A high school teacher is facing questions from administrators after giving a vocabulary quiz that included digs at President Bush and the extreme right.Pop grammar quiz: Principal Sue Maguire said she hoped to speak to (whoever, whomever) complained about the quiz and any students who might be concerned.
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.
Principal Sue Maguire said she hoped to speak to whomever complained about the quiz and any students who might be concerned.
Back to the article:
Chenkin, 36, a teacher for seven years, said he isn't shy about sharing his liberal views with students as a way of prompting debate, but said the quizzes are being taken out of context.Chenkin's attempt at a defense is way better than we saw from the Madison, Wisconsin third grade teachers earlier this week ("I don't see it as a controversial issue"). And it's notable that he's teaching older students. I'd like to know more about the whole context. What were the other sentences on the test? What is the rest of the class time like? Do students comfortably debate with him and take different opinions? I like seeing his willingness to change and include divergent viewpoints, but it sounds as though he's only doing that to keep people from giving him "grief." He should want to do it as a matter of being a good educator.
"The kids know it's hyperbolic, so-to-speak," he said. "They know it's tongue in cheek." But he said he would change his teaching methods if some are concerned.
"I'll put in both sides," he said. "Especially if it's going to cause a lot of grief."
UPDATE: Kevin Drum and Steven Bainbridge weigh in on this story.
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35 comments:
It remain unclear why teachers seem to think that they need to engage in discussions about current news events with high school students (or *gasp* grade school denizens).
Many seniors in high school lack the necessary background in ancient history and modern civilization, and few have even a modicum of American History, to offer much more than their transient feelings about what's in the news. If students can at least grasp the basics of Logic, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and its Bill of Rights, well then maybe a discussion is in order.
Without meeting that small requirement, current event coverage is pointless.
It should be obvious, but English and Literature teachers should be centering their coursework on English and Literature. There is no dearth of material to supply one's needs here.
What this grade school teacher did was hackneyed, clumsy, and ultimately odious. There is no reasonable defense for it. Every attempt to do so comes out reading: "I don't care what the course is called, I wanna preach about my position against Bush!"
6th Grade Algebra example:
(4x + 2) = 66 Solve for x.
Ans. 16, and Bush Lied!
Ann, I have to admit I'm still scratching my head over that grammar question. I seem to vaguely recall a rule that in ambiguous cases, "who" supersedes "whom". But I could easily be wrong,
As for the issue itself, I think you, and the other commenters, have pretty well nailed it.
Re: "We need to get young people politically involved"
We do? I disagree. I don't see how grade school children are equipped to do anything more than learn about the rules governing society. And teenagers are very nearly insane at times, even those that are incredibly smart and responsible.
In the article cited, the frontal lobes of the brain are the last to develop in the teenage years. That is, the very part of the brain that governs the capacity for judgment is not yet ready to form accurate or responsible conclusions. It's why we restrict their marriages, driving, and drinking.
In Alzheimer's disease, it's the gradual loss of frontal lobe tissue that causes the greatest incapacity, not the memory loss, which people can deal with.
"...and in my experience they eat this stuff up"
Sure they do. Consequently, our job is to civilize the little barbarians before they are loosed on society, not after.
I suggest less activism, and more background work. We don't let them drive without teaching them the rules of the road. Why be any less vigilant with politics and the Constitution?
Re: "Modern music, a quick chat about a movie, or a news item - whatever seemed likely to wake them up and introduce the theme of the work at hand."
I suspect it did. I worry that this practice reinforces the current entertainment ethos in education (that teachers should learn to sing and dance better, so kids can learn).
Some of our more illustrious citizens have come from destitute and illiterate families (e.g. A. Lincoln), so while I agree that tying the task at hand to today's culture can be useful, it often undermines the lesson to place more than a trifle of effort doing so.
And it looks more like you're trying too hard as you age. 50 year old teachers are usually mocked for trying to be "hip" (or whatever lame idiom is au courant ...see what I mean?). Only 20 or low-30-yr-olds can carry this off very well. after that, well, it's about as effective as a toupee.
"The true teacher defends his pupils against his own personal influence. He inspires self-distrust. He guides their eyes from himself to the spirit that quickens him. He will have no disciple."
~ Amos Bronson Alcott
I really admire the courage of School Superintendent Wesley Knapp to stand up to this english teacher who is clearly out of line in creating a hostile environment for conservative students.
Knapp is going to raked over the coals by the MSM and the teachers union for standing up for the students and against that teacher who is nothing but a bully. I hope Knapp retains his courage in the firestorm that will be coming his way.
Re: "What is my age, do you suppose?
Odd that you should get personal on me. "
When earlier you wrote "I taught high school pre-babies, during 9/11..." I mistakenly assumed you were less than 35, and probably in your 20s, when you stopped teaching. Looks like I was wrong. The remainder of my writing (re: toupees) was a riff on personal experience with teachers.
My apologies.
I would think that "whomever" would be correct, being the object of the preposition "to". If the teacher had been, for example, a biology teacher, I would give him more slack. But he purports to teach High School English, and I would thus hold him to a higher standard.
Shoshanna: You've got a good rule of thumb there: if you're risking getting it wrong, it's better to say "who" and get it wrong than "whom," which always sounds like you're making a point of being correct. And in fact, "who" is correct here. People think you need word after a preposition to be in the objective case and thus that "whom" is right. But the object of the preposition is the whole phrase. Thus, in "to whom it may concern," whom is correct, because the phrase is "whom it may concern," and there "whom" is the object. "It" is the subject ("it may concern whom"). But in the sentence in the article the phrase is "whomever complained," and the pronoun is the subject there. It needs to be "whoever complained," just as it would be "he complained" and not "him complained."
I'm not yet bald, just inching toward it, but I always wanted to get a bad toupee (is there any other kind?) to wear to work, perched atop my pate like a dead Althouse squirrel ...just to test how much self-control my co-workers have.
But better said than done, I'd bet.
Many weird constructions can be recognized as English, and you can employ them and still communicate. Still, “you are judged by the words you use.” I wish we could silence all those who say “data is” and “much data” as well as those who respond “absolutely!” in place of “yes.” What kind of brain fart is responsible for the common “The problem is, is that ...” and the “...whether Bush sends more troops or whether he brings the boys home now.”?
If students can at least grasp the basics of Logic, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and its Bill of Rights, well then maybe a discussion is in order. and
It should be obvious, but English and Literature teachers should be centering their coursework on English and Literature.
In the process of teaching composition, and various periods and genres of English literature, I end up referencing most of the documents listed above. I tend toward a historicist approach for lit, and politics and political history are unavoidable, as are philosophy, economics, religious institutions and sacred texts, and so forth. Literature is made up of all the stuff that makes us human. If my class is reading Austen, then they need to understand the effects of the French and American revolutions on English class consciousness, the history of the vote, what marriage means for men and women in the 19th century, and so on. Students arrive at university remarkably ignorant, and literature classes provide them an opportunity to synthesize what they're learning in their other core courses.
Elizabeth is quite correct in using historical documents "in the process of teaching composition, and various periods and genres of English literature"; I meant only to reject the use of current events in such lessons.
I teach 7th grade Social Studies in a faily low socio-economic environment. I regularly have to listen to my students proclaim that they hate Pres. Bush. When I ask them why, most have no answer. The few who do have accusations such as "he's racist" but no arguments t0o back up their assertion. My point? Our children are receiving political indoctrination, from their parents and from popular media. What is needed in the classroom is not further indoctrinination, but instead teachers willing to provide critical thinking skills so that our children can evaluate the political messages they are already receiving.
Q: Principal Sue Maguire said she hoped to speak to (whoever, whomever) complained about the quiz and any students who might be concerned.
Alternative for the grammatically insecure: Principal Sue Maguire said she hoped to speak to THOSE WHO complained about the quiz and any students who might be concerned.
As for insuring/ensuring, I'll cast my vote for "ensuring."
Getting a lefty to place the word President in front of the name Bush is like trying to get Prof. Althouse to pet a rabid squirrel.
Regardless (I should write irregardless to be ironically ungrammatical) of your view about the current office holder, the presidency deserves respect. Whenever I see the President referred to as just Bush, I always here it in my mind as Boooooooosh (aka font of all evil, destroyer of worlds, idiot puppet of destruction, etc., etc., etc.).
I'm fine with just saying Bush if it's the third or fourth time you've mentioned his name, but on the initial mention common courtesy, form and protocol demand that the office of the presidency garner the respect it deserves.
Right-wingers who referred to President Clinton only as Bubba, or Clintoon, or Slick-Willy are just as guilty of this as the lefties are with their anti-Bush mantras, so let's get that counter argument out of the way.
I know you are, but what am I?
(that doesn't count as public discourse, though that's what you could boil down most of the Kos/LGF crowd's language into)
I'd expect nothing less in the People's Republic of Vermont.
60 years ago, kids this age and younger, like Bush 41, were going off to fight in WWII. 140 years ago, kids this age and younger were fighting in the Civil War. Around the world today, kids this age and younger are having kids of their own. Kids this age and younger are being elected mayor in our own country.
Do you think the kids cannot tell the political leanings of their teachers? In 1976, we knew. We discussed their politics. We discussed civil rights and we took part in various activists projects.
And elsewhere on campus in a public school, others were taking part in the Christian Fellowship Club which had faculty sponsorship. Were the Christian Fellowship Club members being indoctrinated or educated? Were the Christian Fellowship Club members being given a neutral point of view towards all religions? Doubt it.
We discussed Nixon. We discussed women's rights and feminism. We discussed Darwinism.
I know high school was a long time ago for you Ann. Me too.
Don't sell these young adults short.
Give them the information they need for this country to succeed. Do not patronize them.
On their campus, their incoherent President has given orders that the Armed Forces be given the names of kids eligible to join up.
I think these kids should be treated as adults, as adults that can judge, as adults that can hold two thoughts in their heads at the same time, and as adults that could easily die for this yahoo's wet dreams.
You so called english teachers should get check your reading comprehension skills. These were high school students, not grade school students.
Jebus pogo, high school students shouldn't be discussing current events with their teachers? They are not equipped for it? And uh, when will they become equipped, and how?
No wonder you favor the big daddy form of our current dictatorship.
And what is a high school pre-baby?
Thanks quxxo for reminding me of another favorite language usage quirk amongst lefties.
Jebus (a reference to a long ago Simpson's episode) is invariably used as replacement for the class of exclamations best represented by 'Jesus H. Christ'.
My theory on the substitution is that they are slyly (in their view of themselves) showing their contempt for organized religions in general and Christianity in particular.
It's part and parcel with the same kind of childishness characterized by not referring to the President as, President Bush. (just as the teacher did in his gratuitously political question and Mark did in the second post on this thread)
It's not funny, it's not clever, it's just disrespectful and displays contempt for other's sincere belief.
(and again LGFers various slams against even the more mainstream expressions of Islam (the Islamo-fascist on the other hand deserve all the contempt folks can muster) is a similarly childish display of disrespect)
As far as debating politics in high school, you have a serious imbalance of power and too much room for teachers to abuse their power. If students could trust their 'reality based community' loving teachers to be fair then political discussions would be fine.
But those that call themselves 'reality based' have a habit of dismissing dissent from their point-of-view as insanity or stupidity and a teacher like Mr. Cherkin can't be counted upon not to be vindictive in grading students he perceives as conservative.
And while we are talking about reading comprehension wildaboutharrie's reference that "I taught high school pre-babies" most probably refers to her choice to leave the teaching profession after having babies (most likely to attend to the needs of her toddlers (I'm assuming plural as she pluralized babies and that they remain toddlers as she has had at least two since 9/11/2001))
(if I can, with my tiny libertarian/conservative mind, infer all this from her post, I'm surprised quxxo with his massive and progressive intellect could have missed that)
(and I'm not being hetero-normative in my assumptions that she is a she just cause she left her job while she had small children, a man could do that as well, but in previous posts wildaboutharrie has identified herself as female)
Sigh.
Contrary to popular belief, Jebus is just what some knew as the city of Jerusalem. Go read the Bible you bunch of heathens.
...The man would not tarry that night, but he rose up and departed, and came over against Jebus, which is Jerusalem; and there were with him two asses saddled, his concubine also was with him.
Judges 19:10
(Uh, which bible is judges in? The originalist one, or the activist one?)
Thanks for clueing me in about pre-babies. Yeah, with the mandatory optional implied comma, it does make much more sense.
a teacher like Mr. Cherkin can't be counted upon not to be vindictive in grading students he perceives as conservative.
How do you know this? Seems like libel to me. Data please.
quxxo with his massive ... intellect
(blushing) gosh, thanks, I'm sorry but you're probably a nice guy and all, but I really don't feel the same way about you.
quxxo with his massive ...
That part is true, sure enough. Quxxo, rhymes with ....
Judges 19:10....
Turns out it's the originalist testament. (The one I'm supposed to know about. (Shhh.))
I always liked Judges: 1930, the missing one, and Judges 9.9, 9.8, 9.7, and 6.4, the Bulgarian one.
These are a few of my favorite ones.
quxxo,
Today's students are often ill-equipped to even begin to discuss politics, having but the barest of knowledge of logic and the workings of American government.
What they could do rather well is learn to debate, by studying the formal rules of argument, and the documents that undergird our form of governmemnt. From there they might begin to make sense of what it means to be a citizen.
Absent that, they have no right to be activists, as they know nothing useful, and therefore behave merely as supplicants to the mother state, or impotent complainants, uncertain how to achieve their desires through the levers of legislation.
In short, they have to be civilized first, then they can act political.
Pogo, yeah, I really liked it when you said this:
“We're an ignorant nation right now. We're not really capable I do not think the majority of our people of making the decisions that have to be made at election time and particularly in the selection of their legislatures and their Congress and the presidency of course.
And then this too.
You can take off if you want to. No, I am so appalled at the amount we pay our teachers. Now here are the people that we turn our children over to at the age of five or so to -- to -- they're the most important people in their lives, probably more so than their parents in many cases unfortunately.
But we pay them so little that in nearly every school district of the country the janitors in the buildings in which they work make more than they do as teachers for heaven's sakes. We should be ashamed of ourselves.
If we expect this country to work, it depends on an informed, an intelligent electorate. You know, Thomas Jefferson said very early on in our republic that the nation that expects to be ignorant and free expects it never can and never will be.
We're an ignorant nation right now. We're not really capable I do not think the majority of our people of making the decisions that have to be made at election time and particularly in the selection of their legislatures and their Congress and the presidency of course. I don't think we're bright enough to do the job that would preserve our democracy, our republic. I think we're in serious danger.
And one of the problems today is, of course, now we've got all these other expenses in the billions of dollars where we should be putting those billions of dollars into education first and then worry about these other things we have to pay for after that.
You were damned right about that too.
Anyway, yeah, we should take away their right to vote as well as their freedom of assembly and freedom of physical education. And the right to vote of anyone that cannot spell attainer and habeas corpus and enumerate our bill of rights. So, yeah, we got that going for us.
Whoops! That's attainder of course. D'oh!
quxxo,
First you quoted Walter Cronkite, for reasons unclear, then you state,
"Anyway, yeah, we should take away their right to vote as well as their freedom of assembly and freedom of physical education."
Have you gone mad?
Or are you practicing random typing?
And I don't recall phy ed being a basic freedom, either.
Today's students are often ill-equipped to even begin to discuss politics, having but the barest of knowledge of logic and the workings of American government.
Come on, Walter, I've outed you. Fess up. Really, I think it's cool that you are commenting on blogs. I wish you were more okay with that windmill thing....
And that's the way it is.
I got the physical education joke, Quxxo.
It's like saying freedom of assembly, freedom of lunch period.
Beetle, you're welcome to your book, but we're allowed to complain about this type of idiocy as we see fit.
As you undoubtedly share the good teacher's politics, you probably aren't the best judge of whether these techniques are off putting to conservative students.
Btw, how often do the "many conservative" teachers at your school give pop quizes about "Slick Willie" and what the meaning of "is" is?
Beetle: Thanks for joining the conversation. It sounds as though you're doing very well at your school and enjoy the teaching style. I'll bet Mr. Chenkin is an energizing teacher. I hope you don't think my original post was unfair to him. I think I gave a balanced presentation. Read what I said again if you disagree.
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