The Role Of A Teacher

The Role Of A Teacher While you guys are waiting for decisions to be released, heres a topic that I think is worthy of discussion. Normally I dont enter this sort of territory with my blog, but I think its directly relevant to your age group and the journey towards college. As you guys are among the smartest and most thoughtful high school students in the world, Im really interested in what you have to say about this. Im referring to the story about the teacher in Colorado who was suspended for his remarks in the classroom. No doubt youve heard about it, as it is getting a lot of press heres one of many examples. By asking you for your opinions on this I am taking a risk, because this thread CANT devolve into a left versus right political debate. Its just not appropriate for an MIT admissions blog, and Id have to pull it if that happened. Its not that Im not interested in your political views; this just isnt the right forum in which to discuss them. So what Im asking you to discuss is not in regards to the political substance of the teachers comments. Rather, Im curious to know what you think about his actions in terms of educating his students. Was the manner in which he got his class fired up appropriate? Do you think he was successful in helping his students to come to their own conclusions? Do you think he was trying to influence them with his own agenda or simply trying to get them thinking? Again, this teacher was clearly left-leaning but could just as easily have been right-leaning. Therefore this is not a question of politics. Its a discussion about teaching and whats appropriate in the classroom. The thing that made me angriest about this whole thing was that I kept hearing over and over again throughout the medias coverage of this that 16-year-olds are so impressionable that we have to protect them from things like this. Excuse me? Granted its been a few years since I was 16, but I think 16-year-olds are perfectly capable of thinking for themselves and coming to their own conclusions. In that light, your words will speak loudest of all, so lets hear them.