A high school teacher is facing questions from administrators after giving a vocabulary quiz that included digs at President Bush and the extreme right.
Bret Chenkin, a social studies and English teacher at Mount Anthony Union High School, said he gave the quiz to his students several months ago. The quiz asked students to pick the proper words to complete sentences.
One example: "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." "Coherent" is the right answer.
Principal Sue Maguire said she hoped to speak to whomever complained about the quiz and any students who might be concerned. She said she also would talk with Chenkin. School Superintendent Wesley Knapp said he was taking the situation seriously.
"It’s absolutely unacceptable," Knapp said. "They (teachers) don’t have a license to hold forth on a particular standpoint."
Chenkin, 36, a teacher for seven years, said he isn’t shy about sharing his liberal views with students as a way of prompting debate, but 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." But he said he would change his teaching methods if some are concerned.
"I’ll put in both sides," he said. "Especially if it’s going to cause a lot of grief."
The school is in Bennington, a community of about 16,500 in the southwest corner of the state.
And people wonder why private schools are flourishing. I have never understood why some people feel that being an educator gives them a license to say whatever they feel like. It doesn’t. All it does is allow them to teach what is known. If they want to inspire intellectual thought, discuss Moby Dick
and its social implications. But, to intentionally insult the values of probably half of his students doesn’t do much to inspire intellectual thought IMO.
Technorati Tags: Ethics
Tags: Ethics
1 Comment »
on 30 Nov 2005 at 11:24 am 1.Bryan Kerwick
said …
Good thing this was a liberal teacher. Just imagine what would happen if he was talking about Christmas. He would be fired on the spot as many other teachers have with absolutely no recourse. To say that our public school system is anything other than extremely left leaning is a flat out lie.This double standard must be exposed for what it is and fairness must be enforced. The problem is that the enforcement lies with the school system that can not possibly be fair in this arena. We need to change the way parents can deal with a biased system not of our choosing other than going broke sending our kids to private schools. The system is broken to the point of being unfixable and the only real option is for vouchers. That way we parents can send our children to the school of our choosing and not that of the government without going broke in the process. That is precisely why the secular left is obstructing the thought of vouchers for private schools. Their monopoly over our children must be broken so we can have a reasonable chance at raising our children as we see fit and not as some social experiment for the left.