Anyone hear about this? Teacher takes kids to Museum then gets fired

[Hawkeye]

OK someone in TX (Shimmer?) hopefully knows this story...

But this art teacher in Texas decided to take some kids on a fieldtrip to a high art museum. This teacher has been teaching art for 28 years.

A kid happens to glace around and in the corner or another room she happens to see a piece of art that has nudity. I think it was a statue that was nude.

Kid goes home to tell the parents after this field trip: Mommy Daddy I saw a NUDE Painting.

Mom and dad go complain to the principal.

The teacher gets fired. BUT the school board is claiming the teacher got fired due to Perfomance issues.


Now let me tell you as a former parapro in the state of GA, I doubt its much different in TX but everything gets blown out of proportion here.

Now let me ask this-how "Sensitive" and what not are these parents today? I didn't know whether to vomit or to laugh at the stupidity of it. But then again when I was working with the county you can't even hug a child or you're molesting them. *rolls eyes* But this is what has me so upset.

1) The teacher cannot call ahead and say: Listen I'm bringing kids to your museum, can you please remove ANY FORM OF NUDITY so the children will not get "OFFENDED"

2) The PARENTS signed the permission slip. MANY schools will refuse to send a child on a school trip without a permission slip. This is parental responsiblities folks. If you're going to get that offended by something maybe the parent should've called the museum.

God forbid. That would require taking part in the childs activities!

3) It's the human body. I can understand if it was a small child (K-5). I really can but I have a feeling this was renissance or greek art etc. It's been around for hundreds of years. And I even have a stronger feeling that these kids were not k-5.

I heard this on the radio today and it just made me amazed at many things. It just shows where our culture is headed and the state of our minds right now.
1) Government schools are supposed to raise the kids. The parents should have absolutely NO responsibility in what the kids are going to do on field trips etc. (sorry thats just one of those things I hate and saw so much of, thank GOD for the kids that actually have good parents that DO check up and everything for them)
2) Political Correctness-It's nudity. You're offended by nudity. You're kid saw nudity at a museaum. You cannot have nudity. It's offensive. No Nudity ANYWHERE in the museum least the virgin eyes of the child might accidently see it.
3) Shielding the kids-No I'm talking about real dangers out there like bullying, drug usage, kidnapping etc but I am talking about being way to protective. The kid falls you sue the school system. Kids do that though, they fall. Kid looks around you get a teacher fired. Kids do that they look at things they aren't supposed to see. My question is what is to happen in the future? What are we teaching our kids?
a) We are teaching them if we dont like something we just complain and complain and then something happens.
b) If that doesn't work you sue the people
c) NO RESPONSIBILITY
3) The school system: Don't even get me started with the school systems.
4) The teacher cannot do her job least she fear she OFFENDS Somebody and because of that guess what happens?
her perfomance goes DOWN

Im sorry this just throughly upsets me a lot because now because this one parent complained nobody in that county I suspect will ever get to go on a field trip to an art museum ever again.

GAH.

It.is.F*****ridiculous

 

[aeni]

Sounds like there's more than we know.

But I have to admit, parents are more anal about crap these days and I can't figure out what made them that way.

 

[Raerae]

People are more anal about everything because of this wave of PCness that has overtaken our country. Everyone feels they have a right to complain about anything and everything.

I mean c'mon, SuperBowl few years back? Our country was more obsessed with Janets boob than anything else going on. War in Iraq? Who cares, Janet's boob is more important.

I'm surprised congress hasn't passed a law saying women need to wear the burka since were so offended with the female body. When did breasts becomes so offensive anyways?

Our country is oversexed, and embarassed about it at the same time. At least when it comes to womens anatomy. But it's A-OK for billboards, radio commercials, and TV commercials to spam advertising about Viagra and the other handful of drugs to fight off erectile disfunction! I mean c'mon, heaven forbid a man see a picture of a nude woman in a museum, and not be able to get it up

 

[Shimmer]

I remember the story on the news.
The teacher was kind of numb about it but seriously, what can she do? someone got offended. :/

As is typical.

 

[Beauty Mark]

Quote:

2) The PARENTS signed the permission slip. MANY schools will refuse to send a child on a school trip without a permission slip. This is parental responsiblities folks. If you're going to get that offended by something maybe the parent should've called the museum.

I thought pretty much every school made students get a permission slip signed before you stepped off school grounds.

I think it's absurd and I don't think there's much more to the story, though I could be wrong. We live in a lawsuit-happy world, and it's probably more cost-effective to fire the teacher than risk being sued by the parents.

I think it's always sad people get more upset about nudity (not sexual nudity, just plain nudity) than so much else.

I pity teachers. They have such a hard job nowadays. They have to be parents somewhat (or moral conscience has them be parents) but have to be so careful to adhere to rules and not offend the parents.

 

[*Stargazer*]

That happened in the area that I'm from. What can I say? People are ridiculous. I've spent many hours at the DMA and the fact that people are bitching about a naked statue just shows how repressed Americans can be.

 

[aeni]

Hooray for being a country primarily based on Protestantism!

 

[kimmy]

so, what...these parents think they can hide human anatomy from their kid forever?

ridiculous.

 

[giz2000]

I am currently an art student, and it surprises me how repressed people are about nudes....I have to take a figure drawing class where they have both male and female nude models. They pay $15/hour to pose...you'd think people would jump at the job to make easy money....they don't ("eww..people would see me naked....ewww. Honey, they just want to draw you...nothing else).

That puritanical attitude is totally uncalled for. Like someone else mentioned, if it had been younger students, then maybe...but high schoolers????

 

[Beauty Mark]

I understand why some people don't want to model nude. It's very scary to expose all the flaws you have or think you have in front of strangers. For many people, it isn't about your genitalia, necessarily (unless you think it's lacking

) but about that little bit cellulite or a roll of fat.

What I don't understand is friends who've taken art classes who are weird about the nude sketchig part. These have been women weirded out by sketching other women who are strangers.

 

[MiCHiE]

I would totally pose nude......but, I'd also beat the crap outta the first person that drew one of my stretch marks, LOL. J/K. Maybe.

One of my clients, a former teacher, was talking about this. It's really a shame that people are THAT uptight about nudity---especially in an art form. Has the world really changed that much or were we just oblivious as kids?

 

[MAC_Pixie04]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raerae People are more anal about everything because of this wave of PCness that has overtaken our country. Everyone feels they have a right to complain about anything and everything. I mean c'mon, SuperBowl few years back? Our country was more obsessed with Janets boob than anything else going on. War in Iraq? Who cares, Janet's boob is more important. I'm surprised congress hasn't passed a law saying women need to wear the burka since were so offended with the female body. When did breasts becomes so offensive anyways? Our country is oversexed, and embarassed about it at the same time. At least when it comes to womens anatomy. But it's A-OK for billboards, radio commercials, and TV commercials to spam advertising about Viagra and the other handful of drugs to fight off erectile disfunction! I mean c'mon, heaven forbid a man see a picture of a nude woman in a museum, and not be able to get it up

I love that shows like Maury and Jerry Springer come on at the times most children are arriving at home from school. And, hours later, the stations show cartoons. So it's not difficult for a kid to get their hands on some adult material. It's not like the teacher showed a porn in class, one student saw a piece of art depicting a nude human body. If he hadn't seen one by then, then wtf's up with his parents? And that superbowl thing was bullshit. it wasn't even a SECOND. most people missed it until it was reaired to death on tv tabloids and the news. OH THE HORROR! THE SCANDAL! like 50% of the people at my dad's superbowl party that year missed it. they only knew about it when it was replayed over and over, otherwise it wouldnt have been a big deal.

and the other day, at 1:30pm, i heard a girl getting her ass torn up by Flavor Flav on VH1...i'm sure there were tons of kids at home in the room with their parents seeing/hearing the same thing I was. And whats the repercussion for this? Nothing.

 

[GalleyGirl]

I work at a museum, so this has been a topic of discussion on a museum list serve I belong to. Basically someone on the list wrote to the school board to find out more, and indeed there is a back story. This particular teacher has been on review for other things, and was up for an evaluation. Rather than undergo the evaluation, the teacher put in for a transfer to another school, which was denied, because there were still problems concerning her performance in the classroom that needed to be addressed. Also, the newspapers talk about her being an "award winning" teacher. This "award" was basically an advertising thing where a local business would pick a teacher at random to bestow this award on to show they supported the local school district.

 

[Hawkeye]

Hmm interesting. at least we know some back story

 

[Kisbee]

I think they should make kids draw nudes in art, from about the age of 11, because I can tell you, after my first year of art college I'd come home thinking "If I have to look at one more naked person, I'm going to scream!". It gets boring after a while...might lower the teenage pregnancy rate too..