Friday, February 29

You know the news is bad when my post about
a Quaker math teacher starts with....

...we are so extraordinarily fucked up in this country, I'm speechless.




"California State University East Bay has fired a math teacher after six weeks on the job becaus she inserted the word "nonviolently" in her state-required Oath of Allegiance form."

Yeah, she's a trouble-making Quaker. And it cost her her part-time teaching job.

Teachers can't ask to be nonviolent anymore.

Just sign the damn form and don't ask questions. That's what they tell a TEACHER. At a UNIVERSITY. In CALIFORNIA.

Did I mention the "extraordinarily fucked up in this country" part yet?

18 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:18 PM

    The thing that's even more fucking mind-boggling than someone actually being pissed off enough at someone for doing this to fire them, is someone actually being so fucking stupid that they could think that this wouldn't create a bunch of really bad press.

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  2. Anonymous5:06 PM

    Hey she will get a great pro bono lawyer from San Fran and they will sue the socks off of the school so alls well that ends well

    Wada ya mean by $4.00 gas?

    OG

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  3. Anonymous5:43 PM

    I just recently got my (hard-earned) middle school social studies and elementary education certificates from the Garden State, and they were nice enough to enclose a new "loyalty oath."

    Friends (Quakers) are NOT obligated to sign those.

    I typed a short note, which I did sign, affirming my agreement to obey and respect the laws of the United States and the state of New Jersey, as "they applied to my classroom teaching" and "as my conscience and personal faith will allow."

    I just made the thing up myself.

    It worked, here, at least. I got the certificates.

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  4. Anonymous5:46 PM

    (And you won't mind, I hope, if I steal this so I can rant and rave about it, too...)

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  5. i like the site where you got the picture..... i'll use that a lot. link

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  6. wouldnt that happen in like Kansas but not California?

    No teacher Left Behind..

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  7. Even with a blown out disk and two bulging ones, a knee surgery and one carpal tunnel surgery, with one to go, I made the right decision when I became a Boilermaker and not a teacher. Fucking bullshit's fucking ridiculous.

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  8. just too screwed!






    p.s. i'm amazed. the picture of the teacher looks so much like my mom at that age that it's spooky!

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  9. Anonymous5:11 PM

    Sorry, I didn't see your post until after I emailed you.

    Big load of crap if yiou ask me, although I already got a comment on one of the boards saying it was the right thing to do because she refused to defend her country.

    I can see CSUEB out my window as I type this. It doesn't look as nice at it used to.

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  10. I'm not shocked. California's Governor was buddies with a notorious war criminal, Kurt Waldheim.

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  11. At my instructor job, I had to sign an EXTREMELY vaguely worded pledge to "avoid raising controversial topics, or topics deliberately chosen to inflame" in my instruction.

    I get the feeling this would never be used against me unless they were looking for a reason to fire me, but it is certainly indicative of where we have ended up in this country.

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  12. the bullshit "loyalty oath" is more important to them than performance. and this professor, while teaching in the public school system, had a reputation for bringing the best out of hard to reach and motivate students.

    that's the score from california.

    great teachers - 0

    fucking tool political appointee lawyers - 1

    yeah, we know the score.

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  13. goes beyond un-American, this qualifies for un-Somalian

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  14. Majorly fucked up.

    Right before I left the school where I was teaching, they started handing out what amounted to loyalty oaths. New teachers were expected to tow the line, while veterans were expected to vocally and enthusiastically support the administration. They also inserted a phrase in the contracts where they could fire anyone without cause. Meanwhile, actual competence in teaching was item 8 or 9 in a list of expectations.

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  15. I asked the Missus (who teaches junior high math) if she remembered signing any sort of "loyalty oath" and she thought that was stupidest thing she'd ever heard of. Which leads me to ask, how in the hell did California get a loyalty oath for teachers and not Texas? I mean seriously, if you hadn't seen what state this story is out of, would you have guessed California first or Texas? I'm surprised Texas doesn't make teachers swear they don't believe in global warming, gay marriage, communism or Oprah. Of course, we're on the verge of getting a Flat Earth majority on the state board of education, so things may change. And objecting to the oath on Christian religious grounds? What kind of secular humanism is that? Everybody knows Jesus carries an AK-47! It's right there in the Bible, people; John Hagee said so!

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  16. So it's been ten minutes and I still haven't got past "her state-required Oath of Allegiance form."

    State required Oath of Allegiance??

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  17. Anybody know what's in the 'Oath' btw?

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  18. I too am struggling with the concept of the "state-required Oath of Allegiance form." Allegiance to what?! Obviously, not to non-violence!

    And this firing is in California, and at a state university, not some high-dollar private institution! I'm totally freaked out.

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