In my American Schools class 2211 we are in 6 groups for group projects. Our last project was to make a creative and eye catching bulletin board like you would see in a classroom for that age level. all groups were to use the theme of Character Connection, which we all did.
Group 3 was assigned middle school and they designed a poster for 8th graders. It is a great concept; a poster board made to look like a iPod with sayings and pictures on it. The only two pictures of people they used were Gandhi and Barack Obama. bubbled off the picture of Gandhi is his saying of "Be the change that you want to see in the world." - Mohandas Gandhi
Mr. Obama saying of “I will never forget that the only reason I’m standing here today is because somebody, somewhere stood up for me when it was risky. Stoop up when it was hard. Stood up when it wasn’t popular. And because of somebody stood up, a few more stood up. A then a few thousands stood up. And then a few million stood up. And standing up, with courage and clear purpose, they somehow managed to change the world.”
-Barack Obama, Speech, January 8, 2008
This was a class assignment for extra credit points (my group 2 won the points) and it was not a political statement at all. My understanding of what Group 3 was trying to portray in their bulletin board was that all people regardless of background can achieve. Regardless of humble and difficult beginnings these two individuals have become great men and positive role models.
Now here is the outcome of that poster. A professor that uses the classroom that my class also uses was offended by the picture of Mr. Obama being up in the room. The Professor also felt it was a political statement. The Professor did not contact our instructor who by the way had her contact information along with a comment sheet posted in the room for all to see for at least a week. Instead this Professor bypassed our class, teacher, Assistant Dean of Education, Dean of Education, and anyone else in the proper chain of command and went straight to the University's Provost.
The Professor requested or demanded (I don't know I was not in the room) that the picture of Mr. Obama be taken down immediately. The Provost called the Dean of Education who sent his secretary to the classroom to remove the picture of just Mr. Obama, it seems that was the only thing that upset the Professor in question. The Secretary of the Dean had to look for the picture, it is not very big maybe 8x10. She had to climb on a chair to remove it from the wall, it was high up, and then took it too the Deans office.
Our instructor was called by the Dean and she was informed of the complaint and that the picture was removed. Our instructor relayed her conversation with the Dean to to us and as a class we had to make a decision. A decision to ignore what had happened or to act on it. The class majority was to act. All but 3 people went to the Dean's office to retrieve the picture, which was handed over to the group without incident. As a class we compiled our ideas for a letter to the Provost, Dean, campus paper, media. Now please remember we are not protesting that someone else has a different opinion than group 3. We are upset because our rights were not respected and that the chain of command of the University was not followed.
So now the St. Louis Post Dispatch has run an article in yesterday's paper and the ACLU wants to take up the cause.
This is all so surreal. I don't know exactly what to think of it. It was a project to promote Character - POSITIVE - which I think it did. But someone else felt it's message was something else. So what's next?
What the poster looked like after the picture was removed.
Note the empty bubble without a picture at the top? I took this photo with my camera phone and I hope the class does not mind me posting it to my blog.
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