Bare it Baby
If a teacher is effective in the classroom and advocates nothing immoral or illegal, back the f*ck off.
Uptight parents and administrators are losing us. To nonsense.
"In fact, if it gets students interested in the theater, he can juggle and dance a jig as well," said Kenneth Goodman, co-director of the University of Miami Ethics Programs.
posted by kate @ 5:48 PM
12 comments
12 Comments:
haha! I'd love to shake my rump at Ms. Elia! Think that would be a break in ethical code?
The absurdity of the circumstances defies reason. It is my understanding that the administration did not even see the play. They simply convicted the man based on hearsay and the man’s honesty. Apparently, the very short buttocks view is a meaningful inclusion in the play. It seems there are more asses in the school than in the play.
Actually, in a way, this may be a good thing. In the interview I saw with the teacher, he was not really all that into teaching. I believe he said something to the effect of, "Teaching's okay, but acting is my passion." If that's true, then he now has an excellent opportunity to follow his bliss while the school system has gotten rid of an employee who wasn't passionate about teaching.
Admittedly, the cause seems a little silly, but perhaps it's all for the best. It didn't really sound like anyone was "losing" this guy because he was never really there to begin with.
I saw that the teacher was not passionate about teaching, but that might be even more reason to scold the administrators. We need many more teachers than are applying. Maybe a reason people don’t apply is the nonsense that some teachers have to put up with, there is an issue of low pay, administrators that think public education is a business and now micro managing what they do on their own time. Who wants to put up with all of that when they can just go to law school and add to the glut of attorneys?
Something else that affects all of us...
Wasnt he doing this in a school play???? Arent movies that show nudity rated 'R', which ratings were created by liberals, mean that children under 17 cannot see it?
If he did this in some play in town, not school related, then he should not be reprimanded. That is, unless he told his students to attend his play.
If it was a school play, then he should be fired immediately.
This is a slippery slope, and should not be started... that is, if he invited students to see his play, or if he performed this act in an actual school play.
Follow the link Rich, it was not a school play. He was acting in a community production and directing the school production of Cats. Now if it was his idea to do Cats, he deserves to be fired. I loved the last line of the link. He's going to be concentrating, among other things, on his duties as a church musician. Plenty of jokes there.
Kate-can you sing "Mammaries, all alone in the moonlight..."
agreed. Community play of Full Monty, his business... His choice to do cats in the school play, fire him.
You're right, Goader, there's a shocking and disturbing teacher deficit out there. However, when you're dealing with young minds, I'm still not convinced it's a good idea to have someone teaching them who just thinks it's "okay".
Several of my friends who are teachers, and are quite passionate about it, freely admit the only reason they can actually be teachers is because they have a two income household. That seems to be one of the major stumbling blocks, that after at least four years of college and accumulated bills, the starting salary for most public school teachers just isn't high enough.
Like I said, this was a bonehead action by the administration, but I'm not sure it's as big a loss for either side as it might seem.
I don't think we should even get into motivation behind why someone took a teaching career. Intent has *nothing* to do with anything. I'm not any less effective in the classroom just because I got into teaching as a way to work outside the home while still maintaining family friendly hours. So what if someone dreamt about teaching as little girl? They can still burn out and become disenfranchised and so on.
Does the educator work hard and do a good job? Then what motivates them (summers off to pursue an acting career, family friendly hours, the chance to mold young minds, etc.) is not our concern.
Like I said, back the f*ck off.
;-)
Kate-you have a good point supported by research. Bandura has made a career of studying teacher effectiveness and "loving kids" and "loving teaching" are not predictive of student achievement. Hard work and self efficacy are even better predictors than subject matter knowledge. (Subject matter knowledge is required but not sufficient.) The Haberman Star Teacher pre-screener is highly predictive of how well prospective teachers will be able to teach at-risk kids and how long they'll stay around to do it. Dr. Haberman's studies of effective teachers, and those who failed miserably, reveal that "loving kids and teaching" is more often predictive of failure than success.
Quakerjono—
The shocking reality is that most people can only survive doing their current job, whatever it is, because they live in a two income households.
If you all read school law statutes and stopped arguing about it---then you'd REALLY know where you stand. Good idea, ah?
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