- I pay taxes and my tax money goes to support public schools. As a tax payer I have every right to demand that my money be spent wisely.
- I have relatives in public schools, I have every right to be concerned that they aren't getting the education they deserve.
- Every citizen has the right to be outraged by the number of teachers sexually abusing their students, giving students inappropriate material and leaving their classes unattended.
This same blogger actually DEFENDED the public school teacher who made 8th graders read aloud explicit 'sex' questions.
Teachers: Did you ever need to get some classroom material ready and just didn’t have time, and so you clicked on a web site that was recommended and printed off a section of it, and handed it out to your students and had them read from it out loud in class, then get fired?
It could happen to you. We don’t know yet if Health Teacher Scott Groff of Cook County Illinois will get fired (I hope not … this looks like a really stupid but not fatal mistake) for pretty much doing just that.
I wonder how many other professionals could use the excuse that they just didn't have the time to prepare for ___________. Imagine a courtroom where a lawyer just didn't have the time to research his brief or a doctor who just didn't have time to prepare properly for surgery. Why should our children's education get less attention to details? Teachers you are PAID to get classroom material ready - "the I didn't have time" excuse doesn't cut it. Even if you are generous enough to give the teacher a pass for accidentally clicking on the wrong website and printing out and distributing the wrong material, exactly HOW does that justify him continuing to force the students to read the material out loud. After the FIRST question most people would have realize something was wrong and called a halt to the 'lesson'.
Greg immediately counters with a mythical homeschool parent who might read something inappropriate (and who gets to determine what is appropriate - in my book it would be THE PARENTS) to their own kids.
The good news is that this terrible, embarrassing goof occurred in a public school where administrators could jump in and, working with the teaching staff and the parents, fix everything. Who knows how many times this happens in a home schooling environment, and just goes along undetected and uncorrected? Probably several times a day.
Good news!!!!! Excuse me but there wasn't anything 'good' about this 'lesson'. Exactly HOW could you fix everything? The damage has already been done. The students have already been embarrassed and humiliated in class. Children do not come with a rewind button, I doubt any of them will forget the 'explicit sex lesson' they were forced to read out loud. Certainly these parents don't think the problem is fixed.
A health teacher made 8th graders read aloud explicit questions about oral sex and masturbation during a sex-education lesson at a suburban school this week, outraging parents who demanded the teacher be disciplined. The principal at Wolcott School in Thornton, said he learned of the lesson early Friday after numerous phone calls from parents and directed the health teacher to apologize to his class for the two-day lesson.Parents say this apology isn’t enough. They plan to attend the Thornton School District board meeting next week to demand that the 27-year-old teacher, Scott Groff, be suspended or fired.“My daughter brought it to our attention because she was disgusted with it,” said Grady Braley, father of a Wolcott 14-year-old. “There’s certain things at her age they need to know. But this was a how-to manual.”“It’s creepy, and I’d like to know why he’s still teaching.”
Another mom called the principal’s explanation “a lame excuse.” She said her daughter told her that classmates laughed during the lesson, but some were clearly uncomfortable with reading the material to the class.“This is not Porn 101. This is a school,” said the mom, who also asked not to be identified to spare her 14-year-old daughter further embarrassment in their tiny school. “This is putting girls and boys in harm’s way. It’s almost voyeurism.”
Read more here.
I agree with these parents, someone who exercises such poor judgement has no business educating our children. Unfortunately while the board is protecting the children at their school, Mr. Goff is free to seek employment elsewhere. How many other professionals could mess up royally and get PAID LEAVE?
Read the complete article here.The board of Thornton Elementary School District 154 decided Tuesday night that a teacher accused of handing out sexually explicit material to 8th graders in a health class would go on paid administrative leave immediately and his contract would not be renewed for the next school year.
5 comments:
There is no good news about this situation, that is true. What I was trying to say was that if a screw up like this happens in a more public setting, it can be fixed. The teacher that willy nilly prints off something from the internet and hands it out to the kids can get retrained, embarrassed into doing a better job, fired, sued, whatever. The homes school parent just goes on doing what they are doing, such as teaching bad science, etc. That was my point.
Nice post, Alasandra. What goes on in public schools and how dumbed down the curriculum is really scares me.
Sherry
Greg, you seem to be missing the point here-- the PARENTS are the ones who have the right to decide what is and isn't appropriate for their children. It is the parents who are outraged and calling for something to be done. And, as court cases have shown many times lately, parental outrage is often not enough to get inappropriate material out of the schools. This is never an issue in our homeschool because *I* am the one with the right to determine what's appropriate and *I* am the one choosing the material for our lessons. Cut out the middle man and there's no problem.
The "bad science" argument always makes me laugh, though. I am a Christian, though I don't believe in a literal seven day creation. However, there are a great many people all over this country who do believe in it, and they seem to be going about their professional lives without any problems. No, I don't worry about children who are being taught Creation science, but I do worry about those public school children, whose educations *I* have helped pay for, who graduate unable to read.
Nice post, Alasandra. I came over via the Carnival of Homeschooling.
Greg Laden's comments seem to carry an underlying assumption that the government is better equipped to assess what is good for each family than the family itself; and that homeschooling undermines this, ahem, vital responsibility. Not meaning to bash Mr. Laden, but this is the nanny-state mentality, and our country just isn't run that way.
In every other aspect, our society works the opposite, assuming that the parents have the best interest of the child at heart. Teaching is a sacred trust bestowed by the people upon the government; not the other way around.
Second, the idea that the individual homeschooling parent continues to err and err again unchecked is simply wrong. We have systems to deal with this. Should evidence come to light that a parent is exposing her child to sexually explicit materials, there is this little thing called Child Protective Services that can step in and make it stop. If Greg is worried about lesser deficiencies in teaching methodology, I suggest he check the literacy rates coming out of homeschools and public schools.
Very well said Tom.
I know several homeschoolers who are better versed in teaching methodology then public school teachers are. I think the parents try to find what works for their child. A public school teacher doesn't have the luxury of discovering what will work for all 25/30 kids in their class.
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