The students are over-stimulated and it's time to remove all the colored chalk from the classroom. Colorado social studies teacher Jay Bennish was placed on unpaid leave by the Cherry Creek School District on Wednesday for his remarks in the classroom. He was discussing President Bush’s State of the Union address.
In an alarming display of deviance Bennish commented of the speech “It sounds a lot like the things that Adolf Hitler used to say: We’re the only ones who are right, everyone else is backward, and our job is to conquer the world.”
He later made clear that he was not equating the president with Hitler, but the damage was done. A sophomore had recorded the lecture and leaked it to a conservative radio show. Those on the right have been swift to squash this attempt at classroom discussion and site it as an example of the decay of the education system.
"People today have no respect. In my day we didn't talk about the President in school. We learned how to read and write and say the pledge," an old man quickly remarked. "And women stayed home and blacks rode on the back of the bus."
Right-winger Paul M. Weyrich, of the radio show Right Hour on Rightwalk Radio Network (I did not make that up, but I will use it in the future) argues that Bennish’s methods are an overflow of the “radicalism” on college campuses these days. He even recalls how he was once taught at the University of Wisconsin by a member of the Communist Party! I too was stunned as I read this. Didn’t Charley McCarthy wipe all those Commies out in the 50s?
(Is anyone outside of Kansas really scared of Communists or Socialists anymore?)
The National Ledger makes a compelling and enthusiastic case that it is acceptable to be taught by God fearing conservatives but not atheistic Communists, much less radical liberals. Meanwhile it also goes on to credit Bennish, and other radical teachers, with the destruction of an entire generation. Or, that is to say, way worse than Hitler. Who's your daddy now?
While young minds are being forced to listen to left-wing fluff from Bennish, adult minds can eagerly feed on National Ledger statements like this: “The Left has succeeded in essentially forging a weapon out of convoluted First Amendment logic - and they’re beating America to death with it.” I for one will sleep well tonight knowing that a teacher has been suspended for disparaging the most powerful man in the world while the right-wing press keeps us safely scared to death of the left-wing mennace seeping its way into the unsuspecting minds of kids and misguided adults (aren't they one in the same anyway?).
Bleeding heart liberal blogs like Thought Alarm (thougtalarm.blogspot.com) counter by saying,
"If all Bennish did was compare the president’s verbiage to Hitler’s, aren’t we overreacting a little bit? I mean, now that he mentions it, the President does remind me a little of Hitler. Bush keeps getting fitter and fitter. He works out like two hours a day or something! He’s huge, ripped, in perfect health. For godsake it seems so obvious now. When his term is up he will lodge himself into the White House bunker, surround himself with his royal guard, and force a one-man army to go in and cut him out. Sort of like the end of Wolfenstein 3D (see picture above)."
Will this scenario actually play out? I guess we will soon see. But the president’s training regimen may not be just to scare the rest of the world. He’s strutting around like Barry Bonds, that and the surly attitude he cops make me think he may also be on the juice.
But back to Bennish. The debate centers around the merit of discussing volitile yet thought provoking topics in the class room. Is it really worth harming a mind that hasn't been used in 16 years to try to get a teen ager to think about an issue? And isn't Bennish a little late in comparing Bush to Hitler? That is so 2005 (see previous blogs).
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