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Nov. 20, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: How to make every second of your life come first
Caroline B. Glick: Whither American Jewry
Nov. 19, 2009
Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Please Listen to this Godcast (5 minutes)
Jonathan Tobin: ADL Crosses the Line with Report Bashing Obama Critics
Nov. 18, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: What Judaism has to say about the secret of the Mona Lisa's smile
JWisdom.com: The (Jewish) Dating Game with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
Nov. 17, 2009
Steven Emerson: How Does the 4th Amendment Impact Terror Finance Investigations?
JWisdom.com: If Frank Sinatra married Edith Piaf with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein (2 minutes) Life lessons from what would be regarded as the most inappropriate lyrics ever sung
Nov. 16, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : When borrowing is stealing
JWisdom.com: Deconstructing faith with Rabbi Warren Goldstein (9 minutes)
Nov. 13, 2009
JWisdom.com Sarah's subjective reality with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 6 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Obama's failure, Netanyahu's opportunity
Nov. 12, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet By Marialisa Calta : A sweet sweet potato treat
JWisdom.com Does God get tired? with Rabbi Harvey Belovski ( 5 minutes)
Nov. 11, 2009
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Jews and money: When anti-Semitism isn't
JWisdom.com Marriages are not made in Heaven with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (VERY fast 15 minutes)
Nov. 10, 2009
Michael Doyle: Author of book exposing CAIR ordered to remove supporting documents from Web
JWisdom.com If the creation so loudly shouts the existence of the Creator, why aren't more people believers? with Rabbi Naftali Brawer (9 minutes)
Nov. 9, 2009
Mark Steyn: Shooter exposes hole in U.S. terror strategy
JWisdom.com It's never too late to have a happy childhood with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review March 7, 2006 / 7 Adar, 5766

An MP3 player for the teacher

By Debra J. Saunders

Debra J. Saunders
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Colorado high-school sophomore Sean Allen couldn't convince his father that his geography teacher was as over-the-top as he contended. So Allen taped one of his teacher's rants on his MP3 player. Too bad for Jay Bennish: His 20-minute lecture ended up on talk radio.


As aired on Mike Rosen's show, Bennish said Bush talks like Hitler: "I'm not saying that Bush and Hitler are exactly the same," but that the two share "eerie similarities." Peruvians and Iranians arguably have "a right to bomb North Carolina" because the state grows tobacco. On Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida operatives were "attacking legitimate targets, people who have blood on their hands, as far as they're concerned." Oh, and capitalism violates "human rights."


The Cherry Creek School District placed Bennish on paid administrative leave as it investigates whether the teacher failed to provide a balanced look at the issues. They won't find balance. I listened to the rant, and what I heard was a semi-educated self-impressed petty tyrant using the classroom as a soapbox, secure in the knowledge that a bunch of teenagers couldn't out-argue him. Still, I hope the district allows Bennish to return to the classroom.


(District spokesperson Tustin Amole expects an announcement on Bennish's fate today or Wednesday.) The school district policy sounds reasonable. The school board recognizes, "Each teacher has the right and the obligation to teach about controversial issues." The district also notes the teacher's obligation to present various views on issues. And, "Although he has the right to express his own viewpoints, he does not have the right to indoctrinate students to his views."


The problem is, there is no good way to enforce that policy. The line between passionate argument and indoctrination is a thin divide. When I was a kid, some of my best teachers were highly opinionated. They didn't necessarily provide balance when they talked about literature or history, but they did provide passion, and that fired up their students.


In an age when many teens mainly are absorbed with going to the mall and text messaging, it's better to have a teacher who instills passion — Amole tells me Bennish is a "passionate" teacher — than a teacher who provokes yawns. Do I see this episode as a typical educrat romp — with a liberal teacher forcing his ideology down the throats of students, willing or not? Yes, but any rule used to silence Bennish can and will be used against another teacher who is actually informative. It can and will be used against conservative teachers.


So let Bennish back in the classroom. Even Allen's parents don't want to see the teacher fired. They want the district to admonish Bennish, and they want Bennish to learn a lesson.


Perhaps in time, Bennish will grow into a teacher who appreciates geography — and social studies, which he also teaches — to the extent that he can get excited about topics, even if they don't readily pass through his heavy filter of America-hating.


In the meantime, he's likely to educate a small army of future conservatives. A few years ago, I heard from a teacher whose class was reading Sophocles' "Antigone." He had assigned his students to write about how the play's characters — and my columns — dealt in "false dichotomies."


I was enraged. First, my column is not in the league of Sophocles. More important to me: It was clear this teacher did not appreciate or understand a jewel of Western literature — if he did, he would have stuck to the play. False dichotomies? Please. That's academese for: I don't understand it.


Well, at least it beats being compared to Hitler.

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© 2006, Creators Syndicate

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