Is this right?

[disneycuban]

Hi all,

My son came home from school today and had an interesting story. Apparently his history teacher told him all media is controlled by the government and the President and Congress are just puppets of big business and that the "elect"(rich people) not the elected choose what happens in this country. Now, most kids wouldn't care, but my son wants to be a politician, so he is a little upset about what his history teacher is spewing and I am fuming about it. Of course I said his teacher was totally off base and should never had said that. I called his teacher and the teacher admitted to saying that, at which point I hung up.I am especially appalled because I pay tuition for my son to go to this school, now I am questioning why I pay for this. The question is should I complain to the school and get the information corrected and get this teacher in hot water, or should I just stand by?

 

[Keli]

Would you step in and talk to school administration if the teacher were a science teacher and was teaching that the earth is flat? What this teacher is teaching is not true and I don't think you should let him by with teaching misinformation to your son and his other students.

 

[ohanafamily]

It sounds to me like your son's teacher is quite liberal, and believes in conspiracy theories. I would definitely talk to the administration, and talk to the other parents of children in his class.

Especially if this is a private school, you might find that they encourage this attitude in their teachers. If they do, well there are schools that teach Creationism and no Darwinism. There are also the ones that don't teach Creationism. If the school wants this attitude, then you might want to find a place that teaches a curriculum that you can live with.

 

[MJames41]

Sounds like he's teaching Anarchy 101 - he needs to go. I disagree with his views, and he does have the right to have them, but he is not paid to teach poly sci or philosphy, he's paid to teach history. Even if he was a college professor, this is inapproriate to be taught as a history class. You don't say what age your child is, but if he's not in college, I suggest you contact the administration office.

 

[Toby'sFriend]

perhaps she was giving a lesson on Enron, or PACs and Campaign Finance Reform or the fairly recent discussions concerning the FCC regulations concerning how radio station liscenses are granted.

I don't think you should have hung up on the teacher. You'll never understand the context of the lesson she was trying to teach unless you communicate with her.

 

[HeyMickey]

"... the President and Congress are just puppets of big business and that the "elect"(rich people) not the elected choose what happens in this country. "



It might not have been true with other presidents.

 

[emmagata]

Originally posted by HeyMickey
"... the President and Congress are just puppets of big business and that the "elect"(rich people) not the elected choose what happens in this country. "



It might not have been true with other presidents.

For once it would be really nice to not have a thread that involves a generic conversation about the presidency/big business/rich people/congress/Iraq/etc resort in Bush bashing.

 

[SuiteDisney]

There are two sides to every story, why don't you meet with the teacher and ask him if he said that. And if he did, why?

 

[The Mystery Machine]

I will have to agree with TobysFriend. Hanging up on the teacher was maybe not the way to go but I do understand that you are angry with the teachers "political philosophies".
If I were in your shoes I am not sure what I would do. I would probably call him back and ask him to explain what the context of the lesson was. Perhaps it is not as bad as it seems.
If he is teaching incorrect info and admits it I would then be inclined to go to administration.

(I try and hope for the best first)

Good Luck

 

[crazyme5kids]

Did you give him the opportunity to explain or question him as to why he said that to the class before hanging up? I once had a teacher that would say things that weren't really true, or just a little off to get the class to think. He would then have a discussion the next time we had class about what he said, he would ask what we thought. He was by the way a great teacher because he made us think about things and learn to form our own opinions.

 

[ThAnswr]

>>>>>For once it would be really nice to not have a thread that involves a generic conversation about the presidency/big business/rich people/congress/Iraq/etc resort in Bush bashing.<<<<

I'm with Emmagata on this one. Not every issue revolves around Bush, Iraq, tax cuts, etc.

It would also be nice not to have every damned issue gummed up with statements like this:

"It sounds to me like your son's teacher is quite liberal, and believes in conspiracy theories. "

What does any of this have to do with liberals vs conservatives?

Could we just lose the liberal/conservative BS since it now only means adding a label to someone who disagrees with us.

Truly, liberal/conservative have become such cliches, they are meaningless.

Now, that I've got that out of the way, back to the issue at hand.

Disneycuban, your son's history teacher is wrong and historically inaccurate. Whether your child is in public or private school is irrelevant. History is history and the facts are the facts. Yes, I would have discussed it with him/lher. No, I wouldn't have hung up and no, I would not let it go.

I would take it up with the school administration. Your son's there to get an education not someone's take on the facts.

 

[FreshTressa]

I would demand a meeting with the administration. There could be an explanation, but it is not at all appropriate to foster your political views on your students. I would be VERY upset in the same situation.

 

[ohanafamily]

Originally posted by ThAnswr
"It sounds to me like your son's teacher is quite liberal, and believes in conspiracy theories. "

What does any of this have to do with liberals vs conservatives?

Could we just lose the liberal/conservative BS since it now only means adding a label to someone who disagrees with us.

Truly, liberal/conservative have become such cliches, they are meaningless.

I actually agree with emmagata and a lot of what you said. I will also agree about the cliches and being somewhat meaningless.

I will apologise for suggesting he is probably a Liberal, I guess he could be a conservative; I fell into the cliche and didn't really think about it.

Where I will stand my ground is my statement about the teacher believing in conspiracy theories.

all media is controlled by the government and the President and Congress are just puppets of big business and that the "elect"(rich people) not the elected choose what happens in this country.

I think he meant elite not elect, but in either case this is a conspiracy theory any way you look at it.
JMHO, of course.

 

[emmagata]

To answer the OPs question, it was wrong what the teacher did.
I would ask(demand) for a meeting with teacher and the administrator. The teacher may have underlying reasons why they said that.

Or, maybe they're a ******* and should think about another career.

 

[GeorgeG]

You should try to find out a little more. Like crazyme5kids said, some teachers say things to spark discussion. Although it doesn't sound like this was the case, by hanging up you did not get to the root of the problem.

I had a sociology teacher in college that would regularly make statements that were wrong. I was going at night on the GI bill and half the class would be asleep after about 15 minutes. The teacher would make her statement and I would usually challenge it. That woke the entire class up. I was a little older than most of the class and they thought I was crazy for disagreeing with the teacher. At the end of the semester, she thanked me for keeping the class awake and confessed to baiting me because she knew I would react exactly the way I did. Tricky lady...

Getting back to your case, you should find out exactly what the teacher was trying to do and if he or she was sincere, you should find out if that was in accordance with the school's policies. Most schools have guidelines that don't give teachers a whole lot of latitude when it comes to things like that. Besides, history is history. This sounds more like a political science debate.