Indoctrination or education?

[Gonz]

Which direction will this story take?

BARRE, Vt - John Mott and Tom Treece have at least one thing in common. Make that two.

Both men think they have been unfairly accused and, if you believe their critics, both have had a chilling impact on students at Spaulding High School.

Mott is the Barre Town police officer who admits he spent part of an early morning break last month photographing student projects in the classroom of a controversial history teacher.

Treece is that teacher. A passionate pacifist, he has been skewered publicly by critics who say he is pedaling his personal political views to the students in his class.

According to Mott, he entered the school through an unlocked maintenance door, found Cliche and asked him to unlock the door to Treece’s classroom room so he could take photographs with his personal camera. Although he was on duty at the time, Mott maintains that he was on a break and wanted to photograph student projects that offended him as an American and a retired military man.

“I wanted everybody else to see what was in that room. You can’t explain it,” he said.

Among the student projects that Mott said he photographed were a poster of the President Bush with duct tape over his mouth and a large papier-mâché combat boot with the American flag stuffed inside stepping on a doll. He said there also were pictures of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and his former chief lieutenant, Ernesto “Che” Guevara, posted on the walls.

Mott said he took the photographs less than 48 hours after attending a school board meeting at which several residents complained about what they claimed was an attempt to “indoctrinate” not “educate” students.

School officials have rejected that notion, defending Treece as a “thought-provoking” teacher who provides students in his public issues class with resources from the full spectrum of political perspectives.

What the hell is a passionate pacifist. Seems like an oxymoron to me.

 

[G4]

passionate:
1- Having or expressing strong emotions

pacifist:
1- Someone opposed to violence as a means of settling disputes
2- Opposed to war

No oxymoron, you can be passionate and oppose violence

Mott maintains that he was on a break and wanted to photograph student projects that offended him as an American and a retired military man.

So ridiculous, almost embarrassing to read. The whole thing. The part about the pictures of Castro all over the walls is just too much. Hope it doesn´t hit international news...

 

[Gato_Solo]

The job of a teacher is to teach 'facts', not to teach viewpoints. That's the job of parents. If Mr. Treece likes to teach opinions, maybe he should father his own children...and if he does have his own children, perhaps he should think about them instead of propagandizing others...

 

[outside looking in]

You know, it kinda irks me when I think back on my undergraduate macroeconomics class (or was it the micro one... never could remember which was which). The professor, in hindsight, was a bleeding heart liberal. He pushed democratic economic policy on us so hard that I didn't know what had hit me. The terrible thing though is that I hadn't yet been indoctrinated into this heavily biased environment... I was used to open discussions and factual lecturing. I didn't realize that what he was teaching was 90% opinion (he didn't even present the other side of the coin).

I was younger, and naieve. He actually passed out some "papers" showing us why Clinton's economic plan (when he was running for president) was so obviously superior and why we should all vote for him. Our tests consisted of essays explaining why affirmative action is a great program, why taxes should be increased across the board, and why public welfare is a keystone of a democratic nation ( ).

With all the parties, and the occasional fervor over my real studies - mechanical engineering - I hardly gave that class a second thought. I wrote what I was supposed to write, but didn't think too long about it. I was pretty pissed though to find out that I had a "B" in the class, when all my previous essay tests had been A's. Although I knew my writing was certainly up to his standards, I figured it must have been some technicality(s) in my essay explanations on some point or another. In retrospect, it was likely that he didn't like the content of what I wrote... though I answered the quetions (three or four of them) with the 'textbook' answers he had provided during the semester, I also went more in depth than what I had on previous tests (figuring "more" was needed and justified for a final exam). I included my own "independent" thinking on each issue, backed by my own perceptions and reading I had done outside of class. The essays were by no means conservatively written (it was still a couple of years before I saw the light), but rather more neutral than the previous ones I had written. I explored both sides of the issues for once.

Apparently, that landed me a B. And, apparently, it cost me Suma. The more I think about it, the more it irks me.

 

[freako104]

ive had teachers teach viewpoints by saying i believe but this is too far in my eyes. he has a right to believe as he does but not to bitch about a project a student does.