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Flag-Burning Teacher: A Lesson In Free Speech
Stuart Middle School Teacher Burns U.S. Flags In Class, Lesson Causes Uproar
"A Stuart Middle School teacher has been removed from the classroom after he burned two American flags in class during a lesson on freedom of speech, Jefferson County Public Schools officials said. Dan Holden, who teaches seventh-grade social studies, burned small flags in two different classes Friday and asked students to write an opinion paper about it, district spokeswoman Lauren Roberts said. A teacher in the school district since 1979, Holden has been temporarily reassigned to non-instructional duties pending a district investigation." Note: credit for this topic goes to phoeniks (a former AGer) who posted this 283-reply thread on Soundchain. |
I know with today's ADD/short attention span/impulse control problem kids you have to do things to grab their attention and invest them in the educational process, but a simple discussion would have been more appropriate. I liked to be blowing stuff up in Chemistry class, but Social Studies should be more sedate. Don't they have film strips anymore?
Admittedly, I don't like flag burning, except as a means of destroying a damaged flag, but it's considered protected speech. Now, is there a "just because" exception to this? The teacher wasn't protesting anything, rather he was wantonly destroying the flags ... |
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You should only be burning stuff in a chemistry classroom, which has presumably been designed for that kind of stuff with the thick bench tops, and a possibly more robust sprinkler system. The guy probably broke some rules by having an open fire in the classroom.
But I've got no real problem with him burning a flag for an assignment. It's a stunt for getting the attention of the students. However, if lots of teachers start doing it, it loses its impact. So it's probably not such a good idea to be doing this. |
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It sure would be educational though, wouldn't it? In my classes they just held up a board with "example" drugs tacked to it, so we could see that some drugs were powders and some were pills and some were dried leaves. After that we were "educated" I suppose since we could then identify different drugs by name.
Nobody asked why it was legal to have drugs tacked to a board and not in your pocket. Everybody wondered what the hell they really were and how they could get some to find out more. Well done, C. D. East Junior High School. |
I think it is a fine example and have no issue with it.
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And if so, do the objections appear to make sense to you, do they appear to be based on solid reasoning? Edit: As phoeniks posted, "The question is "why is an issue" - and on several forums, so far, not one American has told me why. It's been up repeatedly as a constitutional amendment, yet you all blush and pretend it isn't there...it's the emotion, the reason, the wtf, that I am asking about. Something you take absolutely for granted but I don't understand at all. The elephant in the room. Flag burning... what's the fuss about?" |
Free speech or freedom of expression is no excuse for abusing accepted social norms.
Freedom of expression is crucial for a democracy however it does not relieve oneself of the responsibility of self-governance. |
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Ok, well you don't have to actually burn the flag to teach students any more than you need to burn books to make the same point. You can, but any added effectiveness of the lesson isn't enough to justify the destruction of a flag. Basically, a flag that is destroyed for a purpose supporting that which it stands for is a flag honored, but that isn't the case here.
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