Reply #158: Teachers are NOT guaranteed that right. Not in class, they aren't. [View All]

[pnwmom]

Do you think they are guaranteed the right to try to persuade their students to vote Republican, for instance? Or to push the Bible on the "unchurched"? Or to use bigoted language in class? Of course not. They are there to teach a certain curriculum, not to advocate for their personal opinions.

The right to free speech doesn't give the teacher the right to assign any essay topic she chooses. For example, do you think a teacher should be able to assign the essay topic of how to rape another student? It wouldn't be pablum. The topic is certainly relevant to students. It affects a huge number of students (far more than are directly affected by terrorism) and it's even happened in schools. Maybe we should have all the students write an essay imagining who they would rape and where and how they would carry it out. :sarcasm:

Would this be a good exercise in critical thinking? In creative writing? In tension-release? NO!!!!!

I don't see how assigning the topic of planning rape would be any different than assigning the topic in the OP. And I'm not advocating censorship when I say that neither topic would be appropriate to assign to a bunch of 14 year olds in their first week of school. If ever.