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Kansas Teacher Claims Conservative Views Led to Loss of Job

Gardener said:
When I went to school, I noticed a very clear inverse relationship between a teacher's teaching ability and their penchant for letting their personal opinions be known.

Teachers who use their position as a bully pulpit with which to indoctrinate should be weeded out, and this is just as true for the Ward Churchill/Norman Finklestein type leftists as it is the Hannity clones.
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I actually had the opposite experience in high school. One of my favorite classes was American Government, which was taught by a very partisan right winger. However, he challenged us to argue with him, and expected us to be able to defend other positions, and encouraged those of us on the left who showed an interest.
 
TheNextEra said:
Well damn, I guess because he claims it, it MUST be true right? :roll:

I love how conservatives say "Wait wait, there are two sides to the Miss California Pageant, don't just to conclusions that she missed the events", but here they say the teacher is automatically telling the truth and it is the school's fault.

****ing hypocrites again.
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Hoe ironic watching Liberals screech "hypocrite" at every possible opportunity.

Funny how you want BOTH sides now when in the past whenever someone claimed Cheney was a criminal or Bush a War Criminal, you just jumped right in with both feet.

Yes, the same Liberals who screeched at the top of their lungs about Bush's BIG spending now defend their guys irresponsible trillions in spending with NO end even in sight without a single debate about how they will pay for it all.

Yes, the same Liberals who screeched about how irresponsible it was to pass a budget with a deficit without new taxes but who suddenly, now that they are in power, don't want to have any honest debate about raising taxes to pay for the TRILLIONS they have already committed.

Yes funny Liberals, we do know who the hypocrites are in these partisan political debates and it is the person looking back at you from the mirror.

Carry on. :2wave:
 
Gardener said:
When I went to school, I noticed a very clear inverse relationship between a teacher's teaching ability and their penchant for letting their personal opinions be known.

Teachers who use their position as a bully pulpit with which to indoctrinate should be weeded out, and this is just as true for the Ward Churchill/Norman Finklestein type leftists as it is the Hannity clones.
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If this were to happen, almost every LIBERAL teacher would be fired.....hey, that is NOT a bad idea! :2wave:
 
jallman said:
I would be interested in seeing what that student's marks were under this teacher. I don't find emotional adolescents to be very reliable sources when discussing authority figures.
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Students were used as a source earlier in the thread backing the teacher. Showing a counterpoint is legit.
 
jallman said:
I would be interested in seeing what that student's marks were under this teacher. I don't find emotional adolescents to be very reliable sources when discussing authority figures.
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Fair enough.

However, bad grades aren't proof that the student wasn't accurately calling out a bad teacher.
 
hazlnut said:
Fair enough.

However, bad grades aren't proof that the student wasn't accurately calling out a bad teacher.
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No, but I would be much less inclined to believe him than I already am if his grades were poor.

And someone mentioned kids coming out on the other side for the teacher. I don't much take them seriously either.
 
WillRockwell said:
I found a blog entry from one of this guy's students. At least it offers a view to counter this (so far) one-sided argument:
I go to Lawrence High School, and the only reason he is being fired is because you can't express these beliefs as fact, as he was during his class. You can't tell a student that your personal beliefs are fact until they are accepted as fact. Tim Latham was flaunting his beliefs in front of the students and therefore not giving them an actual education but instead a series of regurgitated ideals that he called his own. Would you call that the curicullum?

Then you have the homework issue, where no one was getting anything done in his class. You can't tell a student to accept your beliefs and then do an assignment over it. Several students who did not agree with him felt oppressed in his class room, factionalizing the student population on the issue of whether or not he should be fired. He isn't a teacher, in any regards of the word.
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LAWRENCE TEACHER LET GO BECAUSE HE DID NOT FIT IN WITH STAFF - KANSAS 9.12 PROJECT
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Interesting. A couple entries after that entry, I found this:
Reply by Tim Latham on May 26, 2009 at 9:36pm
Kyler,

I never had you in class, so how do you know how I taught my classes? Hearsay? You have no facts yourself because you were not in my classes. Just like the administration. They didn't come in my classes either. I have no beef with the school board. They just do what the administration recommends. You have never talked to me.
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Now, this is obviously what he would say if he were in the wrong, but if that was not actually a student...

Anyway, I found it interesting.
 
sazerac said:
The teacher should have gotten himself a homepage and put up links to Code Pink and Daily Kos and Huffington Post. ;)
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He would still be employed today.............................
 
Blackdog said:
It's to bad. His polotics sound like they had little to do with his teaching.

I don't understand how the school can dump what sounds like a good teacher based on his political leanings?
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Easy, the teaches unions control the schools and the teachers unions do not support Americans, only Democrats.

This teacher actually said The Messiah didn't have enough experience to do the job! How he be trusted to be in contact with impressionable children if he insists on telling them the naked truth like that? I mean, would you trust a teacher that got naked like that with your kids?

That's all this is about. A teacher in front of a history class isn't allowed to teach real history in Democrat controlled schools. Students might start thinking! Democrats can't have that!
 
Hatuey said:
A guy from Kansas says he got fired because of his political beliefs in what is probably a more conservative state then Texas? Didn't McCain win Kansas by something like 65%?
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what's that got to do with the fact that the state schools are run by state bureaucrats acting as the tools of the unions which are at heart Marxist in outlook?
 
Scarecrow Akhbar said:
Easy, the teaches unions control the schools and the teachers unions do not support Americans, only Democrats.

This teacher actually said The Messiah didn't have enough experience to do the job! How he be trusted to be in contact with impressionable children if he insists on telling them the naked truth like that? I mean, would you trust a teacher that got naked like that with your kids?

That's all this is about. A teacher in front of a history class isn't allowed to teach real history in Democrat controlled schools. Students might start thinking! Democrats can't have that!
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Do you have anything to back up this idiotic rant?
 
Scarecrow Akhbar said:
what's that got to do with the fact that the state schools are run by state bureaucrats acting as the tools of the unions which are at heart Marxist in outlook?
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I think you are forgetting this is happening in Kansas. A teacher so conservative that he sticks out in Kansas must be quite a piece of work.
 
WillRockwell said:
I think you are forgetting this is happening in Kansas. A teacher so conservative that he sticks out in Kansas must be quite a piece of work.
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Do you have anything to back up this idiotic rant?
 
Caine said:
Do you have anything to back up this idiotic rant?
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Do you have anything other than the TEACHER'S word? So we are supposed to believe the teacher no matter what right?
 
TheNextEra said:
Do you have anything other than the TEACHER'S word? So we are supposed to believe the teacher no matter what right?
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Exactly. There's a lot of conjecture and a lot of assumption but very little fact on either side. :shrug:

And for Caine and Scarecrow, it's not "believe the teacher no matter what". It's "believe the one claiming to be a conservative no matter what".
 
TheNextEra said:
Do you have anything other than the TEACHER'S word? So we are supposed to believe the teacher no matter what right?
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What does this have to do with the comment I made about Will Rockwell's instant assumption about Kansas and conservatives?
 
jallman said:
Exactly. There's a lot of conjecture and a lot of assumption but very little fact on either side. :shrug:

And for Caine and Scarecrow, it's not "believe the teacher no matter what". It's "believe the one claiming to be a conservative no matter what".
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Since when?
 
Caine said:
What does this have to do with the comment I made about Will Rockwell's instant assumption about Kansas and conservatives?
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It has to do with the topic, we don't have ALL SIDES to the story, so to say it is the teachers fault or the school's is PREMATURE. That goes for any side.
 
TheNextEra said:
It has to do with the topic, we don't have ALL SIDES to the story, so to say it is the teachers fault or the school's is PREMATURE. That goes for any side.
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Then why quote me?
 
Caine said:
Do you have anything to back up this idiotic rant?
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You are showing your ignorance in the common knowledge that Kansas is overwhelmingly and stupifyingly conservative. Conservative enough that State hearings had to be held to decide whether evolution should be taught in schools. IN 2005!!! In his book "What's the Matter With Kansas", author Thomas Frank
describes the rise of conservatism and the so-called far right in the social and political landscape of Kansas. He finds extraordinary irony in working-class Kansans' overwhelming support for Republican politicians, despite his belief that the economic policies of the Republican party are wreaking havoc on their communities and livelihoods for the benefit of the extremely wealthy. Meanwhile, he says, the party fails to deliver on the "moral" issues (such as abortion and gay rights) which brought the support of cultural conservatives in the first place -- deepening a cycle of frustration aimed at cultural liberalism
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So when you respond to the mention of Kansas being conservative as an "idiotic rant", you run the risk of being identified as an ignorant stooge. :doh
 
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WillRockwell said:
You are showing your ignorance in the common knowledge that Kansas is overwhelmingly and stupifyingly conservative. Conservative enough that State hearings had to be held to decide whether evolution should be taught in schools. IN 2005!!! In his book "What's the Matter With Kansas", author Thomas Frank


So when you respond to the mention of Kansas being conservative as an "idiotic rant", you run the risk of being identified as an ignorant stooge. :doh
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And you are showing your hysteria in even commenting that the man is overly conservative to the point of standing out. You just simply do not know.
 
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