[Cooter Brown]

I think you should show up to each remaining class, armed and in full uniform. kcuf her

 

[JRogers]

I never offer opinions on anything unless asked by the students, then I have a 3-4 minute preface before speaking about any issue, and every once in a while, during the conversation, I say the facts are.....(insert facts here)... and my opinion is... (insert opinion here)...in order to clarify that I am neither trying to influence them, nor am I trying to start trouble...

I have people who I work with, who don't take the same approach, and I don't understand or condone that behavior... It is the responsibility of a person in my position to help young adults make descisions, and develop oppinions on their own, and not to influence them with OUR opinion! that practice is completely irresponsible!

A good model, but hardly one that works in all instances. Don't you teach industrial arts or something similar? I am sure someone could resort to preaching on any subject, but I cannot see how a practical art lends itself to some kind of corruption by the teacher injecting his/her opinions on the subject.

History, literature- virtually all humanities and studies of humans- all involve interpretation and opinion. "Theory" and "fact" are, by their nature, expressions of opinion (your understanding of an event, because it is processed by your mind, is not necessarily my understanding). As soon as history gets away from dates and numbers, actually as soon as you start writing anything down, you are expressing an opinion and imbuing history with your own biases and prejudices.

There are more and less unbiased ways of teaching and, to be sure, teachers of all kinds should not make their opinion the dominant one in the discussion. But, it is not within the realm of possibility for a teacher to teach "only facts and theories" because these things don't really exist. They are, themselves, expressions of opinion.

The key, I'd say, is teaching sets of competing opinions and not leaving opinion out of the equation, which is more or less impossible.

 

[Greyhound]

A good model, but hardly one that works in all instances. Don't you teach industrial arts or something similar? I am sure someone could resort to preaching on any subject, but I cannot see how a practical art lends itself to some kind of corruption by the teacher injecting his/her opinions on the subject.

History, literature- virtually all humanities and studies of humans- all involve interpretation and opinion. "Theory" and "fact" are, by their nature, expressions of opinion (your understanding of an event, because it is processed by your mind, is not necessarily my understanding). As soon as history gets away from dates and numbers, actually as soon as you start writing anything down, you are expressing an opinion and imbuing history with your own biases and prejudices.

There are more and less unbiased ways of teaching and, to be sure, teachers of all kinds should not make their opinion the dominant one in the discussion. But, it is not within the realm of possibility for a teacher to teach "only facts and theories" because these things don't really exist. They are, themselves, expressions of opinion.

The key, I'd say, is teaching sets of competing opinions and not leaving opinion out of the equation, which is more or less impossible.

Wait....did I just read that right? Did you just diss brunge's approach to teaching because he doesn't teach history or literature? So, I guess art and religion have no symbiotic relationship whatsoever, huh?

....Careful you don't hurt yourself getting off that high-horse, sparky.

 

[brungeman]

A good model, but hardly one that works in all instances. Don't you teach industrial arts or something similar? I am sure someone could resort to preaching on any subject, but I cannot see how a practical art lends itself to some kind of corruption by the teacher injecting his/her opinions on the subject.

History, literature- virtually all humanities and studies of humans- all involve interpretation and opinion. "Theory" and "fact" are, by their nature, expressions of opinion (your understanding of an event, because it is processed by your mind, is not necessarily my understanding). As soon as history gets away from dates and numbers, actually as soon as you start writing anything down, you are expressing an opinion and imbuing history with your own biases and prejudices.

There are more and less unbiased ways of teaching and, to be sure, teachers of all kinds should not make their opinion the dominant one in the discussion. But, it is not within the realm of possibility for a teacher to teach "only facts and theories" because these things don't really exist. They are, themselves, expressions of opinion.

The key, I'd say, is teaching sets of competing opinions and not leaving opinion out of the equation, which is more or less impossible.

Not totally, but I am usually talking about situations in the news, or something that may have happened in school etc.

You are completely correct about my subject area... there are no ifs ands or buts... only cut and dry things you have to do and things you never do, as they pertain to safety! I don't just teach my main subject area anymore, I also teach other subjects as well... it is writing, reading history, and math across the curriculum so in some cases we do get into some other dicey situations.

as for competing opinions... I totally agree! it is a great way to keep personal opinions out of it! using terms like "some people may say..." and counter it with "but others may argue" is a great tactic that usually ends up in great discussion!

sorry to derail Manimal...

 

[brungeman]

Wait....did I just read that right? Did you just diss brunge's approach to teaching because he doesn't teach history or literature? So, I guess art and religion have no symbiotic relationship whatsoever, huh?

....Careful you don't hurt yourself getting off that high-horse, sparky.

I didn't take it that way at all!

 

[manimal]

update: due to my crazy schedule, i emailed the dept. head. if he wants to meet in person about it i can do that but i just don't have time to find time to meet him right now.

i'll post his response when i get it.

 

[N8 v2.0]

add this outfit to your wardrobe!!

 

[SkaredShtles]

Bloody Scots!

 

[LordOpie]

add this outfit to your wardrobe!!

The interesting part of that is... That's Manimal if he lost 15 pounds.

And i don't mean Euros.

 

[manimal]

whoa..that's weird

 

[AngryMetalsmith]

If your teacher comes to class wearing pachouli tell her she's oppressing you with her nasty hippie stench.

 

[manimal]

she's actually very pleasant. she seems "casually professional" but also naive. up until this incident she just seemed overly nice and afraid to offend anyone for any reason (an attribute that doesn't exude much confidence imo)

 

[AngryMetalsmith]

I saw Ozzy wearing a plain black T-Shirt that read:

HIPPIE
KILLER

Maybe she would find this more appropriate for the classroom.

 

[Skookum]

whoa..that's weird

It's your fifteenth cousin thrice removed.

 

[elf 232]

haha...you should see the pics i took of him last week in my tact gear (swat stuff). the body bunker swallows him whole and he kept falling over 'cause he could barely hold it up. i got a great shot of him in all the gear holding my personal AR he loved it

Dude, you can take your swat gear home?!... wow... that is some insentive for a career change.

 

[manimal]

Dude, you can take your swat gear home?!... wow... that is some insentive for a career change.

it is nice. ii live about 10 miles outside of the city limits and i get to bring my car home. we don't call our unit the "swat" team, it's called "tact" team for "tactical." it's not a separate unit like you see on tv (dallas swat), ours is all volunteer. we train after our normal duty and we're on call for high risk response type of stuff. so the gear stays with me all the time.

i did consider coming to class after tact training one day, dressed out in full gear. she'd freak when i told her i had a flash bang "grenade" hanging from my vest

 

[brungeman]

i did consider coming to class after tact training one day, dressed out in full gear. she'd freak when i told her i had a flash bang "grenade" hanging from my vest

she would freak more if you added, "and a pair of flash bang grenades hanging below my belt! ":biggrin: