Monday, August 28, 2006

In Russia, flags hang you!

A Colorado middle school geography teacher was suspended for displaying flags from other countries.

I repeat. A geography teacher. For putting up flags (the horror!) from other countries.

Eric Hamlin said the flags were part of a world geography lesson plan at Carmody Middle School and refused to take them down. The school's principal escorted Hamlin out of class Wednesday morning after he refused to remove the flags of China and Mexico.

The school district placed him on administrative leave for insubordination, citing a Colorado law that makes it illegal to display foreign flags permanently in schools.

"Under state law, foreign flags can only be in the classroom because it's tied to the curriculum. And the principal looked at the curriculum, talked to the teacher, and found that there was really no curriculum coming up in the next few weeks that supported those flags being in the classroom," said Jeffco Public Schools spokeswoman Lynn Setzer.

But Hamlin said although his curriculum may not speak specifically about those flags, they are used as reference tools for world geography.

"It's much along the lines of a science teacher who puts up a map of the solar system. They may not spend every day and every lesson talking about Mars, but they want the students to see that and to see the patterns of the planets and the order, and the students will observe that and absorb that learning visually," Hamlin said.


Well, I'm off. I've got to anonymously inform the school board that the math teacher actually has the number of The Beast displayed right there in plain sight on his "Numbers from 1 to 1,000" poster. I mean really, someone has to think of the children.
(via Neatorama)

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1 comment:

donk.usa said...

And they wonder why we lag so much in geography. The principal must have been looking for any reason to get the teacher out, or it could have been a really slow day. Pettyness and the politics of teaching has served to turnoff many young professionals from entering the teaching profession.