Who’s Your Teacher?

I have so much work to do,  but I feel that this is worth addressing.  Several issues at school today really trouble me; they make me nauseous.

IGNORANCE, BIGOTRY

It disturbs me to great ends when a teacher is a racist, a bigot, or an ignorant person.  I find ignorance to be unacceptable when we have access to the internet and millions of references and news outlets.  I find ignorance to be unacceptable when teachers need to teach their students about our country and our government.

It scares me when teachers perpetaute a misconception or untruth about a presidential candidate.  There are teachers in my school who will not vote for Obama because he is a Muslim or he is a terrorist.  I am an Obama supporter, and if you choose to vote for McCain because you don’t agree with Obama’s positions or policies, then by all means.  However, to say that you can’t vote for someone because he is Muslim is just unacceptable. Besides the point that Obama has been raised a Christian his whole life, who cares what his religion is?  Have we made so much “progress” as a country that we’ve moved from blatant racism to blatant bigotry?  Does it matter what religion any politician is?  What happened to the separation of State and Church?  What if the Muslim Americans WANT a Muslim president? What if Jewish Americans want a Jewish president?  WHO CARES?!  Why don’t we vote for someone who is competent, whose political ideals correspond with ours?  Americans, the politicians, people, and media, condemn the people of the Middle East for their religious zealots.  How different are Americans who cannot vote for someone because his/her religion is not their own religion.

One teacher went on to comment that should Obama become president, he will be assassinated.  Welcome to the United States of America, where we have our own religious fanatics.  We are the land of many closed-minded individuals who are intolerant of people who may be seen (inaccurrately) as different.

JUST MATH

There are teachers in my school who are as mature and as intelligent as the first graders that they teach.  One of these teachers exclaimed, “I just don’t understand [X] grade’s math!” when she is teaching X grade.  #1 – Someone tell her to shut her mouth and don’t say things like that in public.  #2- Where are the watchdogs from NCLB?  Why is this teacher allowed to teach math in X grade if she doesn’t understand it?  There is a lot of damage that one teacher can do to one student by not teaching him/her properly, much less a whole class.  Now imagine that this teacher loops with her class, that means spends 2 years (not)teaching math to the same students… the kids are now 2 years behind every one else.  Now, imagine a worse scenario where this teacher is allowed to remain in the classroom for the duration of her career… it is a terrifying thought that she is teaching thousands of students throughout her career.  So why is this teacher still at the school, in the classroom, (not)teaching math?  Like everything in education, it’s all politics.