Is the School Board going to punish a teacher for being proud of being an American?
Daniel Goodman was pulled from his teaching job at First Coast High School because of something he wrote on a chalkboard in his classroom.
The offending statement?
“THINK: We had about a half million Americans die in our Civil War, which was largely to get rid of slavery. There are no longer separate water fountains and bathrooms in Jacksonville for “white” and “colored,” as Mr. Goodman remembers from the 1960′s. We had an amendment to the U.S. Constitution allowing women the right to vote.
We have had a Black president. The superintendent of Duval Schools is a Black woman. Mr. Fluent, our principal, replaced a Black man, Mr. Simmons, who now is a D.C.P.S. administrator.
MY POINT? You are all extremely lucky to be living in the U.S.A. If you refuse to stand during the Pledge of Allegiance or our National Anthem (AS SOME PAMPERED ARROGANT CELEBRITIES AND ATHLETES TEND TO DO), are you revealing maturity and wisdom? Actually, you are displaying the opposite.
-Mr. G.”
Goodman posted the statement because students in his class were not standing during the Pledge of Allegiance.
But the parents of a couple of these students complained and Goodman – predictably – was called a “racist,” which has become the go-to complaint of liberals for every imagined slight.
“I was trying to tell kids you can succeed in this world and, it’s a pretty good country — not perfect, but pretty good,” Goodman told WJCT News.
The school administration told Eye on Jacksonville the matter is “still under investigation.”
What is there to investigate? The facts are clear. Students were showing disrespect for America, probably out of ignorance. A teacher’s job is to help replace ignorance with knowledge – in other words, to educate children. Goodman was teaching.
Goodman should be commended — not investigated, punished and vilified. And all parents should support him.
