Teach history, not lies.

MarchingDuck · **Posted:** Thu May 31, 2007 4:44 pm

Fiddelysquat wrote:

In high school, I had this phenomenal 20th Century History teacher. He was so amazing that NOBODY skipped his class. People would come in from lunch and study hall to listen to his lectures. He was funny, engaging, and really taught his students history. His class was so amazing that kids lined up outside the guidance office to sign up for it.

Anyway, he showed some disturbing images. You know, Holocaust images, pictures of the atomic bomb blast, etc. At the beginning of the semester he sent permission slips home to parents telling them this. Each time he was about to show a disturbing image he told students they could shut their eyes or step outside without penalty.

Anyway, a few weeks back, he showed images from the Charles Manson murders. Students were, of course, given the option to leave or look away. Apparently some girl got all offended told her mommy and daddy about it. Mommy and daddy responded very logically. They filed an "anonymous" lawsuit against the school district, took a bunch of things out of context, and are trying to make my old history teacher seem like some evil pervert who is corrupting the students. They obviously didn't care much about anonymity, though. They made all these pamphlets about how "evil" he is and distributed them at their church and went door to door. Big surprise that people figured out it was them.

Last weekend, around 75 current and former students and some parents had a rally supporting him right outside the school. There's been a huge outcry from all his students and their parents, who maintain that he's a phenomenal teacher and that the case is idiotic.

You know, it really enrages me how sue-happy and PC our society has become. Horrible things happened in history. What, is he supposed to sugar coat it? That girl KNEW what that class was all about and she signed up for it. She never even talked to him about her problems or transferred out, instead having her nutty parents sue the school district, because apparently, people like them deserve my tax dollars.

I'm just so aggravated over this. What is WRONG with people?!

fids, at a history major this upsets me. in my field you HAVE to see these images. you have to onestand what man is capeable of and what we have done to our own kind. its horrible, but think of what it was like for the people who lived it.

I have a whole long rant to go along with this...but I'll spare you all. But it does make me very angry.

Fiddelysquat · **Posts:** 2476 **Joined:** Mon May 31, 2004 9:18 pm

He never excluded anything important just because it wasn't horribly exciting. He just found ways to teach it to make it exciting.

MarchingDuck · **Posted:** Thu May 31, 2007 6:15 pm

Fiddelysquat wrote:

He never excluded anything important just because it wasn't horribly exciting. He just found ways to teach it to make it exciting.

those are the good kinds of teachers that inspire. I just dont like the parents who think children should be shielded from the world when these are real things that did happen and we should learn from mistakes to make the future a better place.

Keakealani · **Posted:** Thu May 31, 2007 7:16 pm

For AP US History, I had to write an op-ed piece covering the effects of the Civil Rights movements in the c. 1960s. I chose to write my piece about the evils of "political correctness" and how while civil rights legislation did some fantastic things for minorities and victims of hate, the spirit got out of control and also caused people to be incredibly oversensitive and sue-happy.

Yesterday my aunt (who is a judge) was talking about a case she saw where this woman denied rental to a black man, because she lived in the next unit, and he plays the piano, so she didn't want him to be playing the piano in case it was too loud for her and her family. But apparently this man sued her because he felt that she was discriminating him based on race. My aunt didn't preside, anyway...but the man won. I think, honestly, that besides the fact that the woman probably had a bad lawyer, it's pretty stupid that someone would automatically call "racism" for a case like that.

Anyway, I really agree with your mentality that the girl's decision was the wrong one - but I must say I'm not at all surprised. More and more, now, people are feeling "entitled" to things like not being offended, or being treated totally equally (even if merit says otherwise) or whatever.

Fiddelysquat · **Posts:** 2476 **Joined:** Mon May 31, 2004 9:18 pm

Keakealani wrote:

For AP US History, I had to write an op-ed piece covering the effects of the Civil Rights movements in the c. 1960s. I chose to write my piece about the evils of "political correctness" and how while civil rights legislation did some fantastic things for minorities and victims of hate, the spirit got out of control and also caused people to be incredibly oversensitive and sue-happy.

Yesterday my aunt (who is a judge) was talking about a case she saw where this woman denied rental to a black man, because she lived in the next unit, and he plays the piano, so she didn't want him to be playing the piano in case it was too loud for her and her family. But apparently this man sued her because he felt that she was discriminating him based on race. My aunt didn't preside, anyway...but the man won. I think, honestly, that besides the fact that the woman probably had a bad lawyer, it's pretty stupid that someone would automatically call "racism" for a case like that.

Anyway, I really agree with your mentality that the girl's decision was the wrong one - but I must say I'm not at all surprised. More and more, now, people are feeling "entitled" to things like not being offended, or being treated totally equally (even if merit says otherwise) or whatever.

That's so ridiculous I don't even know where to start. I'm also very against the overabundance of PC-ness in our society.

Keakealani · **Posted:** Fri Jun 01, 2007 7:58 pm

Yeah, I was totally appalled when I heard that story...even more so that the case wasn't thrown out immediately.

I live my life, in part, by the Avenue Q song "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist" - I think it has a really great mentality, which is that instead of being oversensitive, we should recognize that all of us have our prejudices and preconceived notions, but it's not really harmful and it happens to everyone.

Shoyru_Lover · **Posted:** Sun Jun 10, 2007 12:32 pm

I really like that song ahaha. My professor at my university lent me a copy of Avenue Q and I had to pull over in the car cause I was laughing so much listening to the songs.

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