Jay Bennish is one of many "examples" to be made
| By Richard Myers - Mar 4th, 2006 at 1:34 am EST |
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Categories: Equality / Civil Rights, Civil Liberties / Privacy, Peace & Social Justice, Education
Categories: Equality / Civil Rights, Civil Liberties / Privacy, Peace & Social Justice, Education
A tenth grade teacher dreams of young citizens thinking for themselves. He challenges with provocative examples, yet asks them to form their own opinions.
A student tapes twenty minutes of a lecture, a surreptitious gift to rightwing ideologues. Talk radio assassins target the teacher's character, calling in the white phosphorous on cherry-picked expressions. Brownshirts of the blogosphere explode with shrill indignation, spreading furor against a point of view about the nation, about their leader, that differs from their own. They slam the teacher as a "brainwasher," a "dumbass," an "idiot," a "moonbat," a "communist."
The teacher is suspended, and in danger of expulsion. Where, one might inquire, is freedom of speech?
The right wing doesn't tolerate questions that probe practices of the power elite. Or more precisely, the right wing won't allow teachers to imagine they have the freedom to make their students think, because there's a chance such thinking might result in another free-thinking 'sixties. The global aspirations of neocons are certainly at risk if youth begin to question. But with the soul of the nation at stake, some of the flak comes from self-described Democrats like Craig Silverman, a crass opportunist who is compared to a pit bull in his radio station's publicity.
What we witness today isn't a quiet, sincere effort to banish aberrant ideologues from the classroom. It is a cacophonous, very public crusade calculated to intimidate the nation's teachers into accepting a mono-political paradigm: acquiescence to a conservative jingoist philosophy is the only legitimate classroom option.
The scope of the right wing agenda is trumpeted by the likes of David Horowitz, the president of Students for Academic Freedom who has just declared, "There are 50,000 professors ... [who] identify with the terrorists." Such statements do not suggest an agenda of mere housecleaning. These are the polemics of McCarthyism ascendant, an effort to frighten the nation into seeing terrorists (and their enablers) in every closet and under every bed. Jay Bennish is just the latest "enemy," and we can be assured there will be more. Such pressures across the country are taking a toll.
A UCLA alumni group pays students to spy on liberal professors. Professor David Graeber is getting fired, probably for his anarchist beliefs. Professor Ward Churchill is under fire. DeVry University Professor Meg Spohn was fired for reasons not explained, but this writer suspects it involved imagining Bush as puppet, Cheney as puppeteer in her personal blog while working for a corporate university that donated to the Bush campaign.
So what are the issues the right wingers decry? Overland High School instructor Jay Bennish sees some similarities between President Bush and Adolf Hitler.
My response: who doesn't?
Both sent tanks across borders in questionable attacks. Both offered public justifications that weren't true. Both sanctioned torture and called it something else. Both created bureaucracies to monitor citizens, and presided over the kidnapping and "rendition" of adversaries. Both imposed an ideology at the point of a gun. And comparing the two leaders appears to be a cottage industry.
Blogger Scottage observes that Bennish is:
News Hounds discovers similar political statements between Bush and Hitler, and offers a pick your invader quiz-- can you tell which attacker is which?
Janie of News Hounds then acknowledges a flaw in the test,
So now you know which is which without even following the links.
So if all these statements seem roughly equivalent, should Bennish be punished for telling the truth?
Australian Mike Fitzsimon suggests that attacks on Bennish are emblematic of what's wrong with America:
Fitzsimon concludes,
Michael D. Yates has written a good overview of the Jay Bennish story at Monthly Review. But this situation calls not just for awareness, but for action.
What can you do to support Jay Bennish and free speech?
The easiest step is voting in this online poll:
blogs.rockymountainnews.com/denver/rockytalklive/
Yates also provides contact information:
Please also send a couple more emails:
But that's just putting yourself on record. You want to also support the Colorado ACLU:
www.aclu-co.org
But maybe there's a more direct solution to free speech and democracy in our nation's schools. An organization from the era of CoIntelPro may lead the way: Students for a Democratic Society has made a sudden, dramatic return.
Students? What kind of a society would you like to build?
A student tapes twenty minutes of a lecture, a surreptitious gift to rightwing ideologues. Talk radio assassins target the teacher's character, calling in the white phosphorous on cherry-picked expressions. Brownshirts of the blogosphere explode with shrill indignation, spreading furor against a point of view about the nation, about their leader, that differs from their own. They slam the teacher as a "brainwasher," a "dumbass," an "idiot," a "moonbat," a "communist."
The teacher is suspended, and in danger of expulsion. Where, one might inquire, is freedom of speech?
The right wing doesn't tolerate questions that probe practices of the power elite. Or more precisely, the right wing won't allow teachers to imagine they have the freedom to make their students think, because there's a chance such thinking might result in another free-thinking 'sixties. The global aspirations of neocons are certainly at risk if youth begin to question. But with the soul of the nation at stake, some of the flak comes from self-described Democrats like Craig Silverman, a crass opportunist who is compared to a pit bull in his radio station's publicity.
What we witness today isn't a quiet, sincere effort to banish aberrant ideologues from the classroom. It is a cacophonous, very public crusade calculated to intimidate the nation's teachers into accepting a mono-political paradigm: acquiescence to a conservative jingoist philosophy is the only legitimate classroom option.
The scope of the right wing agenda is trumpeted by the likes of David Horowitz, the president of Students for Academic Freedom who has just declared, "There are 50,000 professors ... [who] identify with the terrorists." Such statements do not suggest an agenda of mere housecleaning. These are the polemics of McCarthyism ascendant, an effort to frighten the nation into seeing terrorists (and their enablers) in every closet and under every bed. Jay Bennish is just the latest "enemy," and we can be assured there will be more. Such pressures across the country are taking a toll.
A UCLA alumni group pays students to spy on liberal professors. Professor David Graeber is getting fired, probably for his anarchist beliefs. Professor Ward Churchill is under fire. DeVry University Professor Meg Spohn was fired for reasons not explained, but this writer suspects it involved imagining Bush as puppet, Cheney as puppeteer in her personal blog while working for a corporate university that donated to the Bush campaign.
So what are the issues the right wingers decry? Overland High School instructor Jay Bennish sees some similarities between President Bush and Adolf Hitler.
My response: who doesn't?
Both sent tanks across borders in questionable attacks. Both offered public justifications that weren't true. Both sanctioned torture and called it something else. Both created bureaucracies to monitor citizens, and presided over the kidnapping and "rendition" of adversaries. Both imposed an ideology at the point of a gun. And comparing the two leaders appears to be a cottage industry.
Blogger Scottage observes that Bennish is:
...quick to point out that Bush is not like Hitler. It's more about the messages that each sends to the population. "I'm not saying Bush and Hitler are exactly the same, obviously they're not. OK? But there are some eerie similarities to the tones that they use," says Bennish.
He also says a few times that he is not asking for the students to accept Bennish's views, but that he is really looking to challenge them, and get them thinking about what is really occurring in the world today.
"I'm not in anyway implying that you should agree with me, I don't even know if I'm necessarily taking a position. But what I'm trying to get you to do is to think about these issues more in depth and not to just take things from the surface."
News Hounds discovers similar political statements between Bush and Hitler, and offers a pick your invader quiz-- can you tell which attacker is which?
1.) "Strength lies not in defence but in attack"
"My attitude is you take pre-emptive action in order to protect the _____ people, that you act in order to make this country secure."
2) "By the skillful and sustained use of propaganda, one can make a people see even heaven as hell or an extremely wretched life as paradise"
"See, in my line of work, you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in...to kind of catapult the propaganda."
3) "God told me to strike at _____ and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at _____, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the ______. If you help me I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them."
"I believe today that my conduct is in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator."
Janie of News Hounds then acknowledges a flaw in the test,
Oh wait, there is a big difference. One speaks eloquently, while the other doesn't have a firm grasp on his own language!
So now you know which is which without even following the links.
So if all these statements seem roughly equivalent, should Bennish be punished for telling the truth?
Australian Mike Fitzsimon suggests that attacks on Bennish are emblematic of what's wrong with America:
It appears to me that many Americans are so intent on shooting this messenger, that they have missed his message entirely. Until students can think critically about other opinions, based on other sets of values, they are condemned to never being able to understand, negotiate or resolve conflict. The US government now finds itself in this position. It is unable to negotiate or resolve conflict.
I also fear the damage being done by Mr Bennish's detractors to America's reputation overseas. I say to my American friends, "Guys, your government is leading us all up a dark alley. Stop and look around before we all end up in a new Dark Ages."
Fitzsimon concludes,
I pray that more American Heroes like Jay Bennish shine their beacons in the darkness.
Michael D. Yates has written a good overview of the Jay Bennish story at Monthly Review. But this situation calls not just for awareness, but for action.
What can you do to support Jay Bennish and free speech?
The easiest step is voting in this online poll:
blogs.rockymountainnews.com/denver/rockytalklive/
Yates also provides contact information:
Cherry Creek Schools
4700 South Yosemite Street
Greenwood Village, Colorado 80111
Phone: 303-773-1184 Fax: 303-773-9884
Dr. Monte Moses, Superintendent
Phone: 720-554-4213
Email: rmcintire@cherrycreekschools.org
Please also send a couple more emails:
Michelle Ancell, spokeswoman for the Cherry Creek School District
ancellsrus@yahoo.com
and
Tustin Amole, Cherry Creek School District Public Information Officer
tamole@cherrycreekschools.org
But that's just putting yourself on record. You want to also support the Colorado ACLU:
www.aclu-co.org
But maybe there's a more direct solution to free speech and democracy in our nation's schools. An organization from the era of CoIntelPro may lead the way: Students for a Democratic Society has made a sudden, dramatic return.
Students? What kind of a society would you like to build?
Comments are closed for this post.
It's a terrible thing when a student prefers to be taught only the subject matter in which he agrees, and rejects any challenge to his very small and easily threatened world view.
The big difference is that Sean stated he did not want Jay Bennish fired...Bennish has not come out and said that those children he programed to hate America and Israel should not attack Sean Allen...
...I thought Jay Bennish wanted his students to "Challenge" him. When the challenge surfaced...Bennish does not defend Sean's right to express HIS freedom of speech.
It seems that Bennish is creating his own "Brown Shirts" to beat up people who disagree with his ideas he rams down their throats.
Why doesn't Bennish teach his students NOT TO BE VIOLENT? To let others express their own dissent or is Bennish's rants the only dissent he condones?
Allen stated he didn't want Bennish fired...where is Bennish to say that Allen should not be violently attacked...or his that how "Marxists" take care of those who question them. I grew up in Hungry and knew of TRUE Communism and that is how Marxists treated people...like "Brown Shirts" and bullies.
You people don't even know what true repression is. Try living under Marxist Communism. I did.
I remember that only the rich people's children were ardent Marxists. They became Marxists out of guilt and stupidity. The common folk were always trampled on by the Communist elite.
THAT WAS TRUE REPRESSION.
The common folk are often trampled by the elites, whether Communist or other. Take a look at the day laborers who sweat each day of their lives in Denver, frequently faced with the likelihood that their employer of the day will rip them off-- when they are lucky enough to find work. Then look around to people like Carly Fiorina, ex-CEO of Hewlett Packard, who received 42 million dollars in exit pay for failing.
Perhaps you don't notice the difference between elites and common folk in the U.S., but i do.
richard myers
We all know that Jay Bennish was making a political statement. You can hide behind freedom of speech, but we all know he was teaching his opinion not critical thinking. If he was REALLY teaching critical thinking he would have just stuck to the facts. Every time someone says something really stupid on the left, all the left leaning folks cry the freedom of speech whine. Our teachers are not there to teach opinions just reading writing and arithmetic. PArents teach values. You can teach evelotion but you can impart your political opinion on 12 year kids and call it critical thinking. Come give me a break. I didn't fall off the turnip truck just now. Quite whine and tell Jay to mind his manners and teach geography not moonbat 101.
Surveys have shown that many adolescents believe that high school is boring and has no meaningful connection to their lives outside of school. Jay Bennish has forced his students to think and make a stand on an issue. The subject matter is debated in the press daily and he has only challenged students to think outside the box. By tackling current controversial issues he has asked students to question attitudes, values and beliefs that are too often accepted as the status quo.
Matthew Lipman, an advocate for promoting student thinking, states, “…children hunger for meaning, and get turned off by education when it ceases to be meaningful to them.”
I believe the students of Jay Bennish have been offered a chance to listen and think about challenging and changing viewpoints within a safe environment. The students at Overland High School who went on strike feel strongly about the rights of their teacher and any democratic thinker can only applaud their stance. I feel that teachers like Jay Bennish effectively engage students by questioning reasons, posing alternative views, promote meaningful classroom dialogue, stimulate curiosity and strengthen student capacity to appraise and respond to values. Some schools encourage students to be uncritical consumers of information. Some parents impose their own ideas and values without question. I would rather develop students who can think for themselves. I feel that Jay Bennish was trying to make his students think- no matter how political the subject matter. The same issues are being debated by thinking adults around the globe. Don’t our children deserve teachers who make them think? Or do we stifle discussion and get rid of the teacher?
Taking money from a system he clearly hates.
At what point do conservatives stop trying to act as if the wool is being pulled over their eyes? Disagreement comes in all shapes and sizes. People's opinions are part of who they are.
The problem for conservatives is they want to vett all that is said prior to it being said, and be able to control people's opinions of what's been said once its said. You cant control what people say or what people think.
The difference between what Sean did and what Mr. Bennish did is that Sean deliberately attempted to destroy Mr. Bennish's livelihood. Mr. Bennish offered an analysis of the world to a 16 yr old.
For instance, it is hard to get a letter published in the university newspaper, or local newspaper, if it doesn't have a liberal tone to it.
Professors, in a large lecture hall, who teach classes that have nothing to do with politics will spend a minute or two at the beginning of classes espousing their own views, or criticizing Bush.
I see some liberal inddoctrinating going on in my daughter's elementary school....I have accepted that this will be a part of my daughter's education.
I absolutely think that it should be a two way discussion if you are discussing politics. But given that Bennish was probably indoctrinated by his own professors while pursuing his education degree, and is now indoctrianted by the NEA, really what can one expect?
I think the questions Mr. Bennish raised are questions that need raising. There are indeed many eerie similarities in current events to the situation in Germany before and during the Nazi era.
One of the most prescient critics of Hitler was Kurt Tucholsky, a publicist/satirist who died in 1935, in Swedish exile. His works recently fell into the public domain and I have been translating a selection of these into English. I used almost the same words as Mr. Bennish in describing my intention of making these pieces available in English. There are all to many eerie similarities to then and now, and I defy any person to confront these similarities and explain them away. I don't think it can be done.
The Kurt Tucholsky blog may be found at:
Link
I hope that Mr. Bennish is reinistated in his position, as is the right thing to do in a country with a constitution such as ours.
These are not the party faithful he is addressing in this clip; they are high school students enrolled under a compulsory education law, and Mr. Bennish et al. are compensated by state taxation.
And in return for their contribution, the parents of the students in this class may expect their children to be driven like intellectual cattle into Mr. Bennish's corral.
There is no educational merit in this kind of bullying----none. No rhetorical dodge (context, challenge, etc.) can excuse this abuse of power.
Even if I agreed with every single verifiable proposition pushed on his class by this teacher, I would insist that what is most important is not the correctness of the conclusion, but the means by which it is reached. Mr. Bennish does not respect his students--that should be clear.
He should go and try to teach a class of adults in this manner---people who are free to leave to avoid being browbeaten. I suspect he would quickly learn better manners!
Anyone who has really examined the issues knows the entire war turns on biggest lie in the history of mankind. The similarities to Hitler are more real than you imagine - it's the Riechstag Fire redux. You don't even know the definition of Fascism. (Haa - made you look it up!). You live in a fascist propaganda dictatorial surveillance police state - but because nobody wears a swastika you can't see it. The vast majority doesn't read anymore, they just gulp down hours of programming. PROGRAMMING (think about it).
Bennish tried to challenge these young minds, to teach critical thinking to bunch of tele-tubbies, and maybe even shock a few into realizing they live in the Corporate Land of Oz and maybe what Fox News is saying is nothing but a big fat lie. Sean Allen reacted like a hurt little boy when his "But 'mericans was attacked, so we can kill anyone, right?" line of reasoning. Allen is just a good little Member of the Fox Hitler Youth, honed to perfection by the Hannitys and O'Reillys of the media, and doing his duty by turning in the intellectuals to the authorities. These same 16 year olds will be dying soon in foreign deserts - once the next 9/11 happens and all your kids get drafted. I just hope that Sean Allen gets a chance to suit up and secure oil rigs for Jesus. That's one kid who can hardly wait to kill a raghead....
Americans, on the whole, are simply massively ignorant and brainwashed - swimming in a consumerist dreamworld - and willing to defend their stupidity to the death... it's what makes our country so great. All Americans know the name of the lead clown at McDonalds, but almost none know the name of the leader of Hamas or could talk rationally for two minutes on what Islamic religion even is. Sweet Jesus! We pay for what we get.