You may have heard about the teacher here in Denver who has gotten in trouble over comments he made to a class. At least that is probably what you heard he was in trouble for, but in reality it is not what he said that got him in trouble...it is what he did NOT say.

To quickly update you, he was recorded by a student's MP3 player ranting (for lack of a better word), comparing George Bush to Hitler, and what some may call justifying the 9/11 attacks and a number of other things:
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_3579184

But that is not the issue, at least if you ask me as a teacher. THe problem was the unbalanced lecture. If your idea is to provoke conversation, then you do it through questioning (to get the studetns there themselves) or you give equal ferver and explanation to both sides of the issue. With no balance, with no pauses for reaction, and without making it seem at all okay to speak the other side you quit being a teacher and start being either a brainwasher creating mini versions of yourself, or just a crazy guy (as several of our students called him after hearing the recording) who is using students as a sounding board for what upsets you.

He says he provides balance in the class, while the students says he does not. Obviously I dont know what happened in that room, but I do know of teachers who use students as a sounding board or captive audience for their beliefs under the guise of "creating contraversy."

Again, it is not about what he said. To me, it is about what he did not say.

Oh and since this comes up every time I bring up this topic: as a teacher you do NOT have free speech in the classroom, and yes you can be recorded because information in a classroom is for public consumption.

Im anxious to see what everyone thinks. No necessarily about this particular case (again, we dont know what happens in that classroom from day to day), but about what the proper forum is for spreading your own agenda.

PS I know this is a disjointed and rather sloppy entry, but I did zero editing and just typed straight into the page.