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DJ's teacher: update

I no longer care what this man's political leanings are; I spoke to him on the phone today about the bully problem and he said the words I wanted to hear:

"I will not tolerate any kind of bullying in my class and I am not one of those teachers that coddles bullies or looks for the deep psychological reasons why a kid would torment another. It's obvious that S. has a problem with everyone, not just your son and if I were you I would be making a big stink over the fact that they put these two kids together again. Oh, and if they ask you about removing DJ from the class, you tell them that I would want S. removed before DJ. And you tell me any little thing that goes on that DJ tells you and I will take care of it immediately. This will NOT go on in my classroom."

Amen and thank you, Mr. G.

Comments

Hot damn. 'bout time.

Wow, that's a great response!

can i get his name....so my kid's school can hire him? i mean, a real teacher? one who is there for the kids? maybe we could clone him instead?

Gee Michele:

Seems you don't have to worry about his politics. No self-respecting liberal teacher (oxymoron?) would say anything that didn't include the words 'understanding' and 'feelings'. You should only hope that the administrators don't find out about this!

Stay dry.....

WG, LI/NY

Good news! That's exactly how my teacher friends would react in that sort of situation, I'm glad you're not stuck with a bloke seeing his little "flowers" through rose-colored lenses. Unacceptable behavior is just that and must be dealt with firmly and with all due speed.

Wow, maybe liberals can think rationally!

Talk.

How come "S" ain't already gone?

not all liberals talk about "understanding", just like all animal lovers aren't PETA supporters. sheeesh.

I am a liberal and a teacher, and I could usually care less about my students' feelings--unless they are related to something that is interfering with other students, in which case I come down like the hammer of the gods.

It is, nonetheless, still appalling to me that this guy would use the classroom to talk about his own political leanings. That's an abuse of his power and most likely unrelated to the subject he's teaching. Unless, of course, he's teaching a course in his own political leanings.

Besides, you have to be careful these days about revealing your liberalism in public--especially if you're a teacher. That logic is everywhere: liberals are irrational and idiots => most teachers are liberals => most teachers are irrational and idiots. Most of the people I've spoken with who believe all that rhetoric wouldn't know a real liberal if he sat on them. It's an old set of contentions: "Conservatives think liberals are stupid. Liberals think conservatives are mean." The difference now is that the conservatives don't seem to care if anyone thinks that.

Umm, you know all those questions could have been caused by current events reading from a newspaper. As I recall, the story I linked about Clark entering the race mentioned that he was a Rhodes Scholar, and mentioned Kosovo and Milosovich (sp?) which would explain the dictatorship question. The guns question could have come from several stories in the past few days. If the teacher was just reading from the paper -- or some 'teaching newsletter' he's required to use, he might not himself agree with it. (Or he might...).

Also DJ was asking questions, not proclaiming: "Teacher said" so he may just be trying to make them think rather than telling them what to think.

Boy is this guy going to have a short career in education.

Good point, Kathy. I hadn't thought about that. I shall reserve judgment until I have a sense of the context.

Matt, he's 70 years old and has been teaching in this school for about 50 of those years. Kids love him.

Kathy, they were current events subjects, and you are right - he was trying to get the kids to think. Until DJ comes home crying that Bush is Hitler, I'm going to just take it as it comes.

Sounds like you and DJ have finally gotten lucky. Let's hope his teacher lasts the year!

See?

Not all liberals are moonbats. And some of us even carry big sticks as we walk softly.

D

I'm pretty damned impressed -- the issue that counts is how much he cares for the kids. :)

Get that teachers name Michelle, I may had had him when I was in school : p

Not to brag, but that sounds like something my sister (a third grad teacher) would say. She's a good one who may be driven out of the profession by incompetent administrators and lame parents.

Sounds like S. would fit right in at Mepham

(Long Island inside joke - read Newsday for background. HS football team away at a camp, sodomize rookies with broomstick. Seniors won't talk, football season is cancelled, seniors and parents say they're the victims, rather than the kids who were 'stuck up'. Still, nobody's talking. Sounds like a place where I want to bring up my kids!!)

Read Hennican's column on p. 2. He's far too left for me, but has some insight on this crazy case, and the seniors' "protest" yesterday.

WG, LI

It helps that the teacher's been around for so long. If he's as old as you say, he probably has tenure, and doesn't give a rat's ass about what the administration and psychologists thing about coddling DJ's bully. No matter what his political beliefs, we need about a billion clones of this teacher's classroom ethics.