An October 21st ruling by a federal appeals court proclaims teachers “have no First Amendment free-speech protection for curricular decisions they make in the classroom.” This comes after a teacher’s contract was not renewed in 2002 due to what the teacher said was a controversy over an assignment to read what some may view as controversial books including Siddhartha by Herman Hesse, and a unit on book censorship in which students could choose books from a list of frequently challenged works.
Court Precedents
While there were many court cases along the way the most recent one cites Garcetti v. Ceballos where in 2006, “the high court held that public employees do not have First Amendment protection for speech “pursuant to” their official duties.” 6th Circuit opinion, Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton, says “the First Amendment does not generally insulate (the teacher) from employer discipline, even discipline prompted by her curricular and pedagogical choices.” Sutton went on to “question how a school system could operate if all teachers had First Amendment rights to make their own curricular decisions.”
Teachers and the Curriculum
OK here’s where I get confused… So what Sutton just said is that teachers cannot use resources of their choosing to teach board approved curriculum??? That may be exactly what he said. He continued by stating, “When educators disagree over what should be assigned, as is surely bound to happen if each of them has a First Amendment right to influence the curriculum, whose free-speech rights win? … Placing the First Amendment’s stamp of approval on these kinds of debates not only would demand permanent judicial intervention in the conduct of governmental operations, but it also would transform run-of-the-mine curricular disputes into constitutional stalemates.” AGH!!!! Clearly he has never been in a classroom or attempted to teach a room full of students.
I can give you four highly qualified teachers who are required to teach the same curriculum and who approach it in very different ways. And the student in these classes would benefit from the freedom of the teacher to do so. I want my own kids to attend a school where diversity in teaching is encouraged. How else does one approach different learning styles and abilities? I would also put these four highly qualified teachers up against teachers who were told exactly what resources they MSUT use in order to teach the curriculum and I would bet “my” four teachers excel and that their students understand how to think about things on a different plane than those whose teacher followed the script of prescribed resources!