Jay Bennish Case

Please tell me what this teacher did wrong. You can't, because whether your knowledge of his case is deep or shallow, you know he did nothing wrong. Even if you conclude he was one-sided in his views concerning capitalism, Bush, Iraq, torture, and WMD (concluding that means disregarding or minimizing the impact of his recorded statements that he was only giving this view to solicit open discussion and that he appreciated remarks to the contrary) that one-sidedness shouldn't get him fired as a high school teacher, period. In order for you to convince me that it should, I need the positive justification for it, as well as proof that the banning of high school teachers' one-sided politics will be applied equally to the pro-capitalist and/or pro-war sides. It won't be, or at least it hasn't been for the past oh, couple of hundred years, so unless your argument is that school administrators should allow only one side of the political spectrum (again, I'm going to need some positive justification)...well, you see where I'm going with this.

Now here's why it's important to defend this guy even if you're queasy about anti-war rhetoric in high school classrooms (you're only queasy because you know it almost never happens): If you have kids or are going to have kids, if you teach or know someone who does, imagine with me a world where Jay Bennishes did not exist, but teachers with a bias the other way did. The latter teachers will never be banned, because they can say their thing (in this context, go Bush!, yay Iraq war!, etc.) under the guise of patriotism. If we don't speak up for Jay Bennish now, it's going to make it easier to maintain the current role of schools as glorified baby sitters and ideology factories. The counter-tendency, of schools as places honing critical thinking and genuine life skills, is struggling to stay alive in the "war forever" culture of the current epoch. If Jay Bennish loses, that's one less breath for that counter-tendency. There's zero chance that if Jay Bennish loses this will validate the kind of balancing called for by some of the same people who complain about leftism in universities.

Sean Hannity's delight in the possibility of student tape recorder vigilantism is another reason we should all fight for Bennish:

Sean. I want to thank you for something, because kids have suffered under this indoctrination for years. I get tons of calls to my radio show, lots of letters about it. Now every left-wing teacher knows that there might be a Sean in their class that might be recording their statements. Now, if they are so confident to say it in front of a captive audience of students, young students, then they ought to be able to debate them publicly. So I want to applaud you. You may have done more for the educational system than anybody has done in years. And I say thank you.

Of course, there is no evidence indicating Bennish is afraid to debate his ideas in public (and in a fair debate he would give Hannity the country ass whippin Hannity calculatively avoids on his radio and TV shows). But my larger point is still the stakes in this fight: If Bennish loses, "balance" and "objectivity" and "fairness" don't win, not in the high schools. Silencing Bennish isn't a victory for balance. Instead, Hannity wins. Students tape-recording their teachers wins.

Speaking of which, I've seen and heard absolutely nothing about the Bennish case from the "academic freedom" outfits who bemoan "leftist" discourse in academia, but I know someone who's going to try to stir up that pot and when that happens I'll link to it.

Here's the deal: An injury to one really is an injury to all, and especially an injury like this one.