Intellectual Child Abuse

Most everyone has heard about the high school teacher who was taped ranting anti-American idiocies. I think the student who taped him is one brave kid and I applaud him. This kind of demogoguery is all too common in American high schools and kids usually just have to put up with it or their grades will suffer.

I believe a good teacher should present arguments on issues in a balanced way and encourage debate. If they're doing their job right, a student or a parent shouldn't even know what their personal politics are. Unfortunately this is all too rare in many classrooms. And unless you can afford to opt out, your child is forced to listen to what passes for intellectual argument and debate in the public schools. Predictably, this teacher is going after his student. In the Rocky Mountain News, Mike Rosen:

So Bennish, the Overland High School left-wing political activist who masquerades as a geography teacher, has retained David Lane to personally attack Sean Allen, the 16-year-old student who had the courage to expose Bennish as the propagandist he is. Lane - who also represents Bennish soundalike Ward Churchill - doesn't have much to work with. This is not a First Amendment issue. Lane conceded on my radio show last week that the district policy requiring that teachers offer a balanced presentation in class is most certainly constitutional. And anyone who has listened to the recording of Bennish's 20- minute tirade (you can hear it by clicking on the "Mike Rosen" link under "Shows" at www.850koa.com) will recognize it as a one-sided, left-wing rant. So all that's left is to attack the whistleblower, Allen.

Rosen also points out how the MSM has misrepresented the facts to make it look like the teacher is being persecuted for engaging in free speech. That is not at all the case, but consider the constant in-classroom assault on the free speech of the student. (And it doesn't just happen in our high schools, but in our colleges as well. See this post.)

Rosen calls it "intellectual child abuse". He's right, though I think calling Bennish an intellectual is much too kind.