NYT: Dallas Museum of Art Field Trip Deemed Too Revealing

[DeepModem Mom]

Museum Field Trip Deemed Too Revealing
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL
Published: September 30, 2006

FRISCO, Tex., Sept. 28 — “Keep the ‘Art’ in ‘Smart’ and ‘Heart,’ ” Sydney McGee had posted on her Web site at Wilma Fisher Elementary School in this moneyed boomtown that is gobbling up the farm fields north of Dallas.

But Ms. McGee, 51, a popular art teacher with 28 years in the classroom, is out of a job after leading her fifth-grade classes last April through the Dallas Museum of Art. One of her students saw nude art in the museum, and after the child’s parent complained, the teacher was suspended.

Although the tour had been approved by the principal, and the 89 students were accompanied by 4 other teachers, at least 12 parents and a museum docent, Ms. McGee said, she was called to the principal the next day and “bashed.”

She later received a memorandum in which the principal, Nancy Lawson, wrote: “During a study trip that you planned for fifth graders, students were exposed to nude statues and other nude art representations.” It cited additional complaints, which Ms. McGee has challenged....

***

In a newsletter e-mailed to parents this week, the principal and Rick Reedy, superintendent of the Frisco Independent School District, said that Ms. McGee had been denied transfer to another school in the district, that her annual contract would not be renewed and that a replacement had been interviewed....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/30/education/30teacher.html?ex=1159848000&en=0adf54fecf9b630b&ei=5087%0A

[mike_c]

1. who says the Taliban isn't winning...?

How come if we're fighting them over there, they're winning here?

[bronxiteforever]

6. exactly right! The Taliban was all about blowing up ancient statues

How far is this conduct from that-not really that far. Scary and sad all at once.

[badgerpup]

2. Oh, fer cryin' out loud....

:wtf:
The level of prudery stupidity fundie fanaticsism knows no bounds.
If the parents are so friggin' outraged, why the hell didn't they check the museum out beforehand, make sure it was safe for Junior's virgin eyes?
Jeez louise...can't let the kiddies see NUDITY!
Might ruin them for the military.
:banghead:

[cornermouse]

3. This is a joke, right?

[LibDemAlways]

4. I hope she sues the pants off the district (pun intended) for

this. A teacher with 28 years in the classroom should not be let go for taking her students to a public art museum. That's insane. I assume the parent who complained signed a persmission slip allowing her child to go. Obviously she herself has never been inside an art museum or she would have known that representations of the human form in painting and sculpture are common.

When my daughter's sixth grade class visited the Getty Center in LA a couple of years ago one of the paintings they were specifically taken to see was one in which one of many figures in the painting was nude. The kids were told this in advance, but only as a reminder to act mature about it and not to snicker.

I'm sure there are school districts in more enlightened communities throughout the country that would love to have Ms. McGee on staff. She'll have no problem getting another job.

[wtmusic]

5. Email them:

Shana McKay-Wortham
FISD Director of Communications
Email: [e-mail]
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]