NH- Teacher Disciplined For Unusual Creative Writing Assignment

9-22-2009 New Hampshire:

School Says Teacher Gave Students Inappropriate Assignment

WOLFEBORO, N.H. -- An English teacher is being closely monitored at Kingswood Regional High School after administrators said she assigned an inappropriate essay topic to her students.

Jack Robertson, superintendent of the Governor Wentworth Regional School District, said the teacher asked students to respond to the question: "If you knocked your brother down, would you urinate in his mouth?"

The question was posed as part of creative writing assignment to a class of about 12 or 13 seniors. Robertson said the question was designed to help motivate students to improve their writing, but he said the teacher lacked good judgment in assigning the question.

Administrators found out about the question after a student approached another teacher for help with the assignment. That teacher told the school principal about it.

School officials said the assignment didn't have to do with a book the students were reading. The district said she's a good teacher with a track record of motivating her students.

"While on the one hand, I appreciate her interest in trying to get kids to write, there are other topics and there are more appropriate prompts that could create that same kind of interest," Robertson said.

The question had some parents and residents asking what made the teacher think posing the question was appropriate. Resident Lucille Cloutier said her granddaughter attends the high school.

"I think there's some people who feel they can do anything they want to do and say anything they want to say, whether they're teaching young minds or whether they're not," she said.

Robertson said that given the teacher's good record, he never expected something like this to happen.

The district said a supervisor is now monitoring the teacher's assignments. Officials said the hope is that she continues to motivate her students in more appropriate ways. ..Source.. WMUR.com