Sure, Esquith goes to teacher jail for the quote.
But if Miley Cyrus had actually done it, she'd sell another 10 million songs. And I bet she'd do it too.

I am an idiot. I am an administrator for LA Unified. But I repeat myself.

-- Mark Twain in "Stuff Mark Twain Would Have Said if He Lived Now"

I would say leave that State and go to another but that's what the powers that be want. No one thinking outside THEIR box.

Need more lawyers since I am assuming that the book was approved for that age group and anything in the book was fair game.

Since mathematics is so obviously a dead-white-male concept that oppresses woman and minorities, I wonder when California is going to ban it.

Since mathematics is so obviously a dead-white-male concept that oppresses woman and minorities, I wonder when California is going to ban it.
Posted by: Cousin Dave at June 19, 2015 6:29 AM

What we are seeing with this garbage, Title IX idiocy, and affirmative action admissions is a very slippery slope in action, that will lead us to an eventual failure of the entire system.

I don't expect public schools to survive beyond my life time.

This kind of thing is part of the reason we private school our kids. The school is not perfect, but the bureaucracy is smaller and the parents have proven they care enough about education to pay for it. I think of all things, cost likely filters out the worst agitators. When I looked at the school to consider it, the first graders had an art module in honor of Georgia O'Keefe and their artwork was displayed in the main showcase. Ok, I doubt it was explained to them what people tend to see in her art, but I was impressed nonetheless.

I seem to remember that Esquith said, in his book, that he'd met kooky teachers before. IIRC, one teacher taught his students that, in "Of Mice and Men," George would be going to hell because of what happens at the end.

(The teacher angrily defended his right to teach whatever he believed, when confronted.)

I seem to remember that Esquith said, in his book, that he'd met kooky teachers before.

I'm actually reading his book "Teach like your hair is on fire" right now. My favorite tidbits are when he subtly hints at the fact that a lot of teachers at his school hate his guts, simply because he holds himself (and his students) to higher standards than they do.

Apparently at one point, a fellow teacher wrote him an angry note (with terrible grammar) about some stupid B.S. and he strongly considered having his students (who start every day doing grammar exercises, although the school deemed grammar exercises no longer important) mark it up in red pen and send it back to her.

I had a teacher like Rafe who was similarly hated by other teachers.

No fornicating or educating in public schools. You are there to learn to do what you're told, and that's all.

Leaving aside the stark raving idiocy that is teacher jail, I have to say we're going in the wrong direction by censoring ourselves. We've become so afraid of saying the word "nigger," even in a non-offensive context, that we're giving the word even greater power. Are we seriously banning great American classics because we're that terrified of the word "nigger"?

I will never use "the n-word." That is infantile. If I'm going to have a conversation about the word "nigger," I'm going to use it.

His trouble isn't for quoting Mark Twain, it's for making a joke about it. Read the whole piece -- he said something to the effect that the whole class would perform the play naked like that if they didn't raise the money for it.

Still not a reason to remove him from the classroom. Everyone but the teacher who reported him knew it was a joke.

But I did read the whole piece and it nowhere says that (about joking about it).

It's in this piece in the WaPo, which was not the one linked here.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/the-outrageous-treatment-of-one-of-the-nations-most-outstanding-teachers/2015/06/19/e87f67e0-16bb-11e5-9518-f9e0a8959f32_story.html

Meiselas said Esquith quipped that if he couldn’t raise enough support for the annual play, he guessed the class would have to similarly perform naked.

Esquith was joking. He does that a lot, as anyone who knows him has long been aware of. The school district has provided no significant funds for the annual play and Esquith’s many field trips and other projects, but his work has attracted many wealthy and influential supporters, so he was not expressing a real worry. The Shakespearean plays are very low-budget, since they are done in his small classroom with the audience on risers and the many musical instruments mostly donated.

But a teacher who was in the room took him seriously, reported this to the principal and the principal reported it to the district. From there on, Meiselas said, the district has been conducting an open-ended investigation with no apparent charges and no due process for Esquith. No child has complained. No parent has complained. The teacher who made the first report e-mailed him in April to say “I just want you to know that I am here for you . . . and I wish you the best resolution possible!”

And what administrator hears this and reports the teacher to the district? Morons. Judgment-free morons.

This kind of thing is part of the reason we private school our kids. The school is not perfect, but the bureaucracy is smaller and the parents have proven they care enough about education to pay for it. I think of all things, cost likely filters out the worst agitators.

True. Though I think much the same thing could be accomplished if every parent with a kid in the public school system was required to put in 8 hours a month of sweat equity at the school, whether it was substitute teaching, lunchroom supervising, hall monitoring or whatever.

True. Though I think much the same thing could be accomplished if every parent with a kid in the public school system was required to put in 8 hours a month of sweat equity at the school, whether it was substitute teaching, lunchroom supervising, hall monitoring or whatever.

Posted by: Kevin at June 20, 2015 9:13 AM

Not only is there no legal way to make that a requirement, but the union rules that most schools operate under would not allow it. (Nor would the legal liability work)

I quit volunteering at public school when I realized it was a suckers bet.
The PTA is like a poorly supervised charity, designed to "buy stuff" for the school that they either don't need, or should be a *budgeted for* expense. (Like books).

It keeps a certain set of stupid parents really really busy running in circles though.

Only in a private school is a volunteer organization worth while.