Love a Well-Reasoned Argument!

One reader posts this response to that teacher suspended for using the book Freedom Writers.

"I agree with the suspension. She was insubordinate. I have no opinion on the book, because I have not read it, but the school board has the power and authority and responsibility to approve the books used in the classroom. If they determined it was not suitable for their particular student population, then that is their right. If the parents do not think the decision was appropriate, they can replace the school board at the next election. But she had no right to 'do it anyway.'

"I agree that that is a poor role model for the students. We have enough students who already feel they are entitled to do or not do whatever they feel like. This should not be reinforced by adult behaviors.

"149 permission slips were returned. Did those parents give permission because they knew the content of the book and made a conscious decision to have it used as a textbook in their students classroom? Or did they sign it on the reputation of the teacher and the desire of their child?

"If 149/150 parents were in favor of using the book, where were those parents when the teacher needed the support? My guess is once the parents actually found out what was in the book, they had real reservations.

"As usual CNN gives a very half-hearted attempt at bringing the whole story to light."

At the very moment that this teacher made the decision to have her students read the book, despite being told to retrieve it - by the board of education, no less - she stepped over the line, and should not then wonder that these are the consequences of her actions.

As teachers nurture allegiance to national movements like Erin Gruwell's, while ignoring local morals and mores, they join collectivist movements that seek to impose their will on every home and hamlet across the nation.

Supreme Court decisions allow for local standards to take the forefront of the debate on pornography. In like manner, localities can determine their own standards of decency for the literature read in their schools.

Censorship, by definition comes from huge government forces to silence dissent, not from citizens in a local school board, expressing and controling the direction of their children's education.

If the teacher felt differently, she needed to do the hard work of getting her message out, by established standard means available to her within the system that provides her with a decent living.

Spot-on commentary, from a reader who should be blogging, too!