Yet MORE fundie prudishness in the classroom...This time MacBeth is the target

[Blue_Tires]

CHESAPEAKE

"Fair is foul, and foul is fair."

The parent of a Great Bridge High School student just calls last week's Shakespeare lesson filthy.

The senior English class compared film adaptations of "Macbeth." Among them: Roman Polanski's 1971 version, with shots of topless witches and an adolescent boy in the buff.

The controversial movie was named the best film of 1971 by the National Board of Review. But Morgan Thompson, a student in the class, wasn't enamored of it. In fact, the nudity and violence upset her so much that she told her dad.

"She came home and said, 'Oh, my God, you won't believe what happened,' " Bill Thompson said.

He called the school to complain. Thompson wants the teacher punished. If the school doesn't act, he said, he plans to pursue warrants against the teacher, alleging contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Thompson happens to be a local police officer.

Chesapeake schools spokesman Tom Cupitt said the showing of the film violated policy and that the personnel department is investigating.

"If you choose to bring something in, it has to be approved" by a school administrator, Cupitt said. "This was not done."

http://hamptonroads.com/2010/01/great-bridge-student-parent-unamused-polanski-macbeth

I saw Polanski's MacBeth in 10th grade, all the way back in nineteen hundred and ninety-three...Not one complaint from a parent or student (And I was attending a no-fun, sexually repressed, uber-right wing Catholic school at the time...)

[PassingFair]

1. That movie was a HUGE stinker.

I would have objected, too!

[Ian David]

2. MacBeth isn't the target. Polanski's film is the target.

Or maybe it's just boobies.

Polanski doth murder boobies!

[Blue_Tires]

4. you're right, but that kid's reaction and her father's threat to arrest someone

are laughable at best...Hell, if MacBeth were released new today, it would probably be rated PG compared to the current stuff in theaters now...

[sinkingfeeling]

3. 'Senior English class'. I guess Morgan is only 8 years old and not the 17 or 18 most seniors are.

Check her cell phone.... she's probably got some 'sexting' pictures on it.

[Chulanowa]

6. I always crack up at people who have breasts getting upset at seeing them

I mean... Okay, I could be wrong, but to my knowledge, no guy's ever gone "Oh my GOD! Look! it's a penis? A PENIS!!!! I can't believe it! Someone must pay!"

[Blue_Tires]

7. the irony of it is you would think

a girl that age would be embarrassed to death over her old man making a public fight over "MAH DAUGHTER IZ NEVAH SUPPOSED TO SEE THA BLOOD AND TITTYS IN A MOVIE AT HER AGE!!!!"

[abelenkpe]

5. we're doomed nt

[asjr]

8. Morgan and her father must be feeling so smug

right about now. Bet they have already notified their preacher.

[JackintheGreen]

9. I call bullshit on the school spokesman

When I was teaching, we had to submit detailed lesson plans at least a week prior to doing anything. And we couldn't just get away with: 2nd Period: movie

My mother was also a teacher in a whole 'nother state. I remember growing up watching her write and submit lesson plans too.

My grandmother was also a teacher, and though I don't know that she had to submit lesson plans, I know she had to write them.

So suddenly, after three generations and four very different school districts in three different states nobody has to submit lesson plans anymore?

Bullshit.

[Blue_Tires]

10. ttt

[Quantess]

11. 10th grade in 1987

We watched that. :shrug:
What's the big deal?

[Blue_Tires]

12. UPDATE: Teacher apologizes, is allowed back...

After serving a five-day suspension, the teacher who showed part of Roman Polanski's movie version of "Macbeth" to his senior English class will return to work today.

"It was entirely deserved," said Charlie Conover, who has taught English at Great Bridge High School for 24 years. "I should have done what I was supposed to do. If I hadn't violated the use policy, none of this would have happened. It's no defense to say I had instructional motives."

He said he also received a reprimand for failing to seek approval from the administration before using the film. School system spokesman Tom Cupitt would say only that the teacher - whom he declined to identify - was on leave.

School system policy requires teachers to clear material they bring into the classroom with administration.

Last week, Conover showed clips from several movie versions of Shakespeare's play, including Polanski's 1971 version. Many film critics at the time liked it, but the film's depictions of nudity, including that of a child, earned many detractors.

Senior Morgan Thompson was in the class that day, and was disturbed by the nudity and violence. She brought the matter to the attention of her father, Bill, who asked that the school punish Conover.

http://hamptonroads.com/2010/01/chesapeake-teacher-apologizes-polanski-film-back-friday

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Wow...And the teacher didn't even show the whole movie; just selected scenes? I'm guessing this dad is sending her daughter to Liberty University or Bob Jones University since anywhere else is probably too liberal, feminist and jewish for their tastes... At least she won't have to learn about anything OTHER than the bible, hating her sinful body, and being a submissive wife for her future husband...