"'The Philosophy of the School Room' [Jay Nordlinger]
In Impromptus and in a Corner post, I've published letters about ideological and obnoxious teachers. Old, old topic, ever fresh, somehow. The topic always elicits a lot of mail. And I just want to offer two more notes — won't take long.
One reader says she had a journalism prof who made her cry. (True, true, she shouldn't have been taking journalism — bogus subject.) The episode occurred during the government shutdown of the '90s, when all "non-essential" employees were told to stay home from work. The student, our reader, had the temerity to ask, "Why are there non-essential government employees at all?" The professor called her stupid.
But here's the shocker: "He apologized later."
One mo':
Jay,
I had a high-school history teacher who was an avowed Marxist. I was not, to put it mildly. My confrères told me to go along to get along. Few of them bought the teacher's line, but they were willing to repeat it for a grade.
One day, we students showed up and there was no teacher. Very unusual. We waited for some minutes until he finally came in. I said, "What's the matter, Mr. X, was the lecture late off the wire from Moscow this morning?" to general laughter.
For the first and only time in my school career, my father had to come in, as I was tagged as a disciplinary problem.
I got a kick out of that letter. Oh, one more thing: A reader sends in a quotation from Abraham Lincoln: "The philosophy of the school room in one generation is the philosophy of the government in the next."
Scariest thing I've heard all week."
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