I am positively speechless
Dec. 4th, 2003 10:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ebonlockTeacher sues over limits on history curriculum
A seventh-grade social studies teacher in Presque Isle who said he was barred from teaching about non-Christian civilizations has sued his school district, claiming it violated his First Amendment right of free expression...
Cole alleged that complaints by "a small group of fundamentalist Christian individuals" led to the creation of a curriculum "which never mentions religions other than Christianity and never teaches the history of civilizations other than Christian civilizations.",,
"How can you explain the evolution of democracy in the Western world without talking about ancient Greece? He can't talk about all the influences of the Indian, Japanese or Chinese cultures."
Superintendent Gehrig Johnson said on Tuesday that he had not seen the lawsuit, but he noted that the curriculum has been "developed by teachers across the district and adopted by the SAD 1 School Committee."
"Teachers are expected to follow the curriculum," he added.
I feel like I should have some pithy response but all I can come up with is, "And they say California is wacky?"
A seventh-grade social studies teacher in Presque Isle who said he was barred from teaching about non-Christian civilizations has sued his school district, claiming it violated his First Amendment right of free expression...
Cole alleged that complaints by "a small group of fundamentalist Christian individuals" led to the creation of a curriculum "which never mentions religions other than Christianity and never teaches the history of civilizations other than Christian civilizations.",,
"How can you explain the evolution of democracy in the Western world without talking about ancient Greece? He can't talk about all the influences of the Indian, Japanese or Chinese cultures."
Superintendent Gehrig Johnson said on Tuesday that he had not seen the lawsuit, but he noted that the curriculum has been "developed by teachers across the district and adopted by the SAD 1 School Committee."
"Teachers are expected to follow the curriculum," he added.
I feel like I should have some pithy response but all I can come up with is, "And they say California is wacky?"
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-12-04 10:51 am (UTC)The first would be that Mr. Cole has been hired to teach a particular curriculum, not to exercise his free speech rights. If he doesn't feel that he can live within the constraints of conduct set by his employer, then his recourse -- regardless of how unreasonable those constraints may seem to you and I -- is to seek employment elsewhere, not sue. I'm sympathetic to the guy's problem, but I think his chosen method of dealing with it marks him as a litigious crybaby rather than a noble crusader for intellectual freedom.
The second would be to point out that this is a problem in the first place because government schools are not accountable to the people footing the bill for them, and their curricula are necessarily vulnerable to politics. If you get government out of education, then things like this aren't so much of an issue: what Asshat Elementary School teaches its students is of no consequence to the rest of the world so long as it remains accountable to the people who matter -- its customers (i.e., the parents paying their childrens' tuitions).