Folks,
The Maine situation continues to evolve - just not in the direction of clarity. Trent Telenko has a post up with his latest thoughts, and the first section includes information that the out-of-state incidents Trent reported were mistakes on his part. Trent has stood up without any prompting, corrected the mistakes in public, and apologized. As he should.
Here's where I'm going with this next:
Later today, I'm going to bring my research together concerning the story in Maine itself, and lay out who is saying what, what my take is, and what I'm doing to try and bring more clarity to this story.
I'm also going to run a blog article that deals with the 2nd part of Trent's post. There were a number of elements in there that I'm about to take fairly strong exception to.
For our readers, let me explain how things work here:
Winds of Change.NET is a team blog. I made that change because I believed it would create a better place for you to visit, and in my view it has. In spades. I've set the blog's focus. My tone and example are, I trust, part of what gives Winds of Change.NET its spirit and energy.
Liberty. Discovery. Humanity. Victory. That's the banner I've raised here, and that's what I'm sticking to. Gatekeeper? Censor? That's not what I signed on for. I will convey concerns in advance if I can, but each blogger here is free. Free to post their own views. Free, also, to take full responsibility for those views, and how their writings are perceived.
A good team is prepared to debate each other and subject each others' posts to scrutiny - even fierce scrutiny - in the service of mutual discovery, humanity and victory. If I say something my colleagues think is stupid, I expect the same criticism they'd mete out to any other blogger. I would, in fact, be disappointed in them if I received anything less.
Freedom is productive. Freedom is liberating. Freedom is a gift to the spirit. What freedom isn't, is safe. Not out there, and not in here.
More to come...
In order to keep things simple, I shall simply share my email to Lt. Col. Dodd, USMC. I found out about this problem in an article by him which I found in a Washington Times online article, while surfing Yahoo! news.
Thusly:
Lt. Colonel Dodd:
I'm a teacher in the public school system in Philadelphia. I'm also the son of a disabled veteran who served in the US Navy, WW2 and Occupation of Japan, then the USCG (Korea and Viet Nam eras). Therefore, while my politics and world view are different from my father's, I am a deep respecter of military veterans.
I'm generally left of center, do not believe in the war with Iraq and disapprove deeply of George W. Bush as a leader. However, I do believe that if any educator is taking their politics out on children they have no business in the classroom, even if their politics are similar to mine. The classroom is a place for objectivity and maturity. Any teacher who does not posess these faculties has no business holding a certificate of any sort, anywhere.
The only thing I ask is that the true verbage of any incident be discovered, masticated by third parties and then that a determination of abuse be made. It's possible with young people, particularly teens on an emotional edge (which they generally are), that misinterpretations can be made, sometimes deliberately. I was deliberately misnomered a racist today by my African American students, for example, because I merely mentioned an item of clothing found fashionable by some but not by all. Keep in mind that teaching is a minefield in some respects.
I've said my piece. Please consider integrating it into your approach to this problem.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
I am -
John H. Furnish
Teacher of English
Philadelphia, PA.