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Kentucky Teacher Burns Flag in Class

Newspaper current event by mikeforbes on 22 August 2006, tagged as education, politics, and government

Dan Holden, a seventh-grade social studies teacher at Stuart Middle School in Louisville, KY, burned two American flags in front of his class last Friday during a lesson on freedom of speech. While school district officials have stated that the teacher's actions did not appear to be politically motivated, and that he only intended to inspire his students to write an opinion paper on the subject of flag burning, Mr. Holden was still reassigned to "non-instructional duties" pending an investigation into the incident. Reactions of students and parents ranged from confusion to outrage over both the controversial political issue of burning the flag and also the safety issue of setting fires in a crowded classroom.

Mr. Holden appears to be on solid legal ground, as flag burning has been defined as Constitutionally-protected free speech since 1990. But is it wise to expose 13-year-old children to such politically and emotionally charged issues that seem more typical of late high school or even university classrooms?

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Get Some Priorities by Anonymous :: NR0

I understand that you've got to teach kids about freedom of speech, but why is everyone so obsessed with it right now, especially to the point that it's detrimental to a very important issue - patriotism. The U.S. is in a war, a huge global war, against terrorists who absolutely hate America. Freedom of speech may be important, but there are some even larger issues right now and it seems like it would be better to instruct kids about that right without attacking the symbol of that right. Kids need to learn to respect that flag, and while they might have the right to burn it, it doesn't mean you should. It's also pretty damn irresponsible for a teacher to be goading his kids into activities like this when there are perfectly acceptable alternatives. You don't have to burn the flag to teach freedom of speech! Kids need to learn that America, as represented by that flag, is a great place that guarantees their freedom of speech, not that they have a right to piss all over a symbol that's been the hope of milllions of people all over this world. What happened to everybody's sense of decency?

Posted 23 August 2006, Hide, Reply