Good post! This line jumped out at me. “Educators have a profound obligation to the truth and to prepare students’ critical capacities for productive citizenship.” When Trump was running and governing I found it disappointing that more private school educators, especially leaders, weren’t more openly critical of a man who clearly and unquestionably has very little regard for truth. When a lot of educators had a clear, if challenging, opportunity to take a stand for truth they chose not to.
I think I may have shared this article with you before. I think it would be best - but likely not a realistic goal to do so in a short period of time (though I think immersion and cold turkey are great methods) - to adapt to the European style freedom of speech. It is far friendlier, clearer and better suitable for society with so many people living in close enough proximity.
"U.S. law, following the logic of the Constitution and American legal culture, considers religious freedom a fundamental right that shouldn’t be violated except under exceedingly rare conditions. (...)
In Europe, by contrast, the freedom to believe may be protected, but the freedom to manifest your religion publicly has much less purchase, (...)
The underlying philosophical difference here is about the right of the individual to self-expression. Americans value that classic liberal right very highly -- so highly that we tolerate speech that might make others less equal. (...)
Europeans value the democratic collective and the capacity of all citizens to participate fully in it -- so much that they are willing to limit individual rights." ..
In my opinion, legal and personal, under for instance Dutch law, a teacher having been present at this event could be terminated without a criminal conviction, just a suspicion without conviction (proof that they were present even when not prosecuted) and of course also on the basis of criminal law (and more easily so combined with a clause in their contract) all a school would need to state is irreconcilable differences. With us the basis for criminal conviction would be "You were there, so you were caught to be a part of it. You didn't remove yourself from the situation, you were part of the group" (thus poaing a therat to the victims who couldn't know you were not going to be violent and who could only see you as backing the ones trying to get in/getting in etc.). Teachers (schools) have a duty of societal care for a safe school environment, and they need a declaration of (good) behavior from their municipality to be offered a contract. Being part of a demonstration to overthrow the legal government and influence the election outcome will likely lead to exclusion from the profession for a longer period of time if not have the effect of the person never being hired again indefinitely. Teachers explicitly implementing their own political beliefs instead of presenting all views and having students develop their own views first, or even indoctrinating their students, are no longer contributing to the safe environment in the learning place.
Good post! This line jumped out at me. “Educators have a profound obligation to the truth and to prepare students’ critical capacities for productive citizenship.” When Trump was running and governing I found it disappointing that more private school educators, especially leaders, weren’t more openly critical of a man who clearly and unquestionably has very little regard for truth. When a lot of educators had a clear, if challenging, opportunity to take a stand for truth they chose not to.
I think I may have shared this article with you before. I think it would be best - but likely not a realistic goal to do so in a short period of time (though I think immersion and cold turkey are great methods) - to adapt to the European style freedom of speech. It is far friendlier, clearer and better suitable for society with so many people living in close enough proximity.
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2017-03-19/free-speech-in-europe-isn-t-what-americans-think
Some highlights:
"U.S. law, following the logic of the Constitution and American legal culture, considers religious freedom a fundamental right that shouldn’t be violated except under exceedingly rare conditions. (...)
In Europe, by contrast, the freedom to believe may be protected, but the freedom to manifest your religion publicly has much less purchase, (...)
The underlying philosophical difference here is about the right of the individual to self-expression. Americans value that classic liberal right very highly -- so highly that we tolerate speech that might make others less equal. (...)
Europeans value the democratic collective and the capacity of all citizens to participate fully in it -- so much that they are willing to limit individual rights." ..
In my opinion, legal and personal, under for instance Dutch law, a teacher having been present at this event could be terminated without a criminal conviction, just a suspicion without conviction (proof that they were present even when not prosecuted) and of course also on the basis of criminal law (and more easily so combined with a clause in their contract) all a school would need to state is irreconcilable differences. With us the basis for criminal conviction would be "You were there, so you were caught to be a part of it. You didn't remove yourself from the situation, you were part of the group" (thus poaing a therat to the victims who couldn't know you were not going to be violent and who could only see you as backing the ones trying to get in/getting in etc.). Teachers (schools) have a duty of societal care for a safe school environment, and they need a declaration of (good) behavior from their municipality to be offered a contract. Being part of a demonstration to overthrow the legal government and influence the election outcome will likely lead to exclusion from the profession for a longer period of time if not have the effect of the person never being hired again indefinitely. Teachers explicitly implementing their own political beliefs instead of presenting all views and having students develop their own views first, or even indoctrinating their students, are no longer contributing to the safe environment in the learning place.