes," said one question on a quiz written by English and social studies teacher Bret Chenkin.

The question referring to the president asked students to say whether coherent or eschewed was the proper word. The sentence would be more coherent if one eschewed eschewed.

Another example said, "It is frightening the way the extreme right has (balled, arrogated) aspects of the Constitution and warped them for their own agenda." Arrogated would be the proper word there.

Chenkin, 36 and a teacher for seven years, said the quizzes are being taken out of context.

"The kids know it's hyperbolic, so-to-speak," he said. "They know it's tongue in cheek. They know where I stand."

He said he isn't shy about sharing his liberal views with students, but invites vigorous debate in the classroom.

"Never once have I said, 'OK, you're wrong,'" he said. "Instead, it's, 'OK, let's open this up. Let's see where this can go.'"

Southwest Vermont Supervisory Union Superintendent Wesley Knapp said he would not want his children subjected to such teaching.

"It's absolutely unacceptable," he said. "They (teachers) don't have a license to hold forth on a particular standpoint."

Knapp said he was recently informed of the situation and that it was a personnel issue that he took seriously.

Principal Sue Maguire said she hoped to speak to whoever complained about the quiz and any students who might be concerned. She said she also would talk with Chenkin about the context of the quiz.

"I feel like this needs to be investigated," she said.
LINK!!!! (http://www.boston.com/news/local/vermont/articles/2005/11/25/teacher_under_investigation_for_alleged_liberalism/)

Anti-conservatism wasn't even what was being taught, let alone Liberalsim.~:rolleyes:


but there are theories that his everyday diction charms the below-average mind, hence insuring him Republican votes

He even says 'theories.' help, help I'm being oppressed.~:mecry:

If I had to endure my teacher poking fun at my sleeping habits in the AP English grammar quizzes, somebody else can take an obvious joke. I'm sure some crazy lib would whine about another teacher making fun of amoral liberals though.

[Strike For The South]

meh this is distasteful but Im thinking the kids are old enough to realize everyone has there own opnion and can express it how they please. So Im gonna go with BFD

[Kaiser of Arabia]

Hrm...lets hang him. He's infecting the mind of the youth! ~D

[Kaiser of Arabia]

High School kids aren't fooled by this. It's good to have teachers that encourage political debate, regardless of where the teacher stands. I had some very liberal, and very conservative, highschool teachers that encouraged political debate in the classroom and I think I am a much better person for it.

Kudos to this teacher. I think the quotes are probably taken out of context.
Yup. Note teh sarcasm in my post :bow:

[Ice]

High School kids aren't fooled by this. It's good to have teachers that encourage political debate, regardless of where the teacher stands. I had some very liberal, and very conservative, highschool teachers that

Likewise. I still do.

[Xiahou]

It's good to have teachers that encourage political debate, regardless of where the teacher stands. I had some very liberal, and very conservative, highschool teachers that encouraged political debate in the classroom and I think I am a much better person for it.But in English class? I'm not sure that's the proper forum for lively, open, political debate.

Having said that, I couldn't care less what happens to the teacher one way of the other. :shrug:

[Xiahou]

I took it where I could get it. Political Discussions, in my experience, erupt in the classroom regardless of the topic at hand. The teacher has to make the choice of either stifling it, or faciliating it.
Maybe I'm a fuddy duddy, but I think an English teacher should stifle it- and stay on topic. I mean, if it were literature maybe I could see how politics might be inevitable... but grammar? Nah.

[Phatose]

.....aren't you done with flat out vocabulary and on to literature by the time you hit high school?

[Red Harvest]

Saw this earlier. The teacher should knock it off. It is amusing, yes, but taking political jabs as part of assignments is not appropriate. If it were debate or history or something then it might have some appropriate context.

[Xiahou]

Saw this earlier. The teacher should knock it off. It is amusing, yes, but taking political jabs as part of assignments is not appropriate. If it were debate or history or something then it might have some appropriate context.I hate it when we agree. ~D

[Meneldil]

Well, it sounds a bit silly, given what he said. I admit some of my teachers went to far with their political opinion, and deserved to be punished in some way, but here, that's just overdone. I mean, every kid must have heard that kind of comment in their life. It's not like if he was saying "Bush should be shot" or "Conservatives are a bunch of idiots" (which would then have deserved some kind of punishement)

[Uesugi Kenshin]

Sweet! I know that guy! His English classroom is right next to my AP History classroom and he and my History teacher are good friends.

I don't see too much of a problem with this, from what I've seen of him he isn't closed minded and would talk to the students about it, although it would probably be best if he didn't put this sort of thing on assignments.

It's amazing that this town actually came up on the Org's radar.

[Idomeneas]

Hrm...lets hang him. He's infecting the mind of the youth! ~D


The last guy i heard been accused for this drunk the conium~D

Serious now, i dont see much of a problem here, the kids are grown enough to form their own ideas. I believe the best teachers are the ones telling you things about life, anyway those stuff are the ones you will propably remember after school and not some strict to the letter lessons. Plus that its a way to invoke the interest of the kids and prevent them from gazzing out of the window, talking to each other or (idont know if you did it in US) launch to each other bits of chewed paperballs by blowing through a bic pen pipe~:) .

The most important i think is that he put the kids in the procedure to think about politics. Many young people here and i think there also find these stuff borring and dont realise that politics form the reality around them. And as the ancients said a citizen that dont cares for politics is useless.

[Mongoose]

It's amazing that this town actually came up on the Org's radar.

The .org sees all, knows all and controls all. To resist is pointless; you will be assimilated:stare:


IMO, the teacher should probably not be putting that kind of thing into assignments. I agree with other when they say that english class really isn't the place for a political debate ~:confused:


SFTS:
High school children are more gullible then you would think. To an extent, they have been trained to listen to their teachers blindly. This makes them somewhat easy to brian wash in the class room.... the fact that they tend to be idiots in general dosen't help much either.

[Byzantine Prince]

the fact that they tend to be idiots in general dosen't help much either.
Said the guy who has Bartix written all over him. HAHAHAHAH~:joker:

[Mongoose]

Said the guy who has Bartix written all over him. HAHAHAHAH~:joker:

Hey, it's not just high school students. Almost everyone under the age of 20 is an idiot, and dat aint exludin me.

I've head people say "I believe in X, my teacher in high school said that it was true. I can't remember any of what he said, but i'm sure that it was very convincing"

[doc_bean]

Hey, it's not just high school students. Almost everyone under the age of 20 is an idiot, and dat aint exludin me.


I'll let you in on a little secret: it doesn't get that much better later in life ~:rolleyes:

[Byzantine Prince]

I'll let you in on a little secret: it doesn't get that much better later in life ~:rolleyes:
Precisely.

If you are an idiot (or Bartixian) then you are deamed to remain an idiot( or *sigh* a Bartixian).

[A.Saturnus]

An English quiz isn´t a good place to encourage discussion. If he wants his students to discuss something he should let them read a controversial text. His intentions may have been ok, but I think the criticism is justified.
Note that in Germany, he could lose his job immediately.

[The_Mark]

Ahh.. We had once a strong proponent of nuclear power as our physics teacher, and a very green chemistry teacher, who had an almost religious hatred of nuclear power. Needless to say, he promoted wind and solar power. This lead to some amusing situations, both of them stuffing students with propaganda, and, consequently, good observational material for Finnish courses about media, propaganda and debates.

I still remember the undying words of our physics teacher: "There are certain persons, even in our school, who would try to convert you away from nuclear power." ~D We were game for it, though I'm not that sure about the teacher.. Nevertheless, it was good fun.


On topic, I find that as long as the students know the situation this is acceptable, but any sort of indoctrination is punishable. Defining indoctrination in these situations is a completely another matter, of course. The decision on this should be in the hands of the students, and I'm quite sure they'd find the teacher not guilty.

[Uesugi Kenshin]

One thing I find interesting is it doesn't say what class he was teaching, he teaches both 12 AP English and a bunch of lower level English courses, IMHO if it had been in 12 AP it was in bad taste but the kids better be smart enough to make up their own minds if they are in 12 AP, if it was in one of his other courses it would be a bit worse. Although in a way they shouldn't have a problem with that if it was in one of the lower courses because a lot of the kids probably wouldn't be paying attention anyway.

*He teaches AP 12 English (the highest English class in our school) and then he teaches some of the lowest classes. Most likely a B (or if they exist C) level course.

It goes English as a Second Language, B (there may be C level courses I'm not sure though), then A, then Honors, then AP.

[BDC]

Heh all my teachers talk about politicians like that. America is land of freedom of speech is it?

[scooter_the_shooter]

I had a science teacher like this.... She said


"who goes hunting in here" (deer season was almost here) more then half the guys in there did, but we all knew she was a nut and most didn't raise their hand. Well me and a few others did and we had to stay after class~:joker: And get a long lecture~:eek:


Mainly about "how would you like it if I shot you" "and you went and bled out in a field and I ate your remains'~:joker:


Thats what she basically said only a lot more subtle so she couldn't get in trouble:hide:

[Slyspy]

Teacher in use of current affairs and satire to keep kids interested in lesson shock! When will the madness end......

[Kanamori]

Teacher in use of current affairs and satire to keep kids interested in lesson shock! When will the madness end......

Exactly, my thoughts on the matter. That's how my teachers would keep the slacker types at least interested in class discussions.


.....aren't you done with flat out vocabulary and on to literature by the time you hit high school?

Not really. In my AP Language + Composition class, we had weekly vocab/usage quizzes of arcane words with odd tense forms.

[Papewaio]

Meh! Final year literature you supposed to be able to take the point of view of any protaganist in the literature you study... now considering some of the nutcases to some of the more heroic characters through the history of literature that means you should have a fairly good capacity to see things from different view points.

Say Hamlets point of view, of one of the characters in The Heart of Darkness, or Lady Macbeth or Juliets, or the main character from The Collector ... quite a range and that is only a snapshot of English Lit... so these students if at the highest grade should be able to hotfoot it from one conceputal viewpoint to another as fast as they can write a paragraph.

[English assassin]

I've head people say "I believe in X, my teacher in high school said that it was true. I can't remember any of what he said, but i'm sure that it was very convincing"

Actually that's a perfectly sensible approach to life. You can't possibly hope to remember all your points of view and all the chain of reasoning that got you there. I seem to remember Nietszche had an aphorism about that.

As for the teacher, call me a liberal but IMHO what he did was wrong. I happen to agree with the statement on Bush but that isn't the point. If he had also included "the trouble with Democrats is they wilfully [refuse/garbage] to acknowledge the truth about human nature, [preferring/fishing] to indulge in woolly feel good fantasies rather than making hard choices" then it would have been OK. But a vocab quiz isn't the place to be pushing any one political agenda.

[Uesugi Kenshin]

Today in History we talked about this for the first 15 minutes or so of class because Chenkin's classroom is right next door. From what my History teacher said Mr. Chenkin includes questions with a more conservative stance, questions that are probably somewhat like what you suggested English Assassin. I've never had him as a teacher so I can't say from first hand experience if that is true, but I don't have any reason to believe my History teacher would be lying about it.

What do you guys think in that case?

BTW if any of you are interested in hearing more about this, the principal gave him a some flak for it, but she's not really going to be pushing the issue I don't think. Also interestingly enough he's apparently been getting hatemail, though I'm not sure there were death threats it sounded like there were.~:eek:

If the school paper runs anything on this I'll try to post it, but it doesn't sound like they are going to touch the issue.