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October 05, 2004

Teacher canned for owning stuffed elephant

There's lots of spin and opinion in many news outlets and blogs about this issue, so let me lay it out as factually as possible:

  1. Ms. Pillai-Diaz has been teaching for 5 years and is also known to be a supporter of the Republican party.

  2. She created a patriotic display for her classroom which included the Declaration of Independence and pictures of American Presidents, including the sitting president, George W. Bush.

  3. Parents complained and then school officials confronted Ms. Pillai-Diaz, claiming her display was "partisan" because she refused to add a picture of a man who is not and never was the President of the United States to her display of the "Presidents of the United States."

Now, if you can, set aside your partisan leanings for a moment and consider this. Set aside, for just a moment, all the hearsay and contentious accusations that claim this teacher was using her classroom as a platform. Now then: when did it become controversial to display pictures of current and past Presidents of the United States without also including a picture of everyone else who wants or wanted to be president?

Sure, this is an election year, and emotions are running high. It's likely that Ms. Pillai-Diaz believes strongly in her candidate, just like many of the parents obviously believe strongly in theirs. And I would encourage everyone who plans to vote for George W. Bush or John F. Kerry to get out and vote - it's your right, privilege, and sacred duty as a citizen of the USA to cast your ballot on November 2.

But can you honestly say, in this personal moment of non-partisanship, that we must include a picture of every candidate for the presidency in every display of current and past presidents? Does this really, deep down in your gut, make any sense?

OK, back to the full issue at hand. If Ms. Pillai-Diaz really did tell any of her students they should be "ashamed to be a Democrat," or in any other way attempt to coerce the students to her political views, then she should be called to task for it. I would hope that the educational crisis in this nation - especially the lack of good teachers that are passionate about their work and their students - would be considered before any rash actions are taken regarding her employment. Remembering my own days in school, how frightened the teachers were to even acknowledge that there were partisan sides to most issues, I hate to think what influence this is going to have on classrooms around the nation.

Is this the kind of tolerance and freedom we want to be building in this nation? Where a stuffed elephant is proof of a teacher's "hate and anger"? Where a picture of the President and his wife and dog can get a teacher fired? I sincerely hope not...

Posted by david at October 5, 2004 09:46 AM

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