It's almost unimaginable how stupid educators can be. Almost. This story is so disgusting that no punches need to be pulled in the name of "polite criticism."
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — A Missouri high school teacher apologized for asking students to write about who they would kill and how they would do it.
Michael Maxwell said it was a horrible mistake he regrets, according to an Associated Press report.
Maxwell said the request to describe how students would carry out a murder was merely a writing exercise. Maxwell teaches a beginning drafting class and it was not clear why he asked the class to write fiction.
School officials in St. Joseph said the teacher will likely keep his job. [Emphasis mine]
Oh yes, you read that right. A teacher, for a drafting class, thought it would be a good idea to have students do a creative writing exercise detailing the psychotic act of murder, including their preferred methodology. And to make it all better, perhaps since he apologized (Maybe he read up on My Bad), he's going to keep his job.
I realize that if you don't keep your nose in educational news, this may seem like a bizarre, isolated incident. It is not. Two months ago, conservatives and rational people alike were in an uproar over the atrocious politicizing by Jay Bennish, a geography teacher who went on an extended rant about the evils of the current administration, completely unrelated to the course material.
Thomas Sowell commented correctly on this charade:
Nowhere else do people think that it is OK to engage in politics instead of doing the job for which they are being paid. When you hire a plumber to fix a leak, you don't want to find your home being flooded while he whiles away the hours talking about Congressional elections or foreign policy.
It doesn't matter whether his political opinions are good, bad, or indifferent if he is being paid to do a different job.
Only among "educators" is there such confusion that merely exposing what they are doing behind the backs of parents and taxpayers is regarded as a violation of their rights.
According to a more recent news report, Mr. Maxwell has been suspended for a week without pay (the horror) and faces a six-month probation. Additionally, the article clarifies that he was not teaching "drafting" in terms of writing mechanics, but is an industrial arts teacher, meaning this was most likely a class for students interested in architecture or engineering.
Instead of giving an assignment related to drafting, Mr. Maxwell told students to write about someone they would kill, how they would kill the person, then dispose of the body. [Emphasis mine]
Oh yes, that's even better for these budding creative designers.
An annonymous [sic] parent says her daughter didn`t want to do the assignment, but Maxwell said she`d get a zero if she didn`t. The St. Joseph School District maintains the assignment was optional. [Emphasis mine]
Yet another turn of events that is completely unsurprising. A school district backing a teacher for clearly inappropriate actions. The same thing happened with Mr. Bennish's case, as he was not fired either.
In his book Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves But Can't Read, Write, or Add, educational journalist Charles J. Sykes cites a few similar incidents.
A class devoted to "Coping with My Feelings" breaks the third graders up into four or five groups where the children discuss various emotions, including anger, sadness, fear, confusion, loneliness, worry, and embarrassment. They are not asked to discuss happiness, hopefulness, love, or confidence.
As if real problems are not enough to achieve the desired results, teachers are also told to have the third graders imagine problems by thinking about a number of "What-If's," …
This question of who children should tell when they feel uncomfortable is a major theme in the program. Students are asked to name "at least six trusted adults that they could talk to, if they didn't feel safe." The program is explicit that children should not be allowed to simply name members of their own family…
In at least one respect, the "protective behaviors" programs appear to have an effect. Studies of students who have taken such courses have found that they are much more likely to claim that they have been victims of sexual abuse. (176-7)
There are so many negative factors at work here, but I'd pick out two that seem to be the biggest influences. First, modern academia, especially the educationists, believe that academic freedom, the right to free speech, and progressive beliefs are all the same and all tied equally to democracy. The case of Mr. Bennish, especially with his attempt to bring in the ACLU and claim that his right to free speech is fine evidence of this (deliberate) confusion. Mr. Maxwell, on the other hand, is perhaps suffering from a dose of too much psychologizing in the classroom.
As Sykes' book points out, educationists have long thought that they need to play some role in mental health, regardless of any actual qualifications. Unless Mr. Maxwell pleads insanity, I see his attempt as some kind of ultra-violent Rorschach writing test. Not only was the activity totally inappropriate for his classroom, the subject matter is beyond disgusting.
There are multiple reasons why Mr. Maxwell might have thought this activity was a good idea, but here's my suggestion for his legal counsel. Claim that the teacher was "attempting a more entertaining look at the technical specifications necessary to complete this engineering task and that really, it's just a slightly sadistic extension of the egg-drop, only in written form."
These incidents have absolutely nothing to do with academic freedom or freedom of speech, and everything to do with irresponsible, arrogant educators.
