Bad Teaching Stops Here

Bill O'Reilly's December 19th Talking Points Memo

Bad teaching is a bad thing. No question about that. Of course, what Bill O'Reilly is here to examine is how bad teachers are those teachers who teach anti-religious or anti-republican messages. Now let me begin by saying that I actually agree with Mr. O'Reilly about Dr. James Corbett who clearly has gone from teaching to preaching in his lectures. But there's a slippery slope here that needs to be avoided at all costs. For instance, is teaching the theory of evolution anti-religious? Is calling Richard Nixon a crook anti-republican? Is calling the Iraq war a mistake anti-American? Sure, you've got Dr. Corbett saying "How do you get the peasants to oppose something that is in their best interest? Religion." But is that really anti-religion or is it more anti-manipulation of religion? The problem here is simply that you can't be sure where to stop. I think Americans as a people have to trust that their children will be exposed to enough teachers that one particularly opinionated teacher doesn't overwhelm them. And the school board has to make the decision as to whether that teacher is teaching all the items in the curriculum successfully. I know I had a government class with a teacher who was an outright conservative. Her occasional shots at democrats didn't interfere with my ability to make my own choices or learn what needed to be learned, though.

I think Mr. O'Reilly makes a conclusion jump when he suggests that teachers "intimidate students into believing what they believe." While Dr. Corbett made some very opinionated statements about conservatives, I don't see any evidence of intimidation. Apparently Mr. O'Reilly has decided that this teacher is bullying students into succumbing to his beliefs. That to me is crazy. It's almost as if O'Reilly believes that this one person is the only person to which these children listen. Those students have at least three other teachers with which to listen. Those students have parents with which to listen. Those students have Mr. O'Reilly with which to listen. And an hour a day with Mr. O'Reilly could be considered as anti-liberal as that teacher is considered anti-conservative.

I understand, of course, that the issue here concerns government employees. I fully agree that government employees should not be imposing religious or anti-religious and conservative or anti-conservative views on their students. Unfortunately this is a very subjective area and I tend to lean more towards the side of leniency than censorship. Teaching the crusades, for example. Yes, there were Christians who went up against Muslims. Should this not be taught because it makes Christians look barbaric? The Theory of Evolution is another example. Should this not be taught because it violates some religions' version of creation? The Great Depression and FDR's New Deal. Should those not be taught because they have a pro-democrat / anti-republican slant? I think people need to use common sense and deal rationally with these issues. If a parent has an issue with a teacher, request that their student be moved to another class. If the teacher is that much of a problem, the requests will add up and the principal will see something is awry.

Finally, I will share an experience I had regarding religion in school. It was my senior year at high school and I was tasked with writing a literary criticism on "The Book of Job" from The Bible. My conclusion was basically that God is evil for allowing all the bad things to happen to Job. However, in my essay I wrote that Satan, in "The Book of Job", was God's advisor. My teacher not only gave me a failing grade on my paper, but also took it upon herself to write "not in my Bible" in the margin. Clearly an example of a teacher losing sight of what she was teaching for religious reasons. She was a good teacher otherwise, though. Should a single opinion given in the classroom force a teacher out? Like I said before, if parents have an issue with a teacher giving an opinion in class there are better ways to deal with it. Request your child be moved to a different class if a private conference with the teacher is not sufficient. Whatever you do, though, don't send a letter to Bill O'Reilly so he can start a teacher witch hunt. I think Senator McCarthy has shown us that is not the way.

And that's "The CounterPoints Memo."