Welcome back, Mr Bennish
Sun 12 Mar 2006Good News. There is hope for the future.
American Hero (No, World Hero) teacher Jay Bennish will be back at work Monday. He has been reinstated following an investigation by the district school board. (News report; Videos of the press conference including Jay Bennish and Cherry Creek Schools Superintendent Dr Monte Moses; Official Statement; more news with video) It has been determined that the 20-minute MP3 recording where he challenges his students with some controversial viewpoints was not representative of the rest of the 50-minute lesson or, indeed, the rest of the semester.
In questions after the press conference, Dr Moses particularly noted the intelligent and thoughtful representations by a large group of Mr Bennish’s students.
Vehement Attacks
When Mr Bennish was first suspended, (Background and my earlier opinion…) I was truly shocked and frightened by the vehemence of the attacks on Mr Bennish. There were hundreds of blog posts with thousands of negative comments. Negative to positive responses ran at about 20 in 1.
When Mr Bennish’s parents were attacked, I couldn’t sit back.  Typical example:Debbie Schlussel. Just look at the language used in her post, Sob Story on Hate-America Teacher Bennish, While Student Patriot Allen Under Attack. Scroll down to where I joined in the discussion. Have a look at what “Red Ryder” had to say. (Me, a Leftie?) At least he didn’t hide behind a blank profile page.
I also added my $0.02 to a few other blogs. Interestingly, my trackbacks didn’t get past Michelle Malkin’s censors.
IÂ have also received some ugly e-mails, but I met some lovely people as well.
Hope for the future
Now that American students are allowed to think critically about various viewpoints, there is hope that this process will seep into the rest of American life. Perhaps America can then resume its place as a world leader, able to negotiate and resolve conflict.
Hopefully there are many more Jay Bennishs out there and their past students are now ready to vote.
Finally, I couldn’t pass this one up:
In Australia we have compulsory voting. On The Glass House last week, a visiting American comedian said to his Australian audience “What’s with your voting system? If you don’t vote, you get fined.” Australian Dave Hughes quickly replied “Well, if you don’t vote, you get George Bush!”
March 15th, 2006 at 4:54
I did like that last paragraph. And thanks for the compliment.
After dealing with Red Ryder as maturely, calmly, and intelligently as you did, you deserve to be complimented right back.
You were right on the nose about insular, close-minded America, as Red Ryder amply demonstrated.
My latest posts were in reaction to a series of Pew Research polls which show Republicans report to being happier than Democrats.
My theory is that people who can successfully delude themselves will be happier than those who see reality. If I always blamed others for my woes (9/11, world dissatisfaction) and refused to consider facts which contradicted my happy, rosy picture of myself (Red Ryder), I’d be a lot happier, too.
Also, a last note on Bennish. He may be back in class, but there’s an air of sadness about it. And I blogged about the nature of American education, as well. It was designed to create docile drones.