Teacher ousted for playing excerpts of “Faust” in class

Latest idiotic news today: Tresa Waggoner was fired from teaching for playing excerpts of “Faust” in class.

The first part of the editorial is something we’ve dealt with before: the suspension of a teacher for presenting an imbalanced political argument in history class. The second part is what I found interesting (excerpts below):

Her supposed sin was introducing her first-, second- and third-grade students to opera by showing them a bit of Faust, a staple from the school library.

She showed a clip of the video last fall to teach the children about bass and tenor voices, the use of props and “trouser roles” in opera ahead of an upcoming Opera Colorado performance in Bennett.

…

Some folks think the real reason Waggoner became a target was more because of the school’s Christmas play than her playing 12 minutes of Faust.

Karen Grossiant, who resigned as Bennett mayor after Tresa Waggoner was placed on leave – saying it was “the last straw” – acknowledged as much.

The true problem: Waggoner did not put Christian songs in the play. This outraged some townsfolk. She had to go.

Faust is a classic opera by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe. In a moment of despair, Faust makes a pact with the Devil (Mephistopheles) to have Mephistopheles do his bidding in exchange for Faust’s soul. After a period of festivity, Faust realizes the error of his ways, and that service to mankind is how one gains “immortality”, and is saved by angels as the Devil attempts to claim him.

You probably wouldn’t, at first, draw a correlation between this incident and the firing of Utah teacher Erin Jensen. But the common theme underneath them both, from where I sit, seems to be the practice of firing teachers due to politics and religion, rather than their ability to provide a quality education.

This really concerns me. Teachers should be worried grading papers, keeping kids interested in learning, and ensuring that children have the education they need to thrive in today’s society, not which politician, parent, or pundit they’ll offend.

About a year ago, I was talking with Christy, and suggested that maybe she ought to consider returning to teaching after our smallest children are in school. She told me the ugly truth about teaching. “I love teaching. I loved the kids. But I hated the paperwork, grading papers, and politics, and that’s 80% of the job.” She’s more interested in pursuing her home-decorating business (which turned a modest profit last year! Yay!) than teaching.

It looks like only 20% of the job is actually the enjoyable part most of us associate with teaching: instructing the class. That’s the fun part, I guess. But with today’s political climate seeping into public-school classrooms, that 20% fun seems to be turning into 50% “walking on eggshells”.

I guess that’s just another reason why we’re having so much difficulty finding good teachers for public-school classrooms in the US. The awful pay and bad coffee weren’t enough.