A recent article in Newsweek describes a high school in Dallas where somebody got all hot and bothered about a writing assignment given to one class.
A teacher at W. T. White High School in the Dallas ISD (4505 Ridgeside Drive, Dallas, TX 75244) gave a two-part assignment to the class about a "hero for the modern age". Students could pick one from several men and then were told to write a half-page biography and then to write a full page essay on which one "demonstrates best your concept of a hero". (Newsweek)
The list included César Chávez, George Floyd, Mahatma Gandhi, Malcolm X, Kyle Rittenhouse, and Joseph Rosenbaum.
A relative of one student got her panties all twisted over Rittenhouse's name being included and that no women were included on the list. Whom did she want on the list? Patty Hearst?
The school ran for cover, of course, instead of sticking up for the teacher.
Why should the teacher not be criticized? He (or she) was requiring the students to think. To t-h-i-n-k. What a novel concept. First of all, they'd probably just head for Google for their half-page biography. But the next part of the assignment, choosing one from the list to represent their own concept of a hero and then writing a full page about him should require some thinking.
I wonder whether W. T. White High School offers a debate class or a debate team.
Teachers today, worried about keeping their jobs and not getting on the wrong side of a principal or superintendent (and then having a face a school board that is stacked against them because it sides with a superintendent in disciplinary or expulsion actions), learn quickly that they'd better not think "outside the box."
Be careful not to challenge the kiddies; they might offend someone. And, for sure, someone - somewhere in that class (or at home or related or maybe not even related) - will stand up and scream. And then the teacher will find out he is up the creek, without a paddle.
W. T. White H.S. Principal: Elena Bates. Email: ELBates@dallasisd.org
Dallas ISD Superintendent: Michael Hinojosa
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