"The true test of intelligence is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we don't know what to do."
—John Holt (How Children Fail)
Hey, I'm a liberal, and I am forthright in the classroom about my politics, but this guy's antics are not helpful:
Teacher accused of giving 'liberal' quiz
Friday, November 25, 2005; Posted: 1:38 p.m. EST (18:38 GMT)
BENNINGTON, Vermont (AP) -- 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.
Very clever. But the key to earning the privilege of speaking honestly about one's own political views is to treat other political views and their adherents with respect. To do otherwise is to invite trouble, and with good reason. For a teacher to imbue tools of evaluation with political bias is an abuse of authority.
I object to it not only because it's unfair to students (whether liberal, conserative, independent, or agnostic) but because it suggests, to be fair, that the same behavior by conservative teachers would be acceptable. It wouldn't. That's not something we want to invite.
So if we want to enjoy the freedom to discuss political views openly, we have to do so in a way that will work for people of all political persuasions. Balance and respect work. Partisan jabs do not.
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."
And this comment is exactly the sort of consequence I think abuses like this invite. Teachers should be able to freely hold forth on a particular standpoint! But to do so, people holding other viewpoints have to have the same license. Since the other people in a class are students, and since students do not enjoy the leverage offered teachers through their institutional authority, it's completely inappropriate to use the tools of that authority to express political views.