Quote from Orlando Sentinel, NY Times article on it.

My simple question: is this going too far, and what could "the people" do about it? (remember, don't pull the political bits in )



My opinion, yes it is going too far. On the what we can do I have to wait on posting since I leave for work in 3 minutes.

****grumbles......retarded parents....grumble****

I believe most people have seen enough art to realize that not all the subjects are fully clothed. And in order for children to go on a trip to a museum (or whatever) with the school, parents must sign a permission slip.

Now, either this parent is so backward and uncultured that they have never seen a piece of artwork, or they just want to cause trouble for this teacher.

The school district has absolutely gone too far. (refraining from saying anything about political affiliations.... )

What can the people do? Maybe write letters to the school board in support of the art teacher?

edited to add: This reminds me of the time I went to a local museum to see a display of Rodin bronzes. There was a man there with his son, who looked to be about 10 years old. The father covered the boy's eyes everytime they passed a nude.

I have to agree with Dido on this one. What can be done is write the school en masse, and all the bodies that go above it. It needs to be made VERY clear to parents that they agree... err.. halt that thought.. something else popped in.

When does a child get sex ed? You will see penises and vaginas then! If that isn't porn compared to the (in general) modest art, I don't know what is

But yes, parents should have to sign an agreement that THEY are responsible for checking out where the children are being taken, and that they can pro-*test*-('") BEFORE the event takes place, thus enabling them to not let their child go along on said trip, and the child will be in school attending (if need be) another class for that time period. After all, trips are usually announced with plenty of time to spare.

Just wait and see how much whining they will get from the kiddo, all the friends are coming along and he can't! Plus that it puts the schools blame free, since the 'rents WERE notified up front. It shouldn't be the responsibility of the school to check if there are possible offending things to be seen..


Crazy thought: we cannot take a kid to the zoo either.. I mean.. ever seen a chimp play with you know what? Hrmm.. that's IT! No more zoo trips either.

Let me express my skepticism about that, people who want to institute censure will always have more drive and determination than people who oppose it. It's not like people think everyday about how to display nudes to other people, while the other kind of people are always active and everytime there's a chance they will do something to make sure their kids are not "exposed" to nudes.

I don't know I didn't participate in a sex ed class in US, but I wouldn't bet on it, especially that the tendency is to not even teach people about condoms for example (because of religious interference).

I don't really know what they teach in sex-ed these days. I was 11 or 12 when we saw the films, which only addressed puberty. No mention of sex or condoms, etc.

My kid has gotten very honest answers from me (and probably more info than he wanted at times). I don't trust government-run schools to do a very good job of such things....

That's a very good point, why do I have impression that Americans expect schools alone to educate their children while they watch TV and get fatter. For example in the country where I come from when somebody is rude and uncivilized there's the expression: "the guy doesn't have the 7 years from home" here in US we'd probably hear some complain like: "schools nowadays don't teach children how to behave".

Not only is this going too far; it is way over the top! It seems that everything is Texas is bigger, even this (hopefully incidental) show of extreme hypocrisy involving 'nudity in art objects'. I would qualify the firing of the teacher as utterly backward, ignorant and shameful. If that is really what bothers the School Principals... I'd pull my kids out of such a school in a jiffy.
If this is how the School management really feels about 'nudity in art', then I am very anxious what they think of semi-nude girls on beaches, mtv-videos and 'Dutch TV at late hours'. They'd probably not flinch at all from the first two I mentioned, but they'd probabably drop dead in their tracks from the latter. Would serve them right too!

What 'the people' can do about it? Nothing... just expose the sanctimonious behavior of these backward creeps and nail them publicly.

Regards, Ko

Yes.. and what you said: people who do not agree should pull the child out of that school. Can't run a school when in the end no pupils are there to teach to.

That's again something unpractical, if there would be normal schools out of the reach of this kind of morons I would understand it, but in this case it will be unecessary shifting from one school to another -- I'm also not sure about how much freedom have Americans to move to whatever school they want, it depends where you live, it depends how much money you have, so you might end up having no real choice.

That's true indeed..

bah I hate overreacting things like this

Just take a look to see who you are up against (virtually):
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061005-7912.html

One always has choices.

I looked a bit into this sorry event and it seemed to me that the "Art Museum Incident", leading up to the dismissal of the teacher involved, was just an excuse to get rid of this veteran teacher.
If that is indeed true, then it shows a really sick plot: create some sort of incident using the existing frustrations towards 'sex' of parents so you can sack a teacher.

["Up against.....?"]
J.J. flashing one 'Olympic Boob' caused 240.000 complaints..? Incredible.
Seems to me that teachers should give lessons to kids ONLY in a well-stocked Art Museum - just to prevent these kids from developing the same backward notions about sex that their parents have.

Regards, Ko

A kid seing a boob, what a horror!!!
Soon they will start to arest mothers on the charge of child sexual abuse for nursing a baby.

But.. but.. no that doesn't fly! You have a consenting child there!

I will agree with Eadwine here. It is another step towards ‘parents not being responsible’ for anything. I know that every outing from school grounds requires the parents consent before the student is allowed to go. Hence the teacher is not at fault at all for taking them to an art museum, where a few of the pieces are going to be of nudes. It is common knowledge that the human body has constantly been viewed as ‘a work of art’ and so treated as such. Trying to blame the teacher for something you should have known about and consented too is just wrong!

On sex ed:
Even down here it is quite pathetic, what the schools teach (or don’t teach!) a student about their bodies, sex and the social reasonability that goes with it. The only reason I am not as messed up as I could have been is because my mother took the responsibility of teaching us, a little late then never but still. I have the ‘green book’ floating around somewhere, a simple book printed in the 1960-70’s just by the look and it has tons more information then any sex ed class would.

From social outlooks, physical changes, intercourse itself, protection, right through to even pregnancy. It doesn’t even hide the fact that sex can be done for fun!