A Tale of Two Educators

There is something which occurred in a time not so long ago in a school district far away from Nevada upon which I would like to comment. I think the case of a school principal passing explicit pornography to school staffers using a school computer and school network all paid for by taxpayers has relevance to events occurring recently in the Carson City School District.

It has come to my attention from the Blogging Man 2007 blog that a school principal in Georgia passed explicit photos on taxpayer funded computers and networks to other school staffers. Not only do I think the principal's actions wrong but I want to bring to everyone's attention to what the teachers union did about it. The teachers union is continuing to defend the school principal's actions saying that the principal has freedom of speech and should not be fired or censured. To me this is not even an issue of free speech; it is an issue of ethical lapse and bad judgment on the part of Georgia Principal Ed Rohrbaugh.

Let's contrast this with the case that just culminated in Carson City about a week ago. In Carson City a high school history teacher named Joe Enge spoke out that the Carson City High School for some period of time was not teaching American History earlier than the Civil War period. The teachers union in Joe Enge's case hung him out to dry and did nothing to slow or stop Mr. Enge's separation from the school district based on petty complaints that the Fulbright winning teacher was unsatisfactory.

Now what did the Carson City School Board do in relation to Joe Enge's case? The school board defended the methods of the sitting Superintendent and the sitting Principal who had permitted a curriculum during their watch that omitted the formation of our country, the founding fathers and the U.S. Constitution. Joe Enge would have been separated quietly if the light of truth was not shown on the whole episode that in fact what Mr. Enge said was correct.

My point in comparing these two cases, one local and one on the other side of the country is that any institution that is unaccountable is irresponsible. Something must change about our educational establishment for the better. The educational administrations nationwide have become entrenched and seem only to want education to be measured subjectively.

My point in juxtaposing these two seemingly unrelated cases is to demonstrate how the teachers union and educational establishment will defend and aid an educator who is passing porn on school computers but will abandon an educator who merely communicates a deficiency in a school curriculum.