The Bennish defense
March 2, 2006
By now, everyone has heard about the crackpot high school geography teacher, Jay Bennish, who is on suspension from his job in a Denver suburb for turning his classroom into a liberal indoctrination camp.
Now, people will differ on whether his views are plausible, or even sane. The school board will have to answer to the community as to whether the district's students should be subjected to this kind of harrangue in the stead of actual instruction in the teacher's particular nominal subject. Frankly, in today's America, I'd have to say that it could go either way -- indeed, the only publicized protests in the matter are those of the suspended teacher's students, walking out of class in his defense. Word from the student who actually reported the incident is that pupils could bag an easy 'A' in the class by agreeing vocally with Mr. Bennish, and that is a reasonable explanation for their actions, I suppose. And that's all fine; I have no son or daughter in Colorado, and, frankly, just the publicity of the case, with audiotaped evidence, is a useful bit of information for the public to have if nothing else comes of the matter.
But I was much more interested in hearing about the grounds of the federal case Mr. Bennish is said to be about to file -- that suspending him was a violation of his right to free speech.
As if.
If that's the best his lawyer could come up with, Mr. Bennish is wasting his money. To understand why, try going into your job, whether store clerk or attorney, doctor or movie usher, and giving a protracted screed on the political topic of your choice instead of doing whatever it is you are paid to do. Then tell your irate boss to leave you alone, because he's abrogating your freedom of speech.
Mr. Bennish is perfectly free to stand on a street corner in his free time and give whatever political rant he wants to whoever will listen. He can write books filled with his nonsense. And they may even sell -- God knows it works for Al Franken, although that anyone would actually pay money for them when Quilted Northern is so much softer and cheaper, is something I just don't get. Hey -- that's freedom. We have it, we love it. Nobody will drag him off to jail for it. But if the angry teacher ends up losing his job, it will be not for speaking his mind, but rather for not doing what they pay him to do -- teach geography.
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