A legislator in Arizona has proposed a bill that would outlaw “Politics in the Classroom”
To muzzle instructors who champion political views in classrooms, a Republican state legislator has proposed a law that would punish public school teachers and professors for not being impartial in the classroom.
Senate Majority Leader Thayer Verschoor, R-Gilbert, wrote the bill that has drawn a stream of criticism and support since it received preliminary approval in a Senate committee this month.
My kneejerk reaction is to give two very big thumbs up to this. I think we’ve all heard enough about leftist instructors who skew the discussion in any possible lesson to their political leaning. David Horowitz has even created an “Academic Bill of Rights” because of the numerous examples.
There is even a woman in Idaho who has demanded her money back for the English Compositon course she took because of the teacher’s repeated disparaging of Republicans, including, but not limited to, saying that she supports the death penalty as far as she would have all Republican’s put to death (read the article and you’ll see that nowhere does the teacher deny that she said it).
Normally I would support both of these “No Politics in the Classroom” ideas vehemently. Unfortunately the blogosphere has ruined me of being able to support them because I know exactly how the left would use them against teachers doing exactly what teachers are supposed to do: Teach.
You know and I know that leftists are “sensitive” people. Any topic that does not espouse a point of view matching their own is offensive. Even if the topic doesn’t include a point of view that is opposite of their own and actually just states facts as facts and plays it straight down the middle can and usually will be blown up to be a mojor offense.
In my high school years, which weren’t all that long ago, the little socialistas (which were euphamistically called at the time “Future Art School Students”) would raise objections to factual US History.
Anything that made the US look good, like Monroe’s African Slave Trade Patrol, was verbally beaten down and the topic switched to slavery in America (and only in America, mind you), and then why the government should be handing out Reparations. Their luck was that the teacher was a wet towel and had no qualms about topic creep. It didn’t matter that Reparations weren’t going to be on the test, the topic had been hi-jacked.
Now just how long do you think it would be before one of these overly-sensitive and way too “socially aware” brats, who are now more narcissistic than ever, gets offended and uses this new law to file against a teacher who knows how to stick to a lesson plan?
Then you have the parents coming in and bitching about how little Sequoia can’t learn in such a rigid environment. Lawsuits are threatened and just like bad test scores, things change for “those kids”. They are let to act up in class and change the topic while everyone else’s IQ goes down. Only now, the teacher cannot say one thing against the bile spewed.
The teacher I had wouldn’t because he was a wuss. But this law would work in exactly opposite the manner it was intended by placing a gag over the teacher’s mouth if they attempt to rebut the “socially aware” student.
Sorry, but I can guarantee that if the above mentioned legislation is enacted, that scenario will take place before one involving a complaint from a conservative student does.
But what say you?
