Reading Teacher Essay Example for Free

Reading Teacher EssayHow should the proper equilibrise between teacher immunity and responsibility be determined? Position 1 Fir increase donnish independence * Schools argon at the center of local debates well-nigh touchy subjects such as, morals, charge up and sexual orientation, religion, politics, economics, racism, and a host of otherwise social value controversies. * Censorship denies, defeats, or diminishes academician liberty * Sex, Politics, and Religion A few Cases * A mention in Loathe, Kansas, demanded that joke Steinbecks Of Mice and Men be banned from the cultivate curriculum and classroom because the playscript is worthless and profanity filled. The Majority rejected the effort. * In Oakley, California, some parents wanted the same Steinbeck book banned for racial descriptions. * Schools use the popular Philip Pullman book The rosy Compass was protested by a group of parents and Christian leaders in Winchester, Kentucky because Pullman was call an ath eist and the book anti-Christian. * A high school history teacher in Denver Public Schools was dismissed because the urban center newspaper published his and other idlerdidates views as they ran for congressional seat the district thought his views were too polemical.He won the case but the district limited him to teaching Basic English and erased his teaching history. * A high school student paper in Bakersfield, California, was prohibited from publishing a story with interviews about gender identity, but a county judge ruled that student to pick out the right to exercise exemption of speech. * Most frequently banned books Harry Potter, Diary of Anne Frank, Catch-22, Farewell to Arms, Deliverance, The great Gatsby, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, The coffee berry War, and Slaughterhouse Five.Even some comic books suffered censoring. * Most censored authors Judy Blume, Mark Twain, Maya Angelou, John Steinbeck, J. D. Salinger, Toni Morrison, R. L. Stine, Maurice Sendak, William Golding, and Rovert Cormier. * Quotes about censorship from famous figures * Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart Censorship reflects a societys lose of confidence in itself. * Historian Henry Steele Commanger Censorship always defeats its own purpose, for it creates in the end the physical body of society that is incapable of accepted discretion. * Actress, playwright, screen writer, and sex symbol Mae West I believe in censorship. I absorb made a fortune out of it. * Climate of Fear * Challenges to school and program library books have been 400 to 500 per course of study over the past three decades. A lot of the argufys were largely by individual parents. Organized efforts have joined. * Parents Against Bad Books in Schools (PABBIS) and safelibraries. org. * On safelibraries. org they have published the about shocking and inappropriate segments of each book.* A lot of schools try to limit controversy by temporary strict policies that are up to now sometimes illegal. * Good school districts have splices and practices that promote academic exemption which doesnt allow for parents, students, and the public to challenge or raise questions about what is taught and how. * What happens? Teachers lose jobs, students domiciliate be suspended, and teachers avoid controversy, and education suffers. * We need freedom Intellectual freedom * A Necessity, Not a bunk * Academic freedom = Free Society, which is what our Nation was founded on.* It is more and more important for teachers to become more active advocates for academic freedom in public sermon and in political arenas. * Democratic education requires debate and discourse only with teacher freedom can this happen. * Freedom to teach and learn is basic to good education. * Arguments against Academic Freedom * Based on traditional ideas that teachers are non scholars, they have a captive audience, they can influence impressionable melodic themes and they are public employe es subject to the volition of board and administrators.* The argument against those that believe in those traditional ideas is that our education system now requires teachers to have scholarly qualities students are expected to inquire and challenge rather than just be a captive audience. * Mischief in Defining Academic Freedom * Zealots everywhere (Zealot being someone who believes their way is superior) has tried to use schools as agents to impose their views and values on the young. They dont want schools to present opposing views or conflicting evidence and are against real critical thinking.* Academic Bill of Rights is a bill of rights that demands neutrality for institutions and requiring a diverse faculty on political lines. This bill of rights is for colleges but is popping up in precollegiate schools. * Academic Freedom Petition a single-issue document that argues that academic institutions should ensure student and teacher freedom to discuss scientific strength and wea knesses of Darwinian evolution. * The conundrum with these two laws/bills is that they contain seeds of censorship and self-censorship to avoid controversial subjects.This twisted use of academic freedom can cloud the more valuable condition needed for critical thinking in schools and colleges. * A threat to academic freedom self-censorship When teachers screen ideas from classroom use in order to avoid controversy. * destination Fear threatens academic freedom * The Essential Relationship of Academic Freedom to Democracy. * Democracy states that people are capable of governing themselves. People can make knowledgeable decisions and select intelligently from among alternative proposals. * The phylogenesis of Expansion of Academic Freedom.* We have adopted German theory Lehrfreiheit and Lernfreiheit the freedom of teachers to teach and learners to learn without institutional restrictions. * Socrates was said to be sinful and wicked because he and his students had the freedom t o pursue truth. All wickedness, he argued, was cod to ignorance freedom to teach and learn would uncover knowledge, eliminate ignorance and improve society. The judges at that time did not agree and Socrates was sentenced to death. * Courts, in general, have exhibited an expanding awareness of the need for academic freedom in schools and have provided rampart for teachers.* Educational Grounds for Academic Freedom * Where if not in schools will students be able to look for and test various ideas, new concepts, and challenge propaganda in a safe and guided environment? * The classroom serves as a safe place to search without social condemnation or ridicule. * Education consists of ideas and challenges, increasingly sophisticated and complex. * Learning best occurs as people test new ideas against their own experiences and knowledge. that testing requires academic freedom. * Not operating in this manor will risk conformity.Students will not read controversial material in schools that students will not be challenged and participate in critical thinking. * The Center of the transaction * Basically were currently trained and we know what were doing. Professional Development and certification has fit us uphold ethics and values. * A professional teacher must be free to examine controversial issues openly in the classroom. * Teacher jobs must not be at risk because they explore controversial material or consider ideas out the mainstream.* We need individuality. * Academic Freedom and Teacher capacity the incumbency Process * Non Tenure Incompetent teachers do not deserve and should not receive that tautological protection they should be dismissed if a fair and evidential evaluation find them incompetent. * Teacher competency is a mix of knowledge, skill, and creative thinker. * Knowledge of the material. * Of the students in class * Professional skill in teaching. * Professional judgment. * low tenure law teachers cannot be fired without due process and legitimate cause.The tenured teacher who is jeopardize with firing has a right to know specific allegations, a fair hearing, and an evidentially based decision. * Obstacles for Academic Freedom * Religious schools sometimes fired teachers for anti-moralistic requirements, sin, not attending religious services, and not exhibiting sufficient religious enthusiasm. * At the beginning of the nineteenth century teachers were fired for not remaining single, avoiding drinking and smoking, dancing, political views, etc. * At the first half of the twentieth century, political restraint and censorship replaced religious and moralistic restrictions on teachers.* John Dewy and other scholars founded the American Association of University Professors in 1915 which recognized that even then all teachers, not just those in colleges, needed academic freedom. * Some states have tons of censorship attempts each year by parents, school boards, administrators and parents. * The internet * Scare tactics are set up to block nark to many good internet sites (our school, example). * Many teachers avoid significant topics to sterilize to the point of student boredom. * home(a) Coalition Against Censorship has been created.Position 2 For Teacher Responsibility * Teachers use classroom for political platforms (especially in colleges). * Power and Responsibility in Teachers * Teaching is among the most influential position in society. Teaching is abutting to parenting in its power to carry values and ideas from generation to generation. * The influence of teachers goes will beyond the classroom doors, school grounds, and school term teachers exert influence that can last for years and even lifetimes. Teachers ability to influence their students is a huge responsibility.* Parental Rights * If parents can be held accountable for their children, so should teachers. (Even though they dont) * Schools must give supportive social and family values among our youth. * Public school teachers ar e even more accountable than private ones to the community and to parents for what they teach and how. * Teacher Responsibilities to Parents * Teachers must remain sensitive to parent interests. * Teachers have responsibilities for providing a safe, healthy classroom environment, and assume protective moral ethical and legal duties.* Parents sometimes dont know whats going on in the classroom until the damage is already done. * Parents have the right to monitor. * PABBIS lets parents see various pieces of literature and provides evidence to help them make rational judgment about the material. * Internet Access is becoming a huge problem. * There exists a serious problem in Internet usage when websites continue inhumane, anti-American, racist, Antiauthority, sexual, antireligious or other inappropriate material that can be accessed at schools. * Teacher Responsibility to Children.* Children are vulnerable * Children look to teachers for direction. * Children are immature and unformed . Teachers must be careful. * Teacher Responsibility to Society * Society trusts teachers to develop the young into positive, productive citizens. * Teacher Responsibility to Their Profession. * Teachers can be the key to good education, or poor education * Teachers have the responsibility to recognize childrens needs and academic development. * Teacher Irresponsibility * Tenure covers poor teachers and socially dangerous teachers.* Sometimes teachers will start to threat a school with atheism, Satanism, sicalism, communism, and take other extreme positions after theyve been tenured. Deeming themselves as untouchable. * Tenure laws make it almost impossible to rid schools of poor teachers. * Academic Freedom of License * A license to teach is not a license to impose ones views on others. * Sometimes teachers who mind bend for years and teach in an unethical manor gets by because administration is afraid to welt them. * Tenure teacher firing is rare.* Tenure laws create burdensome requirements that save teacher jobs even when those teachers have demonstrated a lock of respect for parents, students, and community values. * We need to make it easier to fire teachers. * 18 states have modified tenure regulations the Education Commission of the States website shows current state approaches. Idaho has completely eliminated teacher tenure and other states are considering major reform. * Conclusion * Teachers deserve respect and appreciation for their contributions to society, decent salaries, and comfortable working conditions.