MPS teacher makes students write letters to school board
Conservative bloggers are calling for a Milwaukee teacher's job Friday after she had her third-grade students write letters to the school board asking to save the jobs of other teachers.
In an article for the magazine "Rethinking Schools" Fratney teacher Dale Weiss explained how she assigned her students to write a letter to the MPS board opposing a cut in the number of teachers.
"I want each of you to write your own letter to the school board," she described telling her class. "Think about your own thoughts, questions and feelings about the budget cuts."
Conservative blogger Kyle Olsen was seeing red over that article.
On the website biggovernment.com, Olson called it "third grade socialist indoctrination," and said Dale Weiss put her students to work for the teachers union.
"Students are little more than political paws in their game," he wrote. "They're setting them up to do their dirty lobbying work."
A spokesperson for MPS said Dale Weiss' actions are now under "careful review" and could make no further comment as this could soon be a personnel issue.
Teachers' union president Bob Peterson believes Weiss' lesson was not lobbying.
"Having students write a letter and expressing whatever feelings they have to a school board to a governor or the president is great," he said. "I think more people should write letters expressing their opinions."
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Crossly Annoyed - Jun 10, 2011 8:58 PM
Weiss begins by describing her explanation of how looming budget cuts would affect her school and students: "Besides markedly increased class sizes in the coming school year, we would be losing our art teacher, library media specialist, math teacher leader, six classroom teachers, and an educational assistant.
"I took a deep breath and readied myself to share the bad news with my 3rd-grade students. It is never easy to have this kind of conversation, and this year’s budget discussion, I knew, would be especially difficult. I began by briefly explaining how a districtwide budget works. I likened it to the budget a family might have, comparing each person in the family’s needs to each MPS school and its needs. I emphasized that sometimes there is not enough money to take care of every need that deserves to be taken care of."
She then encouraged her students to think about and discuss ways that they might take action on public policy that affected and disturbed them.
Pretty radical stuff, huh? Sounds like a pretty decent lesson in civics to me.
Pedro - Jun 11, 2011 8:15 AM
rowdy99 - Jun 11, 2011 8:44 AM
willie4201 - Jun 11, 2011 11:04 AM
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