As a retired educator, I plan to come down squarely on both sides of the issue of the Lake Stevens teacher who created a stir over his use of the expression, “I should line you up against the wall and shoot you.”
It seemed like a very familiar expression from my youth, and then I realized I had heard it mostly from my teachers and Boy Scout leaders, and then later in the Army. It meant little to us other than an expression of the teacher’s or leader’s exasperation with us.
At this period in America there is general agreement that our young people are being exposed to an excessive amount of violent imagery and speech. I believe the language we use ultimately serves as affirmations that affect our own action or that of others.
If a teacher’s actions or incompetence are considered a damaging or a potential threat to student safety, they may be fired at any time. Should this teacher be discontinued for reverting to an expression he learned from his grandmother? Not unless it is accompanied by a lot of other documented professional failures and shortcomings that we do not know about.
In this state, every teacher must be evaluated as “competent” each year in order to continue his or her contract the following year. Every teacher has annual goals and objectives, some imposed and some self-generated. These are assessed through classroom observation and other means. If this is this teacher’s greatest mistake, goals and remediation steps could be imposed. An example would be requiring a seminar in nonviolent communication, or in classroom behavior management. Additionally, he could be placed in a team situation where a mentor teacher would help him identify and weed out some of the less than helpful imagery he paints verbally.
Terry Hanna
Everett
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