RUSH: That long-haired, maggot-infested FM type teacher [now with shaved head] from Aurora, Colorado, trying to get his story out now. He went on the Today Show today with the host of the show, Matt Lauer, and Lauer said, “The reaction you’ve got, Jay Bennish, is it what you expected?”
BENNISH: From the students? Yes. From the national media and the attention from people all over the country, obviously not. You know, my job as a teacher is to challenge students to think critically about issues that are affecting our world and our society.
RUSH: Stop the tape. Stop! You’re teaching human geography, whatever the hell that is. What are you supposed to challenge them, that Mt. Everest is not the tallest mountain in the planet? What is this? “My job as a teacher is to challenge students to think critically about issues.” It’s a geography class, for crying out loud!
BENNISH: And, you know, the process of cognitive dissonance is one way to activate their minds and to get them to think about these various things. Everything that was discussed in the class fits within the curriculum of the class. My class syllabus clearly outlines all of the material that will be covered. This is signed by parents, this is registered with the school, it’s been approved by the school.
RUSH: So the exchange continued with this.
LAUER: They basically shopped it around to conservative media outlets, and when they finally released it to one it created an uproar, and on the tape you can hear Sean Allen asking you questions that seem to be egging you on a little bit. Do you feel you were set up?
RUSH: Stop the tape a minute. You mean like guests on the Today Show get set up? Questions to egg people on, 60 Minutes come to mind? I mean, how many times have you seen the mainstream media, the drive-by media out there trying to egg people on, to get them all upset about things. So Matt Lauer asking this teacher, who is presumably an adult, “Sounds to me like this little 16-year-old twerp was getting the best of you.” That’s not what Lauer meant to say, but that’s how it sounds to me. “Oh, you were set up by this punk. You’re the adult teacher. You can run rings around these guys supposedly, but you got set up by a punk. You were out there being led on by some little student.” Let’s resume the rest of this.
BENNISH: It was an introduction to world geography, and we were covering very, you know, stereotypical terms like mental mapping and cultural landscapes, and I was receiving questions from Sean as well as from other students trying to get me to respond.
RUSH: Hold it a second! I had to look at the transcript to make sure I heard that right. Mental mapping and cultural landscapes. This I guess is what human geography is. So I guess they learned what is the highest point on the female body, and how do you get there. What is this, mental mapping? Sounds like a propaganda class. Mental mapping and cultural landscapes.
BENNISH: The State of the Union address that was the night before, and I explained to the students that in the case of the State of the Union, this is applicable to a world geography class because for many people around the world, this speech might impact their lives more so than the speeches that their own leaders do.
RUSH: I don’t remember him saying any of that, listening to this tape. He’s out there saying that the US is guilty; other countries have a right to attack us, destroy our crops like we’re destroying their crops. Okay, anyway, it’s image making time for Jay Bennish. He’s out there now. And, of course, he has every right to do it. But I’m learning more and more about this human geography, and I’m wondering why wasn’t this taught when I was in school? I might have liked school if we had something like human geography. Mental mapping? Cultural — what is the word, cultural what? Cultural landscapes. Ha-ha-ha. What a bunch of absolute hogwash.
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