Dallas teacher gives assignment to write essay about how Kyle Rittenhouse is a hero.

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pauldun170

Diamond Member
Sep 26, 2011
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Couple things here....
First, take a look at the demographics of the School

Second, its probably helpful to actually read the assignment.

Part 1
Write a biography of all 6
Part 2
Pick one of them that best demonstrates what you believe to be a hero

This is an assignment that uses current events and allows students to talk about a very crazy year that they have had.

Keeping in mind that the student body is Hispanic , the inclusion of Cesar Chavez is provided as the "easy pick" for Hero, Malcom X is probably for the token black kid in the class and Ghandi is provided for the those who simply want to plagiarize of wikipedia. (likely to appease those whose parents watch foxnews and don't like the idea of their kids writing about a "Chavez" or Malcom X)
 
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HurleyBird

Platinum Member
Apr 22, 2003
2,759
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What a shitty post and misleading title. It's close to a straight up lie and is disproven moments after reading the contents of the tweet. When students also have the option of selecting Floyd or Rosenbaum (not to mention Gandhi, Malcom X, and Cesar Chavez) then no, this teacher isn't trying to push a particular agenda. He's giving students the option of explaining their support for either or the presently popular narratives. It appears like he's trying to get students of various political persuasions to engage with each other on controversial modern issues.

It's a laudable goal, but (with the caveat that I don't know his class, maybe it's particularly open minded) I think it will probably backfire, and based on the heatedness of the current issues is at least as likely to put students at one another's throats (or in the event that only a small handful of students pick Rittenhouse, lead to bullying) than it is to build bridges.

And, the people trying to get this guy fired are truly the scum of the earth.
 

ch33zw1z

Lifer
Nov 4, 2004
38,202
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What a shitty post and misleading title. It's close to a straight up lie and is disproven moments after reading the contents of the tweet. When students also have the option of selecting Floyd or Rosenbaum (not to mention Gandhi, Malcom X, and Cesar Chavez) then no, this teacher isn't trying to push a particular agenda. He's giving students the option of explaining their support for either or the presently popular narratives. It appears like he's trying to get students of various political persuasions to engage with each other on controversial modern issues.

It's a laudable goal, but (with the caveat that I don't know his class, maybe it's particularly open minded) I think it will probably backfire, and based on the heatedness of the current issues is at least as likely to put students at one another's throats (or in the event that only a small handful of students pick Rittenhouse, lead to bullying) than it is to build bridges.

And, the people trying to get this guy fired are truly the scum of the earth.

I think the calls for firing are as ridiculous as the call to fire the wylie tx teacher trying to get students to think about the first amendment.
 
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Sunburn74

Diamond Member
Oct 5, 2009
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What a shitty post and misleading title. It's close to a straight up lie and is disproven moments after reading the contents of the tweet. When students also have the option of selecting Floyd or Rosenbaum (not to mention Gandhi, Malcom X, and Cesar Chavez) then no, this teacher isn't trying to push a particular agenda. He's giving students the option of explaining their support for either or the presently popular narratives. It appears like he's trying to get students of various political persuasions to engage with each other on controversial modern issues.

It's a laudable goal, but (with the caveat that I don't know his class, maybe it's particularly open minded) I think it will probably backfire, and based on the heatedness of the current issues is at least as likely to put students at one another's throats (or in the event that only a small handful of students pick Rittenhouse, lead to bullying) than it is to build bridges.

And, the people trying to get this guy fired are truly the scum of the earth.
No. You can't have an assignment where you put hitler or jeffrey dahmer on the same hero list as gandhi. Let's be honest here. Maybe to the teacher rittenhouse is a hero but to normal people he's a mostly just a brainwashed murderer. Having rittenhouse on the assignment is a closeted way of stating he's a hero on the same level as those guys historically. It's asinine. Might as well out the el paso shooter on that list so the kids can also explain why he's a hero. Or the guy who ran over protesters and killed someone in charlottesville. 100% chance the teacher is a white male. 100% chance.
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
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No. You can't have an assignment where you put hitler or jeffrey dahmer on the same hero list as gandhi. Let's be honest here. Maybe to the teacher rittenhouse is a hero but to normal people he's a mostly just a brainwashed murderer. Having rittenhouse on the assignment is a closeted way of stating he's a hero on the same level as those guys historically. It's asinine. Might as well out the el paso shooter on that list so the kids can also explain why he's a hero. Or the guy who ran over protesters and killed someone in charlottesville. 100% chance the teacher is a white male. 100% chance.

dude...you need to go back some posts, Pauldun's specifically, and read more about what is going on here, lol.
 

pmv

Lifer
May 30, 2008
13,636
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Don't really know what I think about it, to be honest. Storm in a tea-cup, really. What do I care what essays are written at some crap US school?

And I can imagine it's just some very bored, somewhat right-wing, teacher being provocative to make the day go quicker.

But if this teacher _had_ put Attah, or Osama, or (a blast from the past) John Hinkley Jr, on there, I suspect the same folks now defending him would be forcefully calling for him to be fired.
 
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Moonbeam

Elite Member
Nov 24, 1999
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==========================================================================================================================
I don't know that he's explicitly declaring Rittenhouse a hero (he wouldn't have included Floyd if it was strictly a partisan effort), but at the very least it's in poor taste. There's nothing you could do to call him a hero unless you're such a diehard Trump fan that you'd advocate for violence.
I don't know what the motivations of the teacher might have been. What I do think i know is that to think critically will require some attempt at self cross examination to challenge self accepted positions and considering ideas that might discomfort those positions. The reason that truth is so successful at hiding is because it hides behind our false beliefs as we unconsciously intend. It can help to proceed in searching for truth with the realization you may not really be serious about it.even while assuming you are.
 
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MtnMan

Diamond Member
Jul 27, 2004
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Maybe I'm blind, but isn't it just asking for a half page biography about the people on that list? I don't see the word hero anywhere?
You're blind, perhaps an eye exam should be planned.
blind.png
 

Fenixgoon

Lifer
Jun 30, 2003
32,120
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Assigning the descriptor of "hero" automatically means these people should be looked up to. In that regard, it really is shocking and disappointing.

If the assignment were asking, "are these people heroes? To whom? Why?" Then I could see how it is intended to make the kids think critically.

I also agree it's too soon
Which is why good teachers are a national asset and should be cherished. This would be an excellent teaching opportunity by a good teacher, and a terrible one by a bad teacher.

I would add that a good or exceptional teacher doesn't just look for knowledge but understanding and insight.

Asking students to "describe why X is a hero" automatically assigns them as heroic. A handful of students may take the critical path and ask themselves "is X a hero to start with?" And challenge the assumption of the assignment.

If the teacher had asked "are any of these people listed heroes or villains? To whom? Why?"

That is a much better way of having students seek a broad perspective and challenge assumptions they may hold one way or another.

I wish we as a society did this more often (and I am no exception)

Edit: the assignment does take the critical path, sort of.
 

Sunburn74

Diamond Member
Oct 5, 2009
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dude...you need to go back some posts, Pauldun's specifically, and read more about what is going on here, lol.
I read the post. I realize there was a chance for students to avoid the loaded issue but almost certainly there is zero reason why Kyle rittenhouse should have any place at all in the assignment. The teacher is implying that on a historical scale his actions will be viewed on par as the others which is ludicrous. Even if there is some flexibility for kids to dodge the issue, the issue is still there. I still stand by my position that it's grounds for severe disciplinary action and even termination. You can't be giving assignments that are so loaded.
 

pmv

Lifer
May 30, 2008
13,636
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I would assume teachers just do what they have to to get through the day without going mad, (they probably also have a half-unconcious desire to be fired), so I wouldn't take this sort of thing hugely seriously.

But I do wonder - if a student did take him up on this, and chose Rittenhouse to write about - how might other students react to that, and is the teacher and the school ready for the trouble that might result? Did he think this through?
 

pmv

Lifer
May 30, 2008
13,636
8,522
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I mean, we had a teacher who kept a giant poster of Maggie Thatcher on the wall of his classroom. Now _that_ was provocative.

He would, when covering for absent teachers of other subjects, fill in the time by talking at length about things like how the unemployed were all just lazy, and how awful Islam was (to a class with quite a few Muslim kids)....He basically engaged in real-world trolling.

These days I wouldn't fancy his chances of avoiding a world of trouble, or even of making it out of the room in one piece, but in those pre-Rushdie-affair days, it was only anti-black racism that was seen as being seriously dangerous, and he never risked that.

(It was also shortly before the Southall riots when Asian youths burned down a pub full of skinheads - which to me seemed to be a turning point just as much as the Rushdie affair - as a group, it seems you only get respect once you burn something down.)

I always felt teaching was just a crap job - one of those, like policing and mental health professions, that is near-impossible to do well, and where the end results are invariably depressingly bad. So teachers just had to do whatever would get them through the day.
 

Jaskalas

Lifer
Jun 23, 2004
34,008
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This shit is WAY too soon.

Let it settle in court, and then give it 10-15 years after that.
 

Starbuck1975

Lifer
Jan 6, 2005
14,698
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The title of the assignment is "Hero for the Modern Age".

The presented evidence is missing far too much context to say much about the assignment itself.
Yep, knee jerk without context. The list of names is interesting, because none if them are universally accepted as heroes of the modern age, there are those who would make arguments for or against each. Sounds like a critical thinking assignment.
 

ivwshane

Lifer
May 15, 2000
32,548
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Maybe I'm blind, but isn't it just asking for a half page biography about the people on that list? I don't see the word hero anywhere?


The title of the assignment is: hero for the modern age.

Looking at the list, I don't see an issue.
 
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ivwshane

Lifer
May 15, 2000
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I don't know that he's explicitly declaring Rittenhouse a hero (he wouldn't have included Floyd if it was strictly a partisan effort), but at the very least it's in poor taste. There's nothing you could do to call him a hero unless you're such a diehard Trump fan that you'd advocate for violence.

I'm sure if you were to ask for such an assignment back in the day when those people were living, people might have said the same thing about ghandi, Malcom x, and Chavez.
 
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ondma

Platinum Member
Mar 18, 2018
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Maybe I'm blind, but isn't it just asking for a half page biography about the people on that list? I don't see the word hero anywhere?
It is In the very top of the assignment: "Hero for the Modern Age". I did not see it at first either, and wondered what all the furor was about. That title does make it a bit sketchy. However, the other possible subjects all were involved in fighting for human rights. I would not call the teacher a racist without more information about him. This could have been simply and oversight that was not intended to portray Rittenhaus as a hero.
 
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Perknose

Forum Director & Omnipotent Overlord
Forum Director
Oct 9, 1999
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... its probably helpful to actually read the assignment.

Part 1
Write a biography of all 6
Part 2
Pick one of them that best demonstrates what you believe to be a hero


This is an assignment that uses current events and allows students to talk about a very crazy year that they have had.

^^^ THIS. I applaud this teacher and fervently hope he doesn't get in any trouble for this, and I am disturbed by the angry and unfair partisan slant taken here . . . even, perhaps especially, if it was from "my side" of the partisan divide.
 
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