"Your freedom to swing your fist ends at the point of my nose."
Fair enough, but what about my freedom to make a movie about swinging my fist? We are often told that children have trouble distinguishing between fiction and reality, but this ailment seems most prominent in busy-body adults and people of "authority."
When I was in high school (1987 - 1991), my peers and I published underground newspapers, drew comic books, made dumb home-movies, recorded comedy albums, performed in punk bands -- all of which were full of blasphemy, cartoonish violence, and a general and heartfelt disrespect towards authority figures. And while I can't say the teachers and administrators and parents were always thrilled with our methods of expression, there seemed to be an understanding that a) we were just kids and there was no real harm done, and b) this sort of thing was important to our development into interesting and productive human beings.
Someone cue up 'The Wall', because I am of the mind as I look at this and back over the years that most teachers shouldn't be teaching. They should be helping the people in Gitmo.
Sounds a bit extreme. Although having had more than one death threat against myself in the past, one which got pretty serious....well, I can see how the teacher might have felt it to be a threat as well.
Ogdredx9q
Indianapolis, IN
August 2005
DEC 05, 2006 02:07 PM