Bono's American Wife said:
Why do you presume to know what anyone here would "love to say" or how they would react to the opposite situation?
For the record, I would say the same if it was the other way round and the teacher was getting fired for voicing her conservative views.
I´m old fashioned here :shrug. Its the duty of the teacher to decide what he will teach in which way. Sure, there is a curriculum they have to follow.
One of my family´s friends has taught in the most conservative school of Vienna and in University. I don´t know on which... how should I say.. intellectual level this american high school is operating on compare.
The professor I´m talking about taught English. In his lessons, he followed all the curriculum, but the students had to learn more - from the 4th class of high school (8th grade) they also had to learn supplements.
He thought it was important that the Austrian kids (who will soon be managers, lawyers, politicians - like I said, the most conservative private school here) knew more than what the curriculum told him to teach. So they had to learn about English and American history, about the school system, about the political system of the U.S. etc. - I am sure his political opinion was shining through somewhere, but he was treating the conservatives and liberals kinda equal.
Today, his supplements are still used by several teachers and the school; you can download them in the Internet etc.
If I told you how personal this guy got in his lessons.. and the kids enjoyed it! He made lots of jokes and was the only leftist in that school of conservative Catholics.
Now what is the opposite? A teacher that follows the curriculum straight - a curriculum which is designed by the elite of the country - it always is (or who else decides WHAT the kids learn in school, hmmm? Who do YOU think controls the history books before they get published? Gotcha! The ministry of education, folks!).
So I am ALL for teachers, whatever opinion they are, to add something to the plan.
Getting one teacher fired for that - regardless if her tongue slipped, if it was her opinion or if it was not - speaks volumes about the freedom of society. The PARENTS are such a bunch of assholes - what was their fucking problem? They could have explained to the kid that the teacher is stupid if she makes comparisons like that. They could have gone to school to talk to the teacher. but nooo, what are they doing? Getting the teacher shitcanned. Brilliant. And isn´t it great how all the others play with them? The director of the school who fires the teacher,.. the authorities that probably told the director.. a nice little phone call.
Really, in that aspect I am old-fashioned. It´s not the kids right to record the teacher - the kid should rather learn, and they should learn what their teacher tells them to. If not, school doesn´t make sense - you could keep the kids at home and let them learn it all from the computer if you´re so keen on banging only the curriculum into their poor young brains.