Malx wrote:What exactly are they banning? Only book or does this include a wider variety of things?
Teachers must abide by the regulations of the FCC in regards to speech and conduct, as well as curriculum. That's all that is stated, and the FCC is far from clear on this subject. Which is the whole problem, in my opinion. It can open a can of worms which will cause educators to be so afraid of losing their jobs (career suicide in this economic crisis) they will be unable to properly educate and care for their students.
The FCC website (
http://www.fcc.gov/guides/obscenity-ind ... -profanity) states:
[spoiler]Obscene Broadcasts Are Prohibited at All Times
Obscene material is not protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution and cannot be broadcast at any time. The Supreme Court has established that, to be obscene, material must meet a three-pronged test:
An average person, applying contemporary community standards, must find that the material, as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest;
The material must depict or describe, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by applicable law; and
The material, taken as a whole, must lack serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.
Indecent Broadcast Restrictions
The FCC has defined broadcast indecency as “language or material that, in context, depicts or describes, in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards for the broadcast medium, sexual or excretory organs or activities.” Indecent programming contains patently offensive sexual or excretory material that does not rise to the level of obscenity.
The courts have held that indecent material is protected by the First Amendment and cannot be banned entirely. It may, however, be restricted in order to avoid its broadcast during times of the day when there is a reasonable risk that children may be in the audience.
Consistent with a federal indecency statute and federal court decisions interpreting the statute, the Commission adopted a rule that broadcasts -- both on television and radio -- that fit within the indecency definition and that are aired between 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. are prohibited and subject to indecency enforcement action.
Profane Broadcast Restrictions
The FCC has defined profanity as “including language so grossly offensive to members of the public who actually hear it as to amount to a nuisance.”
Like indecency, profane speech is prohibited on broadcast radio and television between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.[/spoiler]
Basically, it's a bunch of political jargon with no substance. Reading material children and college students have been learning for decades could be reclassified as illegal due to obscenity or indecency. Health and medical classes could become legally "indecent" due to the pictures of sexual organs. Whole curriculums would be placed in jeopardy with no clear decision maker named to decide what does and does not violate these new standards.
A teacher's comments or advice toward a student could cost them their job. Their actions in their personal life could cost them their job. In some cases, that is more than fair, of course. However, the rules are so blurry this could include any number of personal, private, things. This bill is not about social networking websites, though I am sure those apply, too. Also, if a student goes to a teacher they trust with a problem regarding sex, pregnancy, drugs, etc. the teacher would either be walking on eggshells or completely brush the kid off out of fear.
I have no problem with a little regulation on what is taught in American classrooms today, but if you are going to legislate something that can/will alter school curriculum, it better be written in a clear and articulate manner. Not this completely FUBAR bill that was presented.
As far as teacher conduct is concerned, I have yet to hear of a district/school that allowed a teacher to continue to teach after questionable public conduct without reprimand. There is no need for further regulation of that, in my opinion. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Jedi~Tank wrote:Dovahkiin wrote:Public schools and universities are government institutes. Government can regulate it however it wants within the confines what it's constitution allows.
Regulating classroom behavior is fine. Regulating behavior on social media of a teacher where a large portion of the students for that school can see, is fine to an extent. Beyond that is too far.
Disallowing certain books to be taught in public school classrooms is not banning books.
Agreed, teachers should be censored, i want my kids to be taught math, science, language arts etc etc etc not all of this special interest politically correct propoganda **Filtered**.
I really doubt any of this will get rid of the politically correctness. If anything, it would exacerbate the problem of political correctness in our school system. Teachers would be too afraid to say or teach anything which could be classified as offensive.
The government always wins, eventually. 