[Vision2020] Luna Cautions Teachers About Political Activities

[Donovan Arnold]

Sue Hovey may have retired, but her lesson plans are still as good as ever, if not better!
 
Remember when slavery was right and evolution was forbidden to be taught? Oh, wait, in some schools it still is! Oops, my bad. 
 
When you call for the official political time in Boise the operator says, "At the sound of the beep the official time will be . . .'nineteen hundred and thirty eight, in the year of our Lord.' "
 
Donovan Arnold

--- On Tue, 5/17/11, Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com> wrote:


From: Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com>
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Luna Cautions Teachers About Political Activities
To: "Sue Hovey" <suehovey at moscow.com>, "Moscow Vision 2020" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Cc: "Penni Cyr" <cpenni at gmail.com>
Date: Tuesday, May 17, 2011, 4:05 PM






Very well stated, Sue.
 

Those of us who give a damn are beside, and behind, you 100%.
 
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Sue Hovey [mailto:suehovey at moscow.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2011 3:05 PM
To: lfalen; Tom Hansen; Moscow Vision 2020
Cc: Penni Cyr
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Luna Cautions Teachers About Political Activities
 
Roger, et al,  This sounds so simple:  be political only after hours.  But a 
good teacher, regardless of subject brings herself into her teaching; her 
thoughts, her motives, her political ideology.  And kids are not simple; 
they recognize, and do not necessarily commit to, her ideology.  How could I 
not teach slavery was an evil institution or not teach that women are 
entitled to full and equal rights as citizens of this nation? Or that, from 
my perspective the Constitution is a living document, capable of meeting the 
needs of a changing culture.   In any classroom discussion of current events 
anything that happens is by nature, germane.  I was lucky as a high school 
social studies teacher in Moscow.  I was the recognized Democrat, Bob Weisel 
the recognized Republican.  When we had kids working for credit during the 
election seasons he worked with the students who wanted to help the 
Republicans and I with those who sided with the Dems.  What both he and I 
wanted was for all our students to recognize the importance of being 
politically involved.  We tried to make it easy for them to do so, but the 
choice was theirs.  There was a time when I thought ethical teachers had to 
be neutral in class.  I tried so diligently that one of my students came in 
to thank me personally for supporting Steve Symms.  I then decided I had 
carried neutrality much too far.
 
Tom Luna is simply trying to intimidate teachers.  That was the intent of 
the 3 laws.  Not only do they penalize good teachers, they place a terrible 
burden on administrators and school district trustees--and small districts 
are significantly at risk of losing good veteran teachers.  With the loss of 
state funding for salaries, districts are going to have to search for ways 
to keep teachers in every classroom.  As seniority can no longer be a 
criterion and with the other criteria much less specific, districts may 
decide to release one, more highly paid teacher to get two for less money. 
That's what Luna's bills are all about--getting teachers on the cheap, and 
rewarding his hardware and software contractors as well as legislators who 
pushed through his bills.
 
  Those of us who are working to carry petitions are doing so out of class 
(well I'm retired, so it's easy,) and through our personal email addresses. 
IEA officers have been adamant--do not use your school email.  What does 
happen is if a parent is interested in signing a petition, the only email 
they probably have access to is the teacher's school email.  In a reply 
teachers always refer them to their personal emails, but the original 
message from the parents comes through the only address they have.
 
I have sent  response to the Trib and the DN hoping it will get printed 
soon.  It's another take on all this, but believe me, every time I reread 
the laws, I find a new issue.
 
There isn't much more time left to get these petitions signed.  Please if 
you haven't done so, consider it and call me.  I will come to your house to 
get your signature, if you need for me to do that.   882-3380 
208-301-2208 or just reply to this by email.
 
Think about it:  You cannot put our students first, if you put their 
teachers last......
 
Sue Hovey
 
 
"Corporations are an oppressed minority forced to move headquarters from state to state in search of friendlier tax codes--sometimes being forced to live just off our shores in tiny mailboxes." 
 
- John Oliver, The Daily Show
 
-----Inline Attachment Follows-----


=======================================================
List services made available by First Step Internet, 
serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.   
               http://www.fsr.net                       
          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
=======================================================
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20110518/c863ceea/attachment-0001.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 57406 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20110518/c863ceea/attachment-0001.jpe