http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=1683469
This case from 2006, deals with a teacher’s first amendment rights within the classroom. Teacher Jay Bennish was recorded on tape by one of this students while he made controversial remarks regarding President Bush. Bennish was later suspended with pay by the school districted based on the comments that he made. Bennish later sued the school district claiming his first amendment right of free speech. The suit was actually filed on March 3, 2006. This case received a lot of media attention and Bennish was offered interviews with several major news outlets. On March 10, 2006, the Cherry Creek School District announced that it would reinstate Bennish. As a result, Bennish changed his ways in the classroom, from an open public forum setting to textbook-based learning.
This case has several interesting factors including the fact that the student who recorded the conversation was named in the news articles and the fact that the district was not so concerned with the comments that were made, but the fact that the conversation was one-sided. In the end, Bennish changed his teaching style brining a new level of awareness to open classroom debates. However, I think that open forums that are well balanced are essential to the learning environment. Should students and teachers be able to discuss different political views openly in a classroom?
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3 comments:
Teachers and students must be able to discuss politics. However, they need to keep it an open discussion, only share the facts and remain objective - regardless of their political views. After all, they are in a position of authority and have influence over the children in their classrooms. The argument about First Amendment rights is interesting when you think about all of the speech that falls under the First Amendment, but that is definitely not classroom appropriate.
I saw this exact same article and thought about posting it here. As the teacher was trying to promote conversation within the classroom, I can see giving him some leeway as long as the discussion remains open and everyone is allowed to express their points of view in the same manner. Overall, he might have been a little extreme in his dialogue and should have toned it down for the students.
I totally disagree with the outcome in this case. By creating or "firing up" opposing arguements the teacher was allowing the students to reflect and derive their opinion rather against him or siding with him. I do not believe he should have toned it down or changed his style. I can say his method is favorable because it is a personal proven method of getting first the attraction of a subject and second the "natural" response. Then once that is established you can go deeper (evidence, facts, articles, quotes, etc...) into why there is such a strong opinion about that topic. As a child I enjoyed teachers who challenge me to form an educated guess to best prepare me for the the decision-making that we do on a day to day basis. Text book teaching is on one hand is good but I strongly believe that challenging the students with statements for opposition is better. The teacher's freedom of speech was violated.
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