Daughter's 8th Grade shop(tech-ed) teacher thinks Gore is a flake and global warming a conspiracy.

[kid a]

And he's not too subtle about it.

She's a member of the "Green" Club and is organizing Earth Day activities. They were trying to do an energy efficiency report of the school and put a can recycling box in the tech ed room (its the only place in the school where there's a soda machine). They keep getting smirks and angry "soap box" speeches from this 30 year veteran teacher. Its a bizarre situation - it seems most of the faculty and staff are afraid of him because he is so bitter and demeaning. Even the new, young principal seemed reluctant to call him in and ask him to tone down his liberal bashing rhetoric.

Next step: Letter to the superintendent? Is that going too far? Teachers on DU? What do you think?

[NightWatcher]

1. let's weigh. on one hand an 8th grade shop teacher and the other a Nobel Prize winner

does he also think that the Earth is flat?

[kid a]

4. I know - that's what is so frustrating to the students. He is their teacher.

[MidwestTransplant]

8. I would call Supernintendo Chalmers.

[wtmusic]

2. Get in his face

He opposes recycling? You may have to show him that parents can have a soapbox too.

[Freedomofspeech]

3. If you have approached the principal, by all means contact

the superintendent. My husband is a school Superintendent, and all he asks is that people go through the proper channels before contacting him.

[Mabus]

16. Chain of command, so to speak

is the best way to address this problem. If you go right to the top to complain you usually are asked to go through the principal first.

We had a problem with one of my nephew's teachers in 2004. At first we were thrilled to learn that the teacher was getting 18 year-olds (and 17 year olds who would be 18 by election day) registered to vote. Then my nephew found out the teacher had sorted the registrations by party affiliation and "forgot" to turn in the Democratic and Independent registration applications. My nephew told my brother who then went to the school and talked to the teacher. He asked that the teacher re-do the registrations since, by then, the teacher had "misplaced" them but was told "no." My brother then went to the principal. She took care of it at the school level. First, she had the teacher tell the students that their voter registration was not turned in if they had registered either as a Democrat or an Independent. Then he apologized for it and told them that the principal was making voter registration a school-wide process and that they should resubmit their registrations.

My nephew had heard us talk about Republican dirty tricks for years. He and his fellow students got a lesson first hand that they will not forget.

[Wickerman]

5. He is so obviously wrong

that your daughter is probably learning more from his obtuseness than she would from gentle acceptance. She has to cogitate why what he says is wrong, rationalize it to her friends, if not to him, and gets a glimpse of how confused at least 19% of the world is and the way they act.

That said, if he is being demeaning and bitter and otherwise disrespectful to your child then that is wrong and he needs to be taken to task.

[madaboutharry]

6. It is completely inappropriate conduct

I am not a teacher, but this behavior is not appropriate. Nothing will happen unless there is a ground swell of parental intervention. If you go it alone, you won't get anywhere. There needs to be a large number of parents going to the superintendent and the school board. He probably has tenure, but that doesn't mean they can't shut him up.

[Winterblues]

7. Follow chain of command

First contact the teacher, next the Principle teacher, next superintendent, next go public, LTTEs etc..

[Ichingcarpenter]

9. I'd be interested in what the Science Department View was

and if they had a statement on Climate Change and start from there.

[tridim]

10. All of my shop teachers were idiots.

I don't think this is anything new.

[peace13]

11. 8th grade might be old enough to learn that you won't always agree

with your instructors. The young people will be stronger because of this. You might ask them how they think it should be handled. Peace, kim

[wtmusic]

14. IMO there's a difference here

Shop teacher is stepping outside his realm and "teaching" a subject he is ill-qualified to teach.

The teacher/student relationship is not one of two individuals off school property, and does not end when the bell rings.

[Occulus]

12. Have the students go on a campaign of laughter

The one thing these knuckledraggers hate more than anything is to be laughed at. So, have you daughter get her class to giggle or laugh every time he starts going off. Have them make their laughter in proportion to his idiocy.

Hilarity shall ensue....

[spanone]

13. teachers are necessarily intelligent

they are only schooled

[Tarc]

15. That is why he teaches shop, rather than a real educational field

I went to middle school in an upper-class Massachusetts suburb for a year, then to podunk old mill town in rural New Hampshire after we moved. In both cases, the shop teacher was the biggest knuckle-dragging moron imaginable.