I'm near speechless!

[phoenix-starr.livejournal.com]

Teacher Has Kids Write About Whom They'd Murder District, Teacher Apologize For Mistake POSTED: 8:33 am EDT May 15, 2006 ST. JOSEPH, Mo. -- A Missouri high school teacher has apologized for asking students to write about whom they would kill and how they would do it. He said it was a horrible mistake he regrets. Michael Maxwell said the request to describe how students would carry out a murder was merely a writing exercise. Maxwell teaches a beginning drafting class and it's not clear why he asked the class to write fiction. School officials in St. Joseph said the teacher will likely keep his job. "He's an exemplary person ... this is very out of character," the principal said. Administrators found out about the writing request when a parent filed a complaint with the principal. A school district spokesman isn't commenting on possible disciplinary measures, but said the incident probably isn't serious enough to cost Maxwell his job. About 25 to 30 students from ninth through 12th grades were in the class. The article is posted here. What is to be said...?  This is just appalling.

Comments

[sophysduckling.livejournal.com]

That the teacher was reprimanded or that the teacher was giving a mildly interesting prompt?

[phoenix-starr.livejournal.com]

That the teacher wasn't reprimanded further. That is an entirely inappropriate subject matter.

[sophysduckling.livejournal.com]

The article makes it seem kind of random. They were probably reading something like East of Eden and the teacher thought that it might make kids more interested. I wonder if that's the full extent of the prompt, or if there was some minor detail like from literature.

[phoenix-starr.livejournal.com]

In or out of context it is still taking things too far.

[sophysduckling.livejournal.com]

Meh. You're probably right that it had no place in a public school, but...I kind of thought the prompt was interesting (I'm a high school junior, so apparently the teacher wasn't too far off). There's always the angle of "I'd not kill anyone under any circumstances, and here's something on pacifism" or "I'd only kill in self-defense, and here's something on why I don't like gun control."

[phoenix-starr.livejournal.com]

I don't object to someone writing that kind of fic. Look at S King who got rich off of it. I object to it being in the school. It is NOT an appropriate assignment. Maybe he was desperate to get the student interested in the subject matter, but it it was the wrong path.

The angle you mentioned is more in keeping with a college level paper, and while I would not object strongly, I think it would be more appropriate with older students. Please remember that some of the student exposed to this were Freshmen.

[lunaedraconis.livejournal.com]

but he teaches drafting. there's a time and place! and for this prompt there probably was never a really good time and place, you know?

[phangurl.livejournal.com]

LOL Has this gone up on that "101 reasons to homeschool" web site up yet? Every time I hear about teachers/ bus drivers/ cafeteria people/ etc losing their minds at their students, I'm all, "Well, yeah." Government funded and government controlled education = one giant tragic failed social experiment.

[phoenix-starr.livejournal.com]

It is a shame that we cannot go back to the requirements for education from the early 1900s in the US and just update the material.

[lunaedraconis.livejournal.com]

There'd have to be a fairly intensive thematic update, but if only they taught the way they did in the 1900s, focusing on the basics, etc. No random crazy postmodernist maths...

(Without, of course, the corporal punishment and suchlike.)

[phoenix-starr.livejournal.com]

(Without, of course, the corporal punishment and suchlike.)

I don't know. I remember having to take home a permission slip to my mom for corporal punishment when I was in school, and the idea kept me out of trouble a few times. Also, the reminder by fellow students of such paper stopped more than a bit of mischief. I do not think children should be smacked constantly, but the option of a spanking when things get too far out of hand I think would be helpful.

but if only they taught the way they did in the 1900s

That is what I meant, with the thoroughness of the what was expected of a student.

[phangurl.livejournal.com]

A lot of homeschoolers use materials, or materials inspired by curriculum, from that era. It's called Classical Homeschooling and it's a very thought provoking approach that, of course, the public schools have failed wholesale to incorporate, or should we say, re-incorporate. Instead parents pay to have their kids cram for standards-based testing six to eight weeks out of the year, only to brain-dump it out 2 weeks later. It's ridiculous, but then, the value of being a conservative is that I never am disappointed or shocked when a government agency fails to do what it's promised to do with my tax money. I consider it par for the course.

Check out The Well Trained Mind (http://www.welltrainedmind.com) for details. I use it, and Charlotte Mason's principles of education, with my own son's homeschooling and we love it.

[pinkpolarity.livejournal.com]

I would have loved an assignment like that when I was in HS. Of course, it would have been about another student, and I'd probably have been reported, but still... would have been fun. *is sick*

[phoenix-starr.livejournal.com]

Too bad, but actually being the responsible adult giving it to impressionable teens is the problem here.

[bluto-blutarsky.livejournal.com]

Lovely to know, I go to school in Missouri and know prope from St. Joseph. Maybe I'll ask some people about it in the fall.

[phoenix-starr.livejournal.com]

Please do, and post in the right fangirl what you find out. As things stand now, we only have the one view point.

[msfiction.livejournal.com]

I would have loved an assignment like that. Sad thing is I would write about killing lame characters on tv shows.

[phoenix-starr.livejournal.com]

I still maintain that is not appropriate for a high school student.

[neytaritook.livejournal.com]

Here's the thing: It is an interesting prompt. But it's not appropriate for an authority figure such as a teacher to give the impression of encouraging murder.

[phoenix-starr.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

[tappanga.livejournal.com]

She should lose her job. If a student on his or her own wrote a paper on who they would kill and how, they'd be expelled for terroristic threats. She should be subject to the same.

[phoenix-starr.livejournal.com]

Very good point.

[planetcrush.livejournal.com]

good point- you made me change my mind. cheers!

[lessthangreat.livejournal.com]

As a writer, I find the idea/exercise interesting, but I agree with you, that it had no place in a public high school. I would have been appalled if I was given that assignment, just because of the placement of it.

That is simply a display of poor taste and total lack of tact.

[phoenix-starr.livejournal.com]

Yes. I'm glad we agree.

[phoenix-starr.livejournal.com]

Exactly! And as another poster pointed out, that if a High School student did this type of assignment on their own valition, it would be taken VERY seriously, and most likely as a threat.

[ex-sweeneyto598.livejournal.com]

Though I find this writing prompt a very interesting exercise, I find it very appalling that something would suggest this in a public high school. It would be better suited in a college course than in a high school class.