colorado article

Colorado article

This week’s personal article comes from my mother who cut it out of the Oakland press while I was on spring break. The reason that I wanted to write about this article was due to the fact that the teacher in the article is making great strides in my eyes towards a more educated school system. Although there are laws in place I rarely see the separation between church and state, as a government teacher this should be a read flag that we point out to our students. I feel that school should not be controlled by the mainstream safe media. Unfortunately many times teacher that step put of this box are reprimanded with suspensions and job loss. My article takes place in a Colorado high school. Mr. Jay Bennish was temporarily let go from high job after comparing President Bush to Hitler during a class lecture discussing Bush’s state of the union address. During the presidents speech he claimed that “We have been blessed essentially by God to have the most civilized, the most advanced, best system and that it is our duty as Americans to is the military to go out into the world and make the world like us.” The statement to me not only violates the concept of separation of church and state but flat out angers me. These are the same feelings that Mr. Bennish had when he discussed this with his own classroom. Unfortunately for him not everyone in the class felt the same way.

When the conversation was brought to the attention of the principal and the school board he was let go on the ground that he failed to present a balancing view point. I felt this was an easy out for the school system until they could sort out all of the facts. Bennish won his court case and was back at school on the first of March. When interviewed about his position on the situation was that his “intentions were to stimulate his students to think critically.”  When you challenge students to think outside what is being feed to them on T.V. they are forced to make a decision about what they believe and feel is right. In high school these “radical” views are rarely presented by teachers, many times I think it is out of fear. Fear of losing your job, fear of looking different among your colleges, fear of parents. It is very refreshing to hear about a teacher who stepped outside the box and won. Steps like these will pave not only the way teachers teach but how students learn.