Academic Freedom? - March 19, 2006

By: Sellers S. Crain, Jr.

    Last week a high school teacher named Jay Bennish made the news by being suspended pending an investigation by his local school Board.  Mr. Bennish is supposed to be a Geography teacher, but he must be a frustrated Social Studies teacher because he got into things that were out of his subject areas.  His remarks that caused the controversy and which led to the investigation concerned the Iraq war, America, and President Bush.  He said he was answering questions put to him by his students, but the tape I heard sounded as if he was the one who initiated the discussion, and it was during this discussion that he was asked questions by some of the students, one in particular who also taped the discussion.

    Mr. Bennish took opposition to the war in Iraq, which as a private citizen he has every right to do, but does that also give him the right to interject such feelings into a public school geography class?  He also said that America is the most violent nation on earth today, and although I admit that I may not have heard his entire comment, there was no evidence presented to back up that charge.  Even if there were, where does his statement fit into the curriculum of a high school geography class?  In another statement, he compared President Bush to Adolph Hitler.  Once again, he certainly has the right to his own political feelings, but does he have the right to express these to kids in a high school geography class?  Mr. Bennish's lawyer is defending his right to make these outlandish statements on the grounds of academic freedom.

    Academic Freedom does not give a teacher the right to make outlandish remarks to his impressionable students.  It does not give him the right to make any comment he chooses to make.  If that were the case, then a Christian teacher could freely express his or her faith in God, in His Word, in creation, etc., but they are forbidden to do so under the so-called constitutional "separation of church and state."  When I was teaching in public school, a biology teacher at the same school was an atheist.  He taught his own brand of religion freely, taught Darwinian Evolution as a fact of science, and picked at and made fun of the students in the class who believed in God and the Bible.  Often students would come to me, some with tears, knowing I was also a preacher and ask me questions after one of his harangues.  This was in personal conversations on my own free time.  Nothing was done to stop this teacher's attacks on believing students, but I was told by the principle that I was hired to teach English not to teach the Bible.  My response to him was that I was not teaching the Bible, but if the Biology teacher had the right to teach Evolution as a fact, and to attack the Christian believers in his class, as long as he did that and students came to me with their questions, I would answer them.

Brotherly,

Sellers