Jay Bennish

[Haut Medoc]

Re: Jay Bennish

Originally posted by Kalian:<br /> I never heard of a nicotine addict getting aids from smoking dirty cigs. I never heard of a nicotine addict turning to a life of crime to support his habit. In my crazy mixed up backwards world I think that heroin and other hardcore drugs are far more harmful than cigs.

You are entitled to your crazy, mixed-up, backwards world opinions <br />All the above mentioned pose their own health risks, in varying degrees......<br />If cigarettes & alchohol were illegal, some would still trangress the law & turn to a life of crime to support their habit....<br />That's another topic..... ....JK

 

[POINTER94]

Re: Jay Bennish

HHmmmmm teaching???? Interesting read.......<br /><br /> http://lawnrangers.blogspot.com/2006/03/dissecting-rant.html <br /><br /><br />As for the addictiveness of Nicotine;<br /><br /> http://www.procon.org/AddictChart.htm

 

[SS MAYFLOAT]

Re: Jay Bennish

CAUTION: What you are about to read is to be taken as a joke......<br /><br />I wonder if Bennish's prior job was at the Johnson & Johnson plant personnaly checking rectal thermometers?<br /><br />I seriously doubt that the class room was the place to dump his frustrations that he has for our government. For kids just trying to learn factual teachings is hard enough without being confused by a teachers own attitude and thoughts.<br /><br />Just my opinion.........SS

 

[tommays]

Re: Jay Bennish

Well i have a friend who works for AGMA GD in Richmond VA they make all manner of tabacco machiney and there doing GREAT cant keep up with demand<br /><br />IT a smokeing building of course <br /><br />Now the real point is that in fact the reason american tabacco companys are not breaking a sweat about all there current legal problems is that they are pounding the stuff into every 3rd world nook and cranny they can<br /><br />But hey its OK its legal and it pays for there american anti smokeing campians<br /><br />tommays

 

[TilliamWe]

Re: Jay Bennish

Originally posted by mikeandronda:<br /> Right on Pony and I have worked with troubled teens as a youth leader and every single one of them caught up in drugs started with smoking first......Oh by the way.....same for me started smoking at 12 by 13-14 tryed drinkin and gettin high.....by the time I was 18 I was a druggy lush.......How many of you on here tryed quiting smoking.....was it easy ....nope.....He did right by saying its that addictive......from what I understand it has always been considered just as addictive as heroin......The rest of the garbage this guys spews is just "CARP" as some may call it on here I home school my Kids for this very reason.......

I started smoking at age 29. Was up to 1 pack a day in a year. At age 32 after three years of smoking I quit, in September. I had one cigarette in October and hated it. I haven't had a cig since then (1.5 years). SO my only arguement with you Mike, is quitting smoking was easy. <br />So to all the rest of you, if nicotine is the most addictive drug, then I must be the most successful recovering addict ever. Apperently I can become a daily heroin user, but quit after three years, cause it costs too much money. Do any of you get the ridiculousness of that??<br /><br />

If cigarettes & alchohol were illegal, some would still trangress the law & turn to a life of crime to support their habit....

Well, hang in there Haut, that's gonna happen eventually. Well, actually it already did with alcohol. Anyone remember that brilliant idea? But yeah, keep pushing and taking away personal freedoms guys, then when it's you that "Big Brother" hauls in in the middle of the night, you'll realize your mistakes. At that point you'll realize that government can't solve all your problems.<br /><br />QC, I am with you. Teach my kids facts at school, a lot of them. He'll get opinions everywhere else.

 

[PW2]

Re: Jay Bennish

Gawd almighty, you guys really want your kids to be little automatons?<br /><br />High School kids are about to be voters, and they are going to be exposed to opinions of one variety or another in a big way, whether they happen to accidentally tune in to Rush Limbaugh or Michael Savidge, or watch a Michael Moore movie, or even watch an infomercial.<br /><br />I personally think they should be exposed to all sorts of points of view, learn to critically analyze the point of view being presented, and learn to logically defend a differing point of view, if they have one. That should be what education is all about.<br /><br />If a kid goes thru high school and takes as gospel truth everything anyone with authority ever tells him, he's going to have real problems as an adult. <br /><br />Exposure to differing points of view is a good thing, unless of course the point of view you are trying to instll in the kid can't be defended.

 

[SS MAYFLOAT]

Re: Jay Bennish

Plywoody, I can understand what you are saying, but schools need to teach these kids the ins and outs of how the system works and operates. High school kid needs to know the principals and basics before giving them options on their way of thinking. Sorta like giving a kid a gun without any training or a drivers license without ever driving a car. A thourogh knowledge should be taught first without confusing them first. Like the old phrase "Putting the cart before the horse"<br /><br />BTW, History, Geography, and Government is the most boring classes for most teens. I wished I knew how important it was when I was in school. Some of that knowledge would be helpful to me now.<br /><br />Bennish's speech/lecture would have been acceptable for college level students IMO.

 

[KaGee]

Re: Jay Bennish

Originally posted by PW2:<br /> Gawd almighty, you guys really want your kids to be little automatons?<br />

PW, the guy is teaching 14 and 15 year olds, not collage students. They don't understand what an opinion is, much less how to form one.<br /><br />He's supposed to be teaching geography, not political science.<br /><br />I wonder how many of his students can actually recite the 50 states??<br /><br />For that matter, I wonder how many can actually read and write at a high school level?<br /><br />In addition, as a teacher, he is responsible to teach the truth, something his rant come up a little short on.

 

[POINTER94]

Re: Jay Bennish

PW2,<br /><br />We are not forced to pay for Rush, or any other commentator, nor are we forced to listen to them unlike the students in this class. Teachers are paid to instruct, in this case GEOGRAPHY not to spew his warped version of reality. He wasn't providing critical reasoning skills, he was demonizing the exact people who thought (wrongfully) that he would INSTRUCT their children. The United States. He didn't QUESTION policies, he dictated as some kind of authority which he clearly isn't. As far as any parent who CHOOSES to smoke, his hateful and factually incorrect rant was an insult to their role as a parent and could possibly undermind their family as a whole. Regardless of how you feel about the issue, this IS NOT his job. This is nothing more that the verbal version of PETA's little brouchures handed out to children showing mommy chopping the heads off little bunnies. He can rant all he wants on his own time, but when he chooses an audience of adolescents he shows his weakness of charactor.<br /><br />I would feel equally uneasy if this guy was ripping liberal type policies. Your approach to debate would have been an asset in this setting. I can't imagine you would have sounded as rabid or bias as this zealot. Your point is well taken, these kids will be voting in a few short years, and this indoctrination shows the liberal bias prevelant within our schools today. Perhaps some lucky child will graduate and go onto Colorado (university) and get to hear the hate filled rants of Ward Churchill. Another fair and balanced type in the education system.

 

[mikeandronda]

Re: Jay Bennish

TilliamWe, you are the exception not rule when it comes to addiction to nicotine.......I know many people who did Crack and didnt become crack heads.....We all know alcohol is addictive but not not everyone becomes an alcoholic right......I dont understand the sienintific reason behind why nicotine is so addictive other than it messes with the chemicals of an average person mind............But as I sit here type I began to see we have hyjacked this thread. So to get back on track this bennish guy is a nob........

 

[QC]

Re: Jay Bennish

I smoked from 14 to 20. Pretty much a pack a day. Quit after hiking and skiing locally one day. I had no problem with my wind, but decided I wanted to be able to do that through my entire life. Smoked the rest of that day and haven't had a cigarette since. Extremely easy, and I'll tell you how I did it. Shhhhhhh, it's a secret though . . . I never, ever put one in my mouth and lit it. Seriously, that was my motto and it was that simple. I guess Tilliam and I are truly exceptional.

 

[PW2]

Re: Jay Bennish

I don't know the specific particulars of this case, nor do I know why he was teaching it in geography class.<br />I can clearly imagine a set of facts in this instance where that teacher would have been completely wrong, and I can just as easily imagine a set of facts to justify his approach. I don't know which apply here.<br /><br />But the goal of education is multi-faceted---sure they need to learn the who,what,where when, and how basics, but they also need to learn how to think, and how to question. The only time people like that Churchill character can be a threat is if he is speaking to people that don't know how to analyze and think for themselves.<br /><br />I always apreciated others giving a different viewpoint to my kids, and viewed it as a learning opportunity.<br /><br />I recall once when my daughter was in high school, and they were having some lesson that somehow compared loggers to sap-thirsty tree murderers, and of course my daughter raised her hand and informed her teacher that he was full of crap, and promtly volunteered me to give a slide presentation (which she knew I had prepared) on environmental logging practices as practiced in North America.<br /><br />I gave the presentation, had lots of fun, answered lots of questions, and everyone involved learned a lot--which is of course the goal. It was a great opportunity, and not something to be feared.

 

[QC]

Re: Jay Bennish

PW2,<br /><br />I agree with everything you have said on this topic, but it does appear that there was no other side of the story given. Unless you assume that the "other side" is the norm they hear every other day; which I don't believe is the case in this example. Too much passion in his voice.<br /><br />On the logging thing which I feel is similar to the smoking thing, there are people that believe, regardless of your slide presentation, that you are killing the planet. Facts do not matter to many of these people and Mr. Bennish appears to me to be in that camp. That may be unfair, but I think it is our responsibility to judge things based on the input we have received. It is also our responsibility to retract things when we have additional information, which again, would seem to me to be above Mr. Bennish.

 

[PW2]

Re: Jay Bennish

Well, on the Bennish thing, I heard (or read?) that he often used controversial statements to stimulate debate and discussion, not to mention passion.<br /><br />Personally it sounds like it would liven up the day in an otherwise bland high school curriculum, but that may be just me.<br /><br />And sure, there are all sorts of people that take great pains to ensure that facts don't get in the way of their opinions. <br /><br />The biggest lesson to learn in high school and beyond is that real "facts" can be a bit elusive, and that rarely are things really as black and white as some would like, and more often they are best viewed as multiple shades of gray. That "fact" can be uncomfortable to many.<br /><br />And whatever Benish's motive, if it were me I'd still view it as a learning opportunity, but then while raising kids I was always on the lookout for "Learning opportunities"<br /><br />At least that's what I called them, but my daughter informs me lately they had a different name for them.

 

[QC]

Re: Jay Bennish

One of the things that has made me more conservative over the years (I grew up in a very liberal home) is that I believe many things and issues are black and white at their core. No offense intended, but the shades of gray thing allows us to be lazy when it comes to big issues. This is why I openly declare that some things are evil. It is our responsibility to label those things that are and not to find ways to rationalize them. I don't put tobacco or logging or capitalism or the CIA or true democracies in that camp. I save it for people and governments that oppress their own, openly promote hate and unashamedly admit their desire to murder innocent people. We can save the planet from people that work hard to employ other people later.

 

[POINTER94]

Re: Jay Bennish

PW2,<br /><br />This clowns behavior is Completely unacceptable. How about a little rally after school with David Duke as a learning opportunity? How about a nice little discussion in band class about the virtues of NAMBLA? Think of the learning opportunity kids could have with a weekend camping trip with Charles Manson? That should shake up a dull semester don't you think?<br /><br />Teachers should be held to a higher level than most when it comes to facts. They are suppose to be role models. But the shades of grey go a long way to explaining why high school seniors graduate without being able to read, write, or do simple math. Of course making up facts and presenting them as truths might be a learning experience much like amputating a leg for drill could be. But neither are recommended or accepted within the parameters of the teaching profession.<br /><br />You are right in that there are always shades of grey, his being somewhere between distain, hatred and rage. Again, no critical thinking processes here. I would have to have any child of mine removed from this idiots class as I couldn't trust him to:<br /><br />a) grade work without an agenda affecting him.<br />b) teach the material consistant with the class description, in this case GEOGRAPHY.<br />c) teach respect for others, as he only displayed the contempt and anger consistant with his untruth's.<br />d) accurately present material so an EDUCATED decision could be reached. <br /><br />As an instructor he failed his students on every level. His anger placed him in a condition of being out of control. Only one student questioned him during his rant. He never once solicited involvement from the class and failed to address the one students questions within any shade of any color. What do most students do when faced with this BS? They ignore him and learn nothing. This was far from a lively discussion, it was pure hate.

 

[Haut Medoc]

Re: Jay Bennish

QC, why was your avatar revoked? ....Surely not for your post...JK

 

[PW2]

Re: Jay Bennish

I completely disagree with you, pointer. While there should be reasonable limits observed in high school, perhaps, These kids are going to soon enough be exposed to any number of crackpots with crackpot ideas. This is of course, America, where it is not yet illegal to be a moron.<br /><br />I think attempting to keep schools saccarine and free of any controversy is making them dull and uninteresting, and not the best environment for learning to occur.

 

[POINTER94]

Re: Jay Bennish

PW2,<br /><br />I'm with you in spirit and principal, just not in this case. I agree that there are less than conventional methods that can be used to stimulate participation and foster a learning environment. And I don't think what this guy did was illegal. It just disqualifies him from being left alone with impressionable young minds. He wasn't teaching he was indoctrinating and he either did or was right on the edge of losing control of himself. He failed his students on almost all levels. Factually, intellectually, and presentation of a balanced view. He wasn't reachable by any student in that class. It isn't the tax payers job to present crackpots to the youth of America so they can see what rabid politicalization can do to a man, and present him as normal for their personal measure. Otherwise that Manson camping trip would be on someones class offering. I think a woodshop class building a habitat for humanity home would be consistant with your view. This had little or no value other than to see what NOT to become. It would be comperable to teaching 2+2=5 in math class, and how it could make the world a better place. And think of the learning opportunity it would be to spend a semester determining whether it is a good idea or not. Neat, but what about learning math? Perhaps he could be Cindy Sheehan's tour manager, just not a GEOGRAPHY teacher. IMHO.<br /><br />As a footnote, real instructors encourage their lectures to be taped. While in college I taped dozens of lectures and I didn't ask permission. And can someone point me to any, ANY, textbook that would reference this hate? You would have to tape this rant and listen to it several times just to digest a portion of this hate to pass what is sure to be a most "interesting" exam. This is a PUBLIC school paid for by the students parents, therefor why would anyone have to seek approval to tape what according to some here, is a prefectly credible lecture.<br /><br />I also question this teachers honesty as I find it difficult to believe that any ciriculum manager would approve a lesson plan that included, "drawing a parallel between President Bush and Hitler" or making the case for "China bombing North Carolina based on fabricated information."

 

[dogsdad]

Re: Jay Bennish

As far as I am concerned, the man was pursuing his own hateful agenda and should be kicked out of teaching.