Wednesday, August 21, 2019
Reading Teacher Essay Example for Free
Reading Teacher Essay How should the proper balance between teacher freedom and responsibility be determined? Position 1: Fir increased Academic Freedom: * Schools are at the center of local debates about touchy subjects such as, morals, sex and sexual orientation, religion, politics, economics, racism, and a host of other social value controversies. * Censorship denies, defeats, or diminishes academic freedom! * Sex, Politics, and Religion: A few Cases * A parent in Loathe, Kansas, demanded that John Steinbeckââ¬â¢s Of Mice and Men be banned from the school curriculum and classroom because the book is ââ¬Å"worthlessâ⬠and ââ¬Å"profanity filled. â⬠The Majority rejected the effort. * In Oakley, California, some parents wanted the same Steinbeck book banned for racial descriptions. * Schools use the popular Philip Pullman book The Golden Compass was protested by a group of parents and Christian leaders in Winchester, Kentucky; because Pullman was call ââ¬Å"an atheistâ⬠and the book ââ¬Å"anti-Christian. â⬠* A high school history teacher in Denver Public Schools was dismissed because the city newspaper published his and other candidatesââ¬â¢ views as they ran for congressional seatâ⬠the district thought his views were too controversial. He won the case but the district limited him to teaching Basic English and erased his teaching history. * A high school student paper in Bakersfield, California, was prohibited from publishing a story with interviews about gender identity, but a county judge ruled that student to have the right to exercise freedom of speech. * Most frequently banned books: Harry Potter, Diary of Anne Frank, Catch-22, Farewell to Arms, Deliverance, The great Gatsby, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Chocolate War, and Slaughterhouse Five. Even some comic books suffered censorship. * Most censored authors: Judy Blume, Mark Twain, Maya Angelou, John Steinbeck, J. D. Salinger, Toni Morrison, R. L. Stine, Maurice Sendak, William Golding, and Rovert Cormier. * Quotes about censorship from famous figures: * Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart: ââ¬Å"Censorship reflects a societyââ¬â¢s lack of confidence in itself. â⬠* Historian Henry Steele Commanger: ââ¬Å"Censorship always defeats its own purpose, for it creates in the end the kind of society that is incapable of real discretion. â⬠* Actress, playwright, screen writer, and sex symbol Mae West: ââ¬Å"I believe in censorship. I have made a fortune out of it. * Climate of Fear * Challenges to school and library books have been 400 to 500 per year over the past three decades. A lot of the challenges were mostly by individual parents. Organized efforts have joined. * Parents Against Bad Books in Schools (PABBIS) and safelibraries. org. * On safelibraries. org they have published the most shocking and inappropriate segments of each book. * A lot of schools try to limit controversy by passing strict policies that are even sometimes illegal. * Good school districts have splices and practices that promote academic freedom which doesnââ¬â¢t allow for parents, students, and the public to challenge or raise questions about what is taught and how. * What happens? Teachers lose jobs, students can be suspended, and teachers avoid controversy, and education suffers. * We need freedom: Intellectual freedom! * A Necessity, Not a Frill * Academic Freedom = Free Society, which is what our Nation was founded on. * It is increasingly important for teachers to become more active advocates for academic freedom in public discourse and in political arenas. * Democratic education requires debate and discourse ââ¬â only with teacher freedom can this happen. * Freedom to teach and learn is basic to good education. * Arguments against Academic Freedom * Based on traditional ideas that teachers are not ââ¬Å"scholars,â⬠they have a captive audience, they can influence impressionable minds and they are public employees subject to the will of board and administrators. * The argument against those that believe in those traditional ideas is that our education system now requires teachers to have scholarly qualities; students are expected to inquire and challenge rather than just be a captive audience. * Mischief in Defining Academic Freedom * Zealots everywhere (Zealot being someone who believes their way is superior) has tried to use schools as agents to impose their views and values on the young. They donââ¬â¢t want schools to present opposing views or conflicting evidence and are against real critical thinking. * Academic Bill of Rights ââ¬â is a bill of rights that demands neutrality for institutions and requiring a diverse faculty along political lines. This bill of rights is for colleges but is popping up in precollegiate schools. * Academic Freedom Petition ââ¬â a single-issue document that argues that academic institutions should ensure student and teacher freedom to discuss scientific strength and weaknesses of Darwinian evolution. * The problem with these two laws/bills is that they contain seeds of censorship and self-censorship to avoid controversial subjects. This twisted use of academic freedom can cloud the more valuable condition needed for critical thinking in schools and colleges. * A threat to academic freedom ââ¬â self-censorship ââ¬â When teachers screen ideas from classroom use in order to avoid controversy. * Conclusion: Fear threatens academic freedom! * The Essential Relationship of Academic Freedom to Democracy. * Democracy states that people are capable of governing themselves. People can make knowledgeable decisions and select intelligently from among alternative proposals. * The Evolution of Expansion of Academic Freedom. * We have adopted German theory ââ¬â Lehrfreiheit and Lernfreiheit ââ¬â the freedom of teachers to teach and learners to learn without institutional restrictions. * Socrates ââ¬â was said to be sinful and wicked because he and his students had the freedom to pursue truth. All wickedness, he argued, was due to ignorance; freedom to teach and learn would uncover knowledge, eliminate ignorance and improve society. The judges at that time did not agree and Socrates was sentenced to death. * Courts, in general, have exhibited an expanding awareness of the need for academic freedom in schools and have provided protection for teachers. * Educational Grounds for Academic Freedom * Where if not in schools will students be able to explore and test various ideas, new concepts, and challenge propaganda in a safe and guided environment? * The classroom serves as a ââ¬Å"safe placeâ⬠to explore without social condemnation or ridicule. * Education consists of ideas and challenges, increasingly sophisticated and complex. * Learning best occurs as people test new ideas against their own experiences and knowledge. ââ¬â that testing requires academic freedom. * Not operating in this manor will risk conformity. Students will not examine controversial material in schools that students will not be challenged and participate in critical thinking. * The Center of the Profession * Basically weââ¬â¢re currently trained and we know what weââ¬â¢re doing. Professional Development and certification has equipped us uphold ethics and values. * A professional teacher must be free to examine controversial issues openly in the classroom. * Teacher jobs must not be at risk because they explore controversial material or consider ideas out the mainstream. * We need individuality. * Academic Freedom and Teacher Competency: the Tenure Process * Non Tenure Incompetent teachers do not deserve and should not receive that extra protection; they should be dismissed if a fair and evidential evaluation find them incompetent. * Teacher competence is a mix of knowledge, skill, and judgment. * Knowledge of the material. * Of the students in class * Professional skill in teaching. * Professional judgment. * Under tenure law teachers cannot be fired without due process and legitimate cause. The tenured teacher who is threatened with firing has a right to know specific allegations, a fair hearing, and an evidentially based decision. * Obstacles for Academic Freedom * Religious schools sometimes fired teachers for anti-moralistic requirements, sin, not attending religious services, and not exhibiting sufficient religious enthusiasm. * At the beginning of the nineteenth century teachers were fired for not remaining single, avoiding drinking and smoking, dancing, political views, etc. * At the first half of the twentieth century, political restraint and censorship replaced religious and moralistic restrictions on teachers. * John Dewy and other scholars founded the American Association of University Professors in 1915 which recognized that even then all teachers, not just those in colleges, needed academic freedom. * Some states have tons of censorship attempts each year by parents, school boards, administrators and parents. * The internet * Scare tactics are set up to block access to many ââ¬Å"goodâ⬠internet sites (our school, example). * Many teachers avoid significant topics to sterilize to the point of student boredom. * National Coalition Against Censorship has been created. Position 2: For Teacher Responsibility * Teachers use classroom for political platforms (especially in colleges). * Power and Responsibility in Teachers * Teaching is among the most influential position in society. Teaching is next to parenting in its power to carry values and ideas from generation to generation. * The influence of teachers goes will beyond the classroom doors, school grounds, and school term; teachers exert influence that can last for years and even lifetimes. Teacherââ¬â¢s ability to influence their students is a huge responsibility. * Parental Rights * If parents can be held accountable for their children, so should teachers. (Even though they donââ¬â¢t) * Schools must give supportive social and family values among our youth. * Public school teachers are even more accountable than private ones to the community and to parents for what they teach and how. * Teacher Responsibilities to Parents * Teachers must remain sensitive to parent interests. * Teachers have responsibilities for providing a safe, healthy classroom environment, and assume protective moral ethical and legal duties. * Parents sometimes donââ¬â¢t know whatââ¬â¢s going on in the classroom until the damage is already done. * Parents have the right to monitor. * PABBIS lets parents see various pieces of literature and provides evidence to help them make rational judgment about the material. * Internet Access is becoming a huge problem. * There exists a serious problem in Internet usage when websites continue inhumane, anti-American, racist, Antiauthority, sexual, antireligious or other inappropriate material that can be accessed at schools. * Teacher Responsibility to Children. * Children are vulnerable * Children look to teachers for direction. * Children are immature and unformed. Teachers must be careful. * Teacher Responsibility to Society * Society trusts teachers to develop the young into positive, productive citizens. * Teacher Responsibility to Their Profession. * Teachers can be the key to good education, or poor education * Teachers have the responsibility to recognize childrenââ¬â¢s needs and academic development. * Teacher Irresponsibility * Tenure covers poor teachers and socially dangerous teachers. * Sometimes teachers will start to threat a school with atheism, Satanism, sicalism, communism, and take other extreme positions after theyââ¬â¢ve been tenured. Deeming themselves as ââ¬Å"untouchable. â⬠* Tenure laws make it almost impossible to rid schools of poor teachers. * Academic Freedom of License * A license to teach is not a license to impose oneââ¬â¢s views on others. * Sometimes teachers who ââ¬Å"mind bendâ⬠for years and teach in an unethical manor gets by because administration is afraid to reprimand them. * Tenure teacher firing is rare. * Tenure laws create burdensome requirements that save teacher jobs even when those teachers have demonstrated a lock of respect for parents, students, and community values. * We need to make it easier to fire teachers. * 18 states have modified tenure regulations; the Education Commission of the States website shows current state approaches. Idaho has completely eliminated teacher tenure and other states are considering major reform. * Conclusion : * Teachers deserve respect and appreciation for their contributions to society, decent salaries, and comfortable working conditions.
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