This doesn't seem like news at all; a previous law was upheld. So what? Is it because of the stipulations the judge added?
Yeah, politicking towards the younger generation is bad, so are our rights to opinions whilst in a learning environment. Not much seems to have changed at all.
Quote:
Last week, the unresolved nuances were on display at Middle School 61 in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where an oversize portrait of Mr. Obama that had been hanging near the entrance of the school was taken down under pressure from the Department of Education. The banner showed the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other black luminaries looking down on the man who could become the nation’s first black president.
“It only gave images of hope,” said Asher Rison, a teacher at the school. “It wasn’t about politics.”
The Department of Education disagreed, saying that whatever the intent, the banner amounted to political favoritism prohibited under the department’s rules.
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This seems to be at the heart and spark of the debate to me, more so than the "button billings". The teacher was indeed mistaken and out of place to assume that his/her (I don't what gender the name 'Asher' is usually attributed to, sorry) views on the Obama campaign would offer in the future--and the idea that it offers hope to some can equally instill disdain and reactionary fears of losing our once-proud American identity in others. The school and its staff, even under government institution, are certainly not the place nor people to issue a rallying cry for certain ideals/parties. Teachers as a whole should merely be the catalyst for insightful and thought-provoking philosophies that are developed within the core of every individual student and their respective views on society; it shouldn't have to deal with educators rejecting free-form thinking in the student atmosphere by pushing established governmental idols. It doesn't make sense the term "teaching" in such a scenario.