Teach
02-01-2017, 09:06 AM
“Watch out for these guys, they’re all “bad actors!” my colleague said. As I recall it was either my first or second day on the job teaching history in a Boston high school. After our department meeting, one of my colleagues, a fellow history dept. member, said, “Walt, let me see your class lists.” I passed over five sheets of paper with lists of students’ name on them.
It was then that my colleague said, “Walt, let me show you something.” I noticed you have three American History sections. I had several of your current students last year in Modern European History.
It was then that he looked over my lists and put check marks besides the names of students; he thought these were the kids who would cause me the most trouble. As my colleague checked off the names, he would occasionally make comments. “Oh, this kid’s the biggest cheater in the world, you gotta watch him like a hawk,” he added. “Oh, watch out for this guy, I wouldn’t turn my back on him; he’s already been in trouble with juvenile authorities.” This checking and commenting went on and on. When he was through, he must have cited close to a dozen kids.
Well, when he finished, I thanked him for his input. Yet, after I left the dept. meeting and began getting things set up in my own classroom, I thought, “Maybe he was having trouble with kids that I won’t (that’s not to say that I wouldn’t have trouble with the same kids). Or, it’s quite possible that there are kids that are not listed who could be troublesome to me. Most everyone makes judgments based on their own values, their own backgrounds and upbringings.
And this is the point. Let’s fast-forward to the present. President Trump recently issued a travel-ban by signing an executive order Friday night to keep refugees from entering this country for 120 days and immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim nations out for three months. Although I want America to be safe and applaud efforts to do so, I find this hastily-devised, catch-all EO (like an Otter-doored fishing- net) approach to be repugnant. There are potential terrorists and then there are peaceful, productive people coming from Muslim-dominated countries that are decent, upright individuals. Sadly, in this approach, “One size fits all!” Not!
Furthermore, if you’re going to include “The Maligned Seven,” why not, while you’re at it, include other more terrorist-laden countries (as cited in another post) like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Saudi citizens were, for the most part, responsible for 9/11. The San Bernardino shootings involved a woman with both a Pakistani and Saudi Arabian background and the man, her husband, had Pakistani connections. Further, wasn’t it in Pakistan that Osama bin Laden was living and hiding when he was killed by Navy SEALs.
Frankly, I was worried from the get-go (this is not “sour grapes over the election) that there could – or should I say would likely be –conflicts of interest between POTUS’s vast international holdings and American foreign policy. I have read that President Trump has interests in the United Arabic Emirates; they’re not on the list). I do not know if he has interests and/or “entanglements” in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan (tax returns might help us with that).
I believe that POTUS opens up a “can of worms” every time he makes an international or foreign policy decision involving a country in which he has holdings (I still don’t know the status of his vast empire; I know it’s not in a blind trust).
Oh, harking back to my colleague’s lists in a Boston high school school years ago. Just because that was his list doesn’t mean it’s mine. I judge things on a case-by-case basis. I frequently up-date my thinking. As it turns out some of the “bad actors” my colleague mentioned, I got along with very well.
It was then that my colleague said, “Walt, let me show you something.” I noticed you have three American History sections. I had several of your current students last year in Modern European History.
It was then that he looked over my lists and put check marks besides the names of students; he thought these were the kids who would cause me the most trouble. As my colleague checked off the names, he would occasionally make comments. “Oh, this kid’s the biggest cheater in the world, you gotta watch him like a hawk,” he added. “Oh, watch out for this guy, I wouldn’t turn my back on him; he’s already been in trouble with juvenile authorities.” This checking and commenting went on and on. When he was through, he must have cited close to a dozen kids.
Well, when he finished, I thanked him for his input. Yet, after I left the dept. meeting and began getting things set up in my own classroom, I thought, “Maybe he was having trouble with kids that I won’t (that’s not to say that I wouldn’t have trouble with the same kids). Or, it’s quite possible that there are kids that are not listed who could be troublesome to me. Most everyone makes judgments based on their own values, their own backgrounds and upbringings.
And this is the point. Let’s fast-forward to the present. President Trump recently issued a travel-ban by signing an executive order Friday night to keep refugees from entering this country for 120 days and immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim nations out for three months. Although I want America to be safe and applaud efforts to do so, I find this hastily-devised, catch-all EO (like an Otter-doored fishing- net) approach to be repugnant. There are potential terrorists and then there are peaceful, productive people coming from Muslim-dominated countries that are decent, upright individuals. Sadly, in this approach, “One size fits all!” Not!
Furthermore, if you’re going to include “The Maligned Seven,” why not, while you’re at it, include other more terrorist-laden countries (as cited in another post) like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Saudi citizens were, for the most part, responsible for 9/11. The San Bernardino shootings involved a woman with both a Pakistani and Saudi Arabian background and the man, her husband, had Pakistani connections. Further, wasn’t it in Pakistan that Osama bin Laden was living and hiding when he was killed by Navy SEALs.
Frankly, I was worried from the get-go (this is not “sour grapes over the election) that there could – or should I say would likely be –conflicts of interest between POTUS’s vast international holdings and American foreign policy. I have read that President Trump has interests in the United Arabic Emirates; they’re not on the list). I do not know if he has interests and/or “entanglements” in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan (tax returns might help us with that).
I believe that POTUS opens up a “can of worms” every time he makes an international or foreign policy decision involving a country in which he has holdings (I still don’t know the status of his vast empire; I know it’s not in a blind trust).
Oh, harking back to my colleague’s lists in a Boston high school school years ago. Just because that was his list doesn’t mean it’s mine. I judge things on a case-by-case basis. I frequently up-date my thinking. As it turns out some of the “bad actors” my colleague mentioned, I got along with very well.