Looking back several years later, I think the main reason for this policy was because there was a very lazy teacher/administrator who both had some religious objections to modern scientific developments, AND who did not want to supplement his own lessons with outside material. The teachers who did, I believe now, were making him “look bad.” As soon as that teacher/administrator left the school, this policy began to be ignored, slowly at first, and then completely.

In the example above, I feel there is some piece of information that is unknown to us as outsiders, which has to do with the feelings, experience, or personality of the administrator (Mark M.) He might be a lot more concerned with something like being a popular ADMINISTRATOR (doing everything to soothe “complaints,” as opposed to placing student understanding FIRST). Unfortunately, we can’t get inside his mind from this information.

Eileen
Dedicated Elementary Teacher Overseas (in the Middle East)
elementaryteacher.wordpress.com

Ultimately, when asked what I want to do with a math degree, I always say I want to ‘be an academic,’ but this is just one of what’s becoming a multitude of reasons I’m afraid I either won’t make the cut or will get locked out when I do.

I won’t go into why in such short space, but I blame the mindset of industrialized America for a lot of this kind of disastrous thinking.

Thanks for getting the word out on this, Robert– I hope someone in a position to affect change sees it.

I will be teaching at a new college in the fall and hope that this is not a situation I will have to deal with.