A teacher/bus driver was fired in Salt Lake City recently because he showed some 5th graders a rally in support of Tim DeChristopher, the young man who posed as a bidder in an auction to sell off some beautiful, natural wilderness areas of southern Utah to oil and gas.
Some parents are up in arms, "I'd be furious if one of my children were on that bus", said one disgruntled over-reactor. If parents knew how to raise their kids by example and with instructive understanding to thoughtfully respect others and the environment, there would be no need for these protests to occur in the first place. But because they do occur, the teacher was showing these children democracy in action. He was elucidating to them what the first amendment is all about. It's called real life lessons, and I bet the kids had fun to boot.
5th graders aren't delicate little idiots (in fact, as Jeff Foxworthy has demonstrated, they are smarter than many adults). I'm sure they were quite pleased to do something out of the ordinary and learn about the significance of nonviolent peaceful protest and how it has shaped America's history for the better. I'm quite confident that at no time any of these children were in any real danger...except of course when they got off the bus back at school and breathed in the toxic exhaust fumes of the bus...are any parents concerned about that?
Not only did the students that day get shown a lesson on how people can peacefully effect change, they also learned how unjust the powers that be are when the school district sacked the teacher. That teacher, Ryan Pleune, should be applauded and given a raise, not castigated and fired.
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