Thought about anything today?

Colo. Teacher Defends Lecture on Bush DENVER - A high school social studies teacher who was put on leave after comparing President Bush's State of the Union address to speeches made by Adolf Hitler defended his lecture on Tuesday, saying he was trying to encourage students to think. [YahooNews]

So, we have a teacher, in the public school system, that bastion of boredom and brainwashing, where passing the test is the key to the future and along comes Jay Bennish and compares the State of the Union speeches made by the current President of the United States to Adolf Hitler. His reasoning?

My job as a teacher is to challenge students to think critically about issues that are affecting our world and our society.

Gee, a teacher who actually understands what their job is, rather than just feeding pablum to his students to digest and take as fact. If you have never had a teacher like this, then I can understand the confusion. Thinking requires far more work than just showing up and passing the test, something that the United States education system needs to get through its skull before the only jobs its citizens are prepared to do are work as government employees or ask "do you want fries with that?"

Let's be clear. Adolf Hitler was not a nice man. But that does not mean there are not things that can be learned from his writings, if only that thou shalt not walk in his footsteps. He was a masterful orator and his rhetoric was so powerful that he convinced thousands of his countrymen to rise up and follow him. By contrast, the current President of the United States lacks any sort of oration skills whatsoever and he would not know good rhetoric if it bit him. Worse, he does not even understand the basic principles of lying well enough to be effective. As a result, he has zero credibility and is little more than a joke. He has been called no less than a moron by several governments. Bennish and I will disagree over the comparisons (Mr. Bennish believes that the things the President has said are eerily similar to those that Hitler said. Perhaps the words are, but certainly not the tone, or the emotion, or the power).

Regardless, the issue is one of teaching the children to think. Until we do that, we have become nothing more than a nation of cattle waiting to be slaughtered by the first leader who comes along with enough charisma and skill to lead them to the gates of hell. In some ways, a lot like 1930s Germany.