NJ teacher in trouble for displaying a picture of Bush.

[Wildcard Ky]

I think this one is going a little too far. A teacher in New Jersey had a picture of GWB on a bulletin board along with pictures of other presidents and a copy of the declaration of Independence.

3 angry parents demanded that a pic of Kerry be added to the montage, or that Bush's picture be removed. The vice principal of the school threatened her job if she didn't remove the picture.

NEWSFLASH: As of now, Kerry isn't, nor has he ever been a president of the U.S.

Like the man or not, he is the president, and there's nothing wrong with displaying his picture along with that of other presidents. This just shows how ugly our politics are getting.

NJ teacher

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

I think this one is going a little too far. A teacher in New Jersey had a picture of GWB on a bulletin board along with pictures of other presidents and a copy of the declaration of Independence.

3 angry parents demanded that a pic of Kerry be added to the montage, or that Bush's picture be removed. The vice principal of the school threatened her job if she didn't remove the picture.

NEWSFLASH: As of now, Kerry isn't, nor has he ever been a president of the U.S.

Like the man or not, he is the president, and there's nothing wrong with displaying his picture along with that of other presidents. This just shows how ugly our politics are getting.

NJ teacher

I agree. That's pretty BS WiKy.

 

[Huckleman2000]

I think it's safe to say that there's a lot more to this episode than is related in this very brief story. There were several pictures accompanying the story, and none actually showed the whole bulletin board in question. And judging from the teacher's over-the-top reaction (she alerted the media and made a big stink, apparently after taking down the offending display), this isn't an isolated incident.

 

[shereads]

Could my dog get in trouble for displaying Squeaky President Bush's Head in the back yard?

 

[Guest]

Could my dog get in trouble for displaying Squeaky President Bush's Head in the back yard?

Has he peed on the Squeaky President yet?

http://www.addis-welt.de/smilie/smilie/tierdog/hb46.gif

Better be careful 'cause the Secret Service will be right up his little doggie butt.

 

[shereads]

Has he peed on the Squeaky President yet?

http://www.addis-welt.de/smilie/smilie/tierdog/hb46.gif

Better be careful 'cause the Secret Service will be right up his little doggie butt.

The dog is a she. There have been no documented incidents of abuse. Just squeaking, some slinging, and a lot of indecision about whether the Head belongs inside the house, or outside face-down in the gravel.

 

[Vincent E]

This story does seem to fit into the overall educational experience in America these days. After all, with so many kids unable to find the United States on a map of the world, why should they be able to identify the President of the United States either?

 

[Guest]

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

One thing I do know about the story is that they'll never ask the students what happened.

That would be too easy.

 

[Guest]

i was so hoping the teacher was doing sex ed...


*sigh*

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

What could possibly be wrong with a school teacher giving her pupils a little glimpse of bush


http://www.sydes.net/jokes/pictures/w/we_want_bush.jpg

 

[cantdog]

At any rate, it would seem that it was not, as Wildcard thought, "along with other presidents of the US."

Consequently his NEWSFLASH that Kerry is not president is a little irrelevant, isn't it?

It could have been placed in any context at all. If the bulletin board said "Candidates in the 2004 Election" then 3 parents might well have said, "Either put Kerry up there, too, or take the Bushes down."

Otherwise, their saying such a thing wouldn't make a lot of sense.

The principal is the space cadet here.

 

[GingerV]

The aggrivating thing to me is that the story seems more holes than news.

There's nothing wrong, per se, with kids getting a look at their president. Zip. Nor with Bush being associated with other presidents, or identified AS the president.

But all we know is that there was a bulliten board, and that Bush was on it. I don't know what the title was, imagine for a moment that he was in company with other pictures of select presidents and the title of the board was "the five greatest presidents of all time". The teacher could've been said to have passed from the realm of fact to opinion. Maybe there's a problem there. Dunno. Can't say it's the worst thing a child of mine would ever have to deal with. What if the title were implied rather than stated? Is that better, or worse?

What strikes me is that this is a teacher who apparently has a history of complaints against her...not for having political opinions, but for passing insulting or degrading comments about her students based on THEIR political beliefs. This bulliten board thing may have been a small but final straw in a complicated history. But again, in the rush to politicize/sensationalize it...that's not told.

I want the history before I judge one way or the other...but that said, I think that if we eliminate all discussion of current politics from our classrooms, we lose a wonderful opportunity to teach our kids how to speak rationally with folks who disagree with them...and that people on every side of the issue have a point to make. It should be possible to do that without the teacher's personal opinions dominating the discussion, it may be necessary to do so without reference to what that teacher's opinions are. But it's not possible to do that while denying that the teacher has opinions at all.

This action smacks too much of "we don't talk about that, and we don't talk about why we don't talk about that," though.

G