TEACHER OF THE YEAR

According to the website of Overland High School in Aurora, it's "one of the most unique schools in the State of Colorado."

I'm not in a position to make any judgment about the veracity of that statement, but there's no question that it's become one of the most newsworthy schools in Colorado in recent days.

Overland's website enumerates the many reasons that make it such a special, special place.
Here are a few:

• First, Overland is perhaps the most diverse school in the state. We have students from all over the world, 130 different countries. There are 52 different languages spoken by the students at Overland High School.

That is incredibly diverse. No argument there.

• Overland is a challenging and rigorous school. We have many programs that will prepare students for their future. Overland is serious about creating an environment that gives students the skills they will need to go to college. Our graduates are well prepared to attend the best universities in the state, as well the nation. Approximately 86% of our students attend college after graduation.
  

I believe Overland is "serious about creating an environment that gives students the skills they will need" for college.

If Jay Bennish's class is any indication, students already will be accustomed to the "hate America" Leftist propaganda that is so commonplace on college campuses. The students will be able to seamlessly make the adjustment to theses lib oases.

Very well prepared, indeed.

• The staff at Overland High School is second to none. Teachers are dedicated to providing the very best education for each child. The majority of our teachers have advanced degrees. Many of our faculty have specialized training in their specific content areas as well.

I don't want to make baseless generalizations about the staff at Overland, so I'll focus on Jay Bennish, a social studies and American history teacher there since 2000.

He's obviously extremely dedicated. Unfortunately, he's not dedicated to teaching the subject at hand. The lecture for his World Geography class is very short on geography.

Apparently, geography doesn't get priority in Bennish's World Geography class. He uses the time as an opportunity to indoctrinate students with his radical views. There just isn't enough time for him to deliver his political speeches and cover the course material, too.

But don't forget, the "staff at Overland High School is second to none."

Bennish sounds like a "second to none" Leftist nutcase, a frustrated lib hoping to convince his students to think like he does.
The Cherry Creek School District, home to Overland High School, deals with the controversy that was sparked when student Sean Allen taped one of Bennish's "World Geography lectures."

The district has posted the latest on their investigation into Bennish's actions, as well as a PDF file of the course summary for Accelerated World Geography.

This is interesting.

Course Objectives

1. Students know how to use and construct maps, globes, and other geographic tools to locate and derive information about people, places, and environments

2. Students know the physical and human characteristics of places, and use this knowledge to define and study regions and their patterns of change

3. Students understand how physical processes shape Earth's surface patterns and systems

4. Students understand how economic, political, cultural, and social processes interact to shape patterns of human populations, interdependence, cooperation, and conflict

5. Students understand the effects of interactions between human and physical systems and the changes in meaning, use, distribution, and importance of resources

6. Students apply knowledge of people, places, and environments to understand the past and present and to plan for the future

Now, read how Bennish conducted his class on February 1, 2006.

Does it sound like he's teaching Accelerated World Geography and sticking to the course objectives, or does it seem like he's applying for a position as Howard Dean's speech writer?

You decide.
Full Transcript of February 1, 2006 Geography Lecture

Some jaw-dropping excerpts--

(Misspellings are from the Cherry Creek School District.)

You see how [Capitalism] is at odds with humanity, at odds with caring and compassion, at odds with human rights. Anytime you have a system that is designed to secure profit. When profit is the bottom motive, money. That means money is going to become more important than safety, human lives, etc.

Why are we invading Iraq? How do we know that the invasion of Iraq was for weapons of mass destruction, even if weapons of mass destruction had been found, how would you have known, how would you prove that that was not the real reason for us to go there? There are dozens upon dozens of countries that have weapons of mass destruction. Iraq is one of dozens. There are plenty of countries that are controlled by dictators, where people have no freedom, where they have weapons that could be threatening to America. We’re not invading any of those countries._________________________________

Did anyone in here watch any of Mr. Bush’s speech last night? ...

[T]he implication was that the solution to the violence in the middle east is democratization. And the implication through his language was that democracies don’t go to war, democracies aren’t violent, democracies don’t want weapons of mass destruction. This is what’s called blind, naïve faith in democracy. Who is the probably the single most violent nation on earth? United States. We’re a democracy. Quote unquote. Who has the most weapons of mass destruction? United States. Who is continuing to develop new weapons of mass destruction as we speak? United States. So, why would Mr. Bush think that other countries of democracy won’t want to be like us? ...

Do you see the dangerous precedent that we have set by illegally invading another country and violating their soverenity in the name of protecting against a potential future attack? ...

It’s not just a speech to America; it’s a speech to who? The whole world. It’s very obvious, if you listen to his language and listen to his body language, and you paid attention to what he was saying, he wasn’t only just talking to us. He’s talking to the whole planet. He’s threatening the whole planet. He started off his speech with talking about how America should be the country that dominates the world. That we have been blessed essentially by God to have the most civilized, the most advanced, best system and that it is our duty as Americans to use the military to go out into the world and make the world like us. Sounds a lot like the things that Adolph Hitler used to say. We’re the only ones who are right, everyone else is backwards and our job is to conquer the world and make sure that they all live just like we want them to. Now, I’m not saying that Bush and Hitler are exactly the same, obviously they are not, but there are some eerie similarities to the tones that they use. Very, very ethnocentric. Right? We’re right, you’re all wrong.
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Do we really want the Middle East to unite as one cohesive, political and cultural body? No. Because they could what? Threaten our supremacy. We want to keep the world divided. Now do we really want to kill innocent people? I don’t know. I don’t know the answer to that. I know that there are some Americans that do. People that work in the CIA, people who have to think like that, those kinds of dirty minds, dirty tricks, that’s how the intelligence mind works. Sometimes you do want to kill people just for the sake of killing them. Alright?
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You need to understand something. That when Al Qaeda attacked America on September 11, they were not attacking innocence. The CIA has an office in the World Trade Center. The Pentagon is a military target, the white house is a military target, the Congress is a military target. The World Trade Center is the economic center of our entire economy. The FBI who tracks down terrorists worldwide has an office in the World Trade Center. Some of the companies that work in the world trade center are these huge multinational corporations that are directly involved in the military industrial complex in supporting corrupt dictatorships in the Middle East. So in the minds of Al Qaeda, they are not attacking innocent people, they are attacking legitimate targets. People that have blood on their hands as far as they are concerned. We portrayed them as innocent because they are our friends and neighbors, family and loved ones...

Now in no way am I implying you have to figure this stuff out for yourself. But I want you to think about these things. Think about this right here. Here is the real homeland security. Fighting terrorism since 1492. I mean to many Native Americans. That flag is no different than the Nazi flag or the confederate flag. It represents the people who came and stole their land, lied, brought disease, rape, pillage, destruction, etc. So it all depends on other people’s perspectives. And of course we’re going to see ourselves as being in the right, at least the majority of us, because that’s us.
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Near the end of Bennish's "Geography lecture," he says, "I am not implying in any way that you should agree with me. I’m not even sure I’m taking a position."

NOT TAKING A POSITION?

I can buy that he's not saying that the students should agree with his drivel, but his claim that he may not be taking a position is absolutely ridiculous.

Cherry Creek School District believes that Bennish seems to have violated district policy, so he's been placed on administrative leave.

Sean Allen, the student who taped Bennish's "Geography lecture," should be hailed as a brave, principled individual.

He had the courage to blow the whistle.

Now, Sean is being vilified by Leftists because he exposed Bennish's abuse of his position of authority and power, as well as his violation of school district policy.

What Bennish did was inappropriate. There was no balance in his lecture, other than a few challenges from a student.

Some are trying to paint him as a victim in this matter. He's no victim. He was victimizing his students.

What Sean did was provide concrete evidence that Bennish was using his class as a platform to spew his "hate America" rhetoric. That is not what Bennish is getting paid to do.

Of course, Bennish has every right to be against Capitalism. He can blame America for the 9/11 attacks. He can view America as the Great Satan. Bennish can believe what he wants and say what he thinks.

HOWEVER, taxpayer dollars should not be used to support a teacher that fails to do his job -- teach World Geography. He went off on a political tirade, which is commonplace according to Sean Allen. He was not exposing students to another perspective in order to encourage them to think critically. Bennish was clearly advocating his anti-American views.

I think Bennish should leave Overland High School and teach at a school in Saudi Arabia.

The parents of students would love him over there. I think he'd have a shot at being awarded "Teacher of the Year."