How many teachers can be fired at once? In five days, on what for many children will be the first day of the school year, President Obama will deliver a speech via webcast into every public school classroom across the nation. Will all of those teachers be fired as a result of the propaganda on display in their classrooms? My best guess would be a resounding no. There has always been a different set of rules for Democrats and liberals.
For Republicans and conservatives, such a display would be grounds for immediate dismissal. Just ask Shiba Pillai-Diaz, a New Jersey middle school teacher who was fired in 2004 because she had a photograph of the president and first lady on her wall. The problem was that it was President Bush, and the principal ordered it taken down. When Pillai-Diaz refused, she was terminated. Ironically, one of the reasons was an accusation of "suppression of free speech", which came about because she refused to discuss her political views with her students. Correct me if I'm wrong, but most parents should expect that teachers keep their political opinions to themselves.
As parents across the country begin to protest this intrusion into the lives and minds of their children, liberal groups will subsequently start calling those parents and their advocates "right wing kooks". This is a prediction I make with virtually no trepidation, and I also know that the webcast will be defended by the left as something innocuous. But let's face it...Obama is not merely going to read My Pet Goat to them.
The Obama administration and the Dept. of Education have carefully choreographed this event, sending out specific instruction packets to teachers in what to discuss and when to discuss it. This will not be a speech in which the president simply beseeches the children to be good students and study hard, or to listen to their mommies and daddies. He is going to advise them on how to help him and his agenda. To put it simply, he is trying to organize them.
To contrast this, try to imagine this scenario; it is 2004, and President Bush plans a webcast to speak directly to the children about the virtues of tax cuts or to defend the Iraq War. The left would be completely apoplectic over such an event, but here they see no foul.
Incidentally, the school in question in the opening paragraph was Crossroads South Middle School in Monmouth Junction, NJ. They have a new principal now, but I decided to write to him anyway, and ask him the question of teacher firings next week. Here is the text of my email:
Dear Mr. Tucholski,I will certainly update this post in the event of a reply. Sphere: Related Content
In light of the fact that a teacher from your school was fired for having a photograph of President Bush silently hanging on her wall in 2004, I was just curious as to how many teachers will be fired on September 8th for having President Obama beamed into the classroom for the purpose of indoctrinating the children.
Please reply at your earliest convenience.
Sincerely,
Daniel James Wood
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