Is This The End?

Who would have thunk it? The end of my teaching career because of Zionism.

OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it did sound provocative, huh?

I'm pretty sure I blogged about a problem I had with a parent last school year when I did the Amnesty International activity that focused on kids in Palestine. She basically went all AIPAC on me. Of course Israel could do no wrong, the Palestinians are terrorists, etc. I'm not going to get into that here. I've blogged on my views on all that at the other blog.

Well, this week we did a letter to Iran, trying to stop someone from getting executed for a crime he committed when he was 17-years-old. The trial was a bit hokey, but either way, the goal was just not to kill the guy (he's an adult now). Life in jail, but you can't unkill him if things are found out to be different.

Well, today, Mom delivered a two-page letter. The first long paragraph gave her gripe (again) about last year...so it's obvious that she's still pissed. And again, Iran sponsors terrorism, blah, blah, blah. First I'll give the response to her shit, then I'll tell you about the "compromise" that I'm about to break.

*Let's say I agree that Iran sponsors terrorism. We've been shown for the last 8 years that not talking to your enemies is NOT the way to deal with the situation. That DOESN'T mean capitulation, that means you don't be a douchebag.

*The letter actually indirectly tells Iran that they suck.

*The United States sponsors terrorism. Sorry. Tell me to go back to Cuba (I'd probably enjoy the music more, anyway), but it's true. And we have lost our right to preach to anyone. Again, does that mean to roll over? No. But preaching ain't gonna cut it. Sorry.

*I do have issues with this Israel's shit doesn't stink attitude. Do they have security worries? Absolutely. Have they made them 20x worse? You betcha, Sparky. Am I a bad Jew? Don't care. I'm in a Jewish family by luck...I could've been born a poor black child. (Or combine it and been born Sammy Davis Jr.) Right is right and rigid is rigid.

OK...so the compromise...now when I use the Amnesty Urgent Actions, I'm supposed to provide a second option for all the kids. Like, if you don't want to do the Amnesty letter you can do a letter to the editor on any current events topic of your choice. That was what I agreed to when school ended today. I've since decided that I'm only going to provide that option for the Mom's kid. (Oh, and by the way, I have a very good relationship with the kid) Here's why:

*Our kids are lazy. It's just the truth. Every single one of them will take the easy way out every time. Normal or not, it's just the way it is...so if I give the choice, I may as well scrap the AI part.

*The letter writing is too good of an activity to give up. I'll fight for this one. These kids can't write. These letters help them learn. We also mix in geography, current events and history. And best of all, it gets them used to being activists at a young age. If they come out of this, really feeling that we should execute people who commit crimes when they're kids, then I'll want them to explain to me why - to defend their stance and make sure it wasn't just something their Dad heard on Fox News.

*I will not capitulate to one person who tries to manipulate what I teach. This woman homeschooled her kid for years and the kid came to us illiterate. She's made amazing strides in the year she's been with us - which tells me that we know what we're doing.

And I'm going to turn this into a serious positive. It's been percolating in my brain all afternoon - it's amazing how coincidence happens. One of the books offered in this month's Quality Paperback Book Club is Letters to a Bullied Girl. Also, we do this thing every morning called "Advisory". It's an OK concept, but like everything at the school, it's done in a really uneven manner. But that's for another post. So I can use this book in Advisory, then convert it to what countries have done about safety. I'm focusing on Hawaiian history and it is a warrior culture, so we can do a ton of comparing of countries, time periods and individual choices. Including the Middle East. Eat That!