You be the teacher!
You're a high school history teacher who decides to throw a historical costume pageant. One of your students announces his intention to show up in a, shall we say, controversial costume. What will you do?
Before you answer, check out what happened to Tennessee high school teacher Mickey Vanzant:
[...]when one of his students dressed up as an infamous Ku Klux Klan leader for a project in one of his honors classes last week, Vanzant acknowledges he got a lesson in sensitivity.The parents of Khym Wilson, who is black, criticized Vanzant for permitting a student to dress as Hiram Wesley Evans, the national organization's Imperial Wizard in the 1920s.
Vanzant is not an innocent victim in this controversy; the story makes it plain that the student sought approval for the costume.
It's plain why this is controversial. The KKK are and were evil, deluded people. And their appearance prompts visceral revulsion in me; I can only imagine what it does to a non-white person. So Khym Wilson's reaction, at least to a point, is understandable.
But by the time a kid hits high school, one of the important lessons he needs to learn is to "get over it." If I'd thought in high school that the world owed me a comfy landing spot, I would have had even more problems than I did. I thank God that when I was accepted for the county honor band but ordered by the pothead band director to stay away (because I had quit the school band, which was being run into the ground by said pothead director,) my parents encouraged me to stand up for myself. I demanded a meeting with the principal, and got it. He backed up his band director, as he had to do, but I stood up for myself. And that meant something. Looking back on it, this story would probably have been of at least slight interest to the local newspaper. I'm glad I don't have a scrapbook image of myself looking sad and forlorn holding my trombone in the local rag, though. It took me awhile to get over it, but I understand what happened.
Khym, I understand your revulsion and perhaps even fear at what happened in class. I just think you could have confronted it more constructively.
And Mr. Vanzant, shame on you for not making it plain up front that you expected your students to handle controversy like young adults.
(Link via Romenesko)
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I never knew about that! I also only knew the "cover" story, that Band Director X had contact lens problems. Then there was the whole "balooning" thing...we may have to re-open this file. Sunday am (up at 7:30 as usual) was fantastic seeing the Saddam capture. I just want to see what a 600-Man Raid looks like. Apparently they even had artillery (not sure of the nomenclature) on the raid. They were code-red, and definitely expecting rain.
Posted by: FF | December 19, 2003 09:26 AM
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Director X must have cut quite a swath. A local music teacher told me she went to college with him, and he was known there as "Snowman" and not because of any familiarity with white frozen water. What an evil piece of work to unleash on students.
Posted by: Chris Jones | December 19, 2003 10:11 AM
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My signal memory of this guy, and the moment when I decided to leave the band, was the time he handed out a new piece of music, gave us the "instruments up" signal, and a downbeat. As was the norm in those days, about 1/3 of the band hit the downbeat - let's just say sightreading was not their forte. He cut us off, sat on his stool looking like he was going to cry (could have been his contacts, I dunno), and then had us hand the piece back. Dumb bastard. Way to whip the band into shape with determination and hard work!
Posted by: Brian Jones | December 19, 2003 10:15 AM
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Oh, and PS I once heard Boortz mention this guy as a ballooning contact. I wonder if Boortz knew the guy was a menace 2 society.
Posted by: Brian Jones | December 19, 2003 10:15 AM
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Not that this has anything do with anything previously mentioned, just thought I'd share. A discussion on the topic of drinking at Cabo's my local waterin hole, revealed no one in the romm (save your humble narrator) was aware that Ethyl Alcohol is the prime mover in the libations we humans consume for fun or sport. I was compelled to document this, which I now even have the formula for, C3H5OH, if memory serves. the OH is a (I think) a hydroxyl, which is instrumental in determining the group of alcohols to which it belong (there are three, and then the "higher" alcohols of which Isopropyl Alcohol is the flagship molecule). Who says drinking is not an intellectual pasttime! (a former chemistry major).
Posted by: FF | December 19, 2003 01:21 PM
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One thing I miss
Is Cold Ethyl with her skeleton kiss
We met last night
Makin' love by the refrigerator light
Ethyl Ethyl let me squeeze you in my arms
Ethyl Ethyl come and freeze me with your charms
One thing
No lie
Ethyl's frigid as an eskimo pie
She's cool
In bed
Well she oughtta be 'cause Ethyl's dead!
Aaah good times.
Posted by: Brian Jones | December 19, 2003 04:10 PM