The bell tolls for thee!

While I have discovered there is very little information available via the Internet about me, I am conscious of the fact that this is mainly due to the volume of people with my name. I am also aware that if there is enough desire, almost everything that I do, and in some cases much of what I say is available via the World Wide Web. I was able to find my old Myspace account, but I accessed it through a screen name and realistically there was nothing there that could ever have been linked to my actual identity. Nevertheless, I set the account to private. I have some serious concerns about the current trend of punishing and dismissing educators for things they do on their free time. I understand our society's concept that teachers only exist within the classroom and the image that most children have of a teacher as a larger than life figure without a personal life seems to follow the child into adulthood. What I would argue is this, educators should set a good example for students while they are at school, but it is important that children understand that teachers are people too. Children and parents need to understand that no-one is infallible. Teachers are human beings, just like law enforcement, medical personnel and an infinite number of other occupations. Sometimes teachers are wrong. Sometimes they have bad days. Maybe they drink; maybe they have a different belief system. As long as it doesn't interfere with their professionalism at school, who is anyone to judge? I believe the American concept of a teacher as lower deity is holding our educational society back. Teachers should be part of the educational society of the classroom directly involved in learning, not standing above it. The fact that we place unrealistic expectations on people like teachers and sports figures only exemplifies what we as a society are lacking, a home based sense of personal identity. We look outward for people to tell us what we should or shouldn't do; we ask normal humans to do what we can't or won't do ourselves; and we call it cultural values. Values start within, within ourselves, within our family, within our home. The idea that we can chase values down from an external source is not only flawed, it is dangerous. If we constantly rely on other people to give us moral guidance, we never begin to take responsibility for our own actions. The other issue that I take with this current trend is what I consider to be an infringement on the constitutional rights of teachers. The supreme court ruled that neither students or teachers constitutional rights end at the schoolhouse door, as long as it doesn't interfere with the ability of the institution to perform its duty. Yet even now there are school districts and teacher licensing agencies working as de facto inquisitorial boards. They are attacking teachers for behaviors or acts that don't fit into their view of acceptable, that occur outside of school, on the educators personal time. I can assure you that not everyone or every culture has a similar view of what acceptable is. If I as an employer went down to the bar and told the members of the Local 81 that they weren't allowed to drink or swear off the clock because it might reflect poorly on me, I would at best receive a laugh in the face, and perhaps much more. If I attempted to punish one of those employees, or dismissed them for that conduct I would almost assuredly receive a letter from BOLI, and notice of a law suit, that I would most likely lose. So, why is it that we accept that treatment in education? The constitutional rights of every person in this country were guaranteed through blood and sacrifice and the last thing I will ever do as a potential role model is to voluntarily give them up. It makes no difference to me if I personally agree with what other teachers do in their private lives but I will stand up for their rights because it is all of our rights.

"In Germany, they first came for the gypsies, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a gypsy. Then they came for the Bolsheviks, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Bolshevik. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics. I didn't speak up then because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak up." - Martin Niemoller, A Lutheran Pastor arrested by the Gestapo in 1937

I believe that persecution is not an event that happens suddenly, but a series of tiny steps, and I believe that it is all of our duties to fight every step we see. John Donne once wrote "if a clod be washed away is Europe not the lesser?" the same holds true for our constitutional rights.