Teacher kicked out of school for teaching students who the President is

I doubt I would have cared much either way if I was a student of her's, but it's obvious it made some students / parents angry enough to ask for her to remove it, so she should have done so. She is an ENGLISH teacher, not a history teacher. It's her job to educate her students on the subject on English, not United States' history.

This wasn't something that happened over night; she herself admitted that students were asking her about her political affiliation, and using class time to ask her other various political questions which she refused to answer. So it was clear it was causing a disruption. For all of these reasons, the principal asked her to remove it. She refused. Hmmmmm. Sounds less historical teaching and more like political reasons now, eh? If it were not a political statement on her behalf, she would have seen that her lil' bulletin board was an unnecessary distraction, and simply removed it for the sake of her students. But she didn't.

www.sbschools.org...

The board of education's view....

The only thing that bothers me is the simplistic way the student asked, as attributed in the Tribune article. Asking "You like Bush? He killed people." Are they really having it taught that way to them? I read that Kerry actually DID kill people in free fire zones and such. Bush hasn't killed anybody (that we know of) with his own hand. So I guess the Kerry supporters are teaching their kids, not about terrorism or war or what's actually happening, but just that Bush is a killer. I think kids should be given facts and allowed to explore their feelings about it in a non-partisan way instead of having politics fed to them like religion.

(And to save some typing for the normal Bush Bashers, yes he waged war, blah, blah, blah, ad nauseum, amen. The validity of the war is not what I'm talking about, I'm talking about the fact of it and how it's presented.)

my opinion...

this is wrong... they should leave her alone.

she hung the picture along side pictures of other presidents.. right ?

I see nothing wrong with it.

But apparently it wasn't along side all the other presidents. Seems there might have been more to it than that according to the link I found above. There just shouldn't be politics in the classroom, just facts.

My question is... are the students liberal leaning enough to give false testimony against her in order to get rid of her due to either bad feelings of their own or pressure from liberal parents? Did she, knowing the liberal viewpoint of many parents, decide to try and sway them to the right?

A classroom full of students are basically a captive audience, forced to sit and listen to whatever comes out of the teacher for that time period. She's the authority figure in the room and if she talks about politics and shows a bias toward one party over the other, then the kids are in the position of either agreeing or disagreeing with the person who controls their grades. Not good.

Did a child ask to take it down? Was it such a scary picture that it needed to be taken down? I am so tired of "No Halloween decorations becasue it's pagan, no Christmas because I am atheist, no pledge becase I do not beleive in it."
We should not be scared of the next president, you should be scared of bieng accused of anything by thes self righteous soccer moms(and Dad's) who want to change the political agenda of a Elementary school.

It is not a picture of the first dictator either. He is the president of the United states. Pull the teacher aside and ask her to include all the presidents.

p.s. And why, can I ask, did these rere's ask for Kerry's picture to be added?

It's a public school so it has to be geared toward The Masses. If it's a Republican vs. Democrat display, it's a problem. A picture of the President with all the other Presidents is one thing. A picture of only Bush is still not a problem. But a picture of Bush as a personal decoration accompanied by (alleged) partisan commentary is a problem.

Something I'm curious about... if the parents only complained because they saw it during a school function, it seems that she might not have been preaching Republican politics. I think if that were the case, if she were trying to convert or recruit to the Bush camp, the parents would have been hearing about it long before this and would have complained.

This thread actually demonstrates to me the greatest casualty of the ugly political climate in our country. In bickering about who's to blame, who has a partisan agenda, who should be on this teacher's wall, etc., we (and the parents, teachers, school administrators) have lost sight of the fact that this slimy political campaign has oozed into a place it never should have been allowed to: our schools.

I've seen news stories during this presidential race that range from funny to absurd to scary as the divisive nature of politics meanders into different areas of our society. This, however, is truly horrible.

While this teacher is strung up (whether it was her fault or not) an entire classroom of kids is being taught first hand the two adult lessons that have made our country and society so corrupt in the first place: Pick a side, and don't compromise. They should be learning English.

Personally, I blame every adult in this conflict for handling it this way. Schools all over this country have conflicts with their teachers and parents every day, and their first directive is (or should be) to resolve it without compromising the education of the students. Here, someone called the news, and now the politicos are going to fan the flames. Great job, America.

"Great job, America."

Why "America" as a whole? America as a whole didn't do this. I think that kind of generalization is as much a problem as the other things you mentioned. I think politics should be discussed in schools, but in the appropriate class or as an extra-curricular activity. I don't see a problem with learning to make a choice and stand behind it. I don't even see a problem with the students witnessing this situation as it makes them know that partisan political agendas are not part of school life in the classroom. They'll all go home and talk with their parents about what's happened, and that's where I see the problem. If their parents are anything like some of the fanatics on this board, their minds will be efficiently and tightly closed to any notions or ideas other than what their parents are impressing upon them. "You like Bush? He killed people." That's what they are already being taught about politics, apparently. No better than letting it infest the school.

I think schools should encourage political involvement but keep it factual and not brainwash anyone into anything. The future generations might be the only ones who can break this 2 party rut our country is in.