Teacher’s Antics and Educational Ethics

studentsBonnie Kerrigan Snyder – For nearly a decade now, I’ve been keeping track of what I call “K-12 Whoppers” — examples of egregious and embarrassing educator antics — in order to understand and document the problem of growing teacher bias and general lack of professionalism in our schools. I do this because, like many Americans, I’m a captive observer of our declining cultural standards and also because I’ve personally experienced unacceptably substandard teaching, both as a student and parent.

I’m not talking about momentary, understandable lapses of judgement coupled with a sincere apology when warranted; we all understand that teaching is a difficult, ongoing, live, semi-impromptu performance with correspondingly high stress levels, and we can be very forgiving of teachers who earnestly do their best and strive to improve on their practice. Continue reading