Word: classrooms
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...could speak a little English. He showed me the rubble of his destroyed schoolhouse. Only two things had been salvaged from the building: a small, waterlogged globe used for geography lessons and a framed photograph of junta leader Than Shwe that normally hung at the front of the classroom. Asked if Than Shwe was a good person, the teacher laughed. "No, very bad." Asked why he had salvaged the picture the teacher struggled for the right English word and said, "scared." Then he brought his wrists together to mime handcuffs...
...over the past few years. She won the Under-20 Junior World Fencing Championships in 2005 and 2006 and was the youngest foilist named to Team USA for the 2007 World Fencing Championships in St. Petersburg, Russia. In the past, Cross has competed internationally and done well in the classroom simultaneously; however, she was forced to take the last year and a half off from school to devote herself fully to her Olympic dream.“We’ve been supporting [her Olympic] quest over the last three years while she’s been at Harvard...
...clapped at his comment, I thought that crossed the line … I was facing intolerance of ideas and intolerance of freedom of expression.” But cancelling class does in fact mean stifling her students’ views and depriving them of an environment for productive classroom discourse. Accusing her students of a misdeed for which she herself is responsible —“intolerance of freedom of expression”—is simply a case of the pot calling the kettle black. And her willingness to take her grievances to court poses...
...Whether or not Venkatesan has grounds for her case, the situation has troubling implications. The litigious threats are among a recent spate of well-publicized incidents in which conflicts that have failed to find mediation in the classroom have spilled into other realms, like the Internet or the courthouse. Like the Horace Mann case, featuring vicious Facebook groups aimed at high school teachers, Venkatesan’s move to a lawsuit and book deal represent a failure of reconciliation within the classroom. Student-teacher arguments are nothing new, of course, but these escalated clashes still suggest a lack of mutual...
...It’s possible, of course, that we don’t have the full story. Perhaps more happened in that classroom than the news stories report; the whole affair is clouded by confusion and eccentricity. But as things stand now, it’s no surprise that Venkatesan has had trouble finding a lawyer: Her arguments seem groundless. Venkatesan has flip-flopped a number of times about whether or not she will drop the case, but as this issue goes to press, she still plans to sue and to write her autobiography. To do so would be unfair...