This is part two of a three part story.
Part One: Before Common Era?
Email from Patz to Keller: I have a little information for you after getting in contact with some staff members today. Our textbooks use the term BC but teachers do reference BCE so students are aware of it's meaning. We do not advocate for either term and generally use what is found in our textbooks for reference with students. Since a textbook is not the curriculum and multiple medias are used for instruction, we feel we are addressing the issue appropriately since student exposure is also very important.
Hope this helps.
Keller to Patz: Thanks for getting back to me, but your answers to [my] questions are a little troubling to me and I’ll tell you why.
You told me in an earlier email on this subject that, “I did speak to our curriculum director, who is new this year, and she has never heard of these terms being used.”
In this email you wrote, “Our textbooks use the term BC but teachers do reference BCE so students are aware of its meaning,” and yet you also wrote, the “curriculum director has never heard of these terms being used.”
Common sense suggests to me that there’s something not quite right here; wouldn’t you agree?
You also wrote that when it comes to teaching BC or BEC, “We do not advocate for either term and generally use what is found in our textbooks.”
Have you considered advocating BC over BCE since it’s used in the textbooks?
Have you ever considered that by not creating a standard of advocating one term over the other, that one teacher may be teaching BC, and another, BCE, or both?
Does this body’s lack of direction to its teachers reflect a “politically correct” desire to avoid advocating “BC” because it’s an acronym for “Before Christ?”
Until my daughter mentioned “BCE,” I had no idea what it meant or that in
Franklin public Schools it was being taught along side ”BC.”
As an educator I’m sure you know that for our Founding Fathers, Judeo-Christian values played a foundational role in the creation of America. For evidence, one need not look further that our Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
CONTINUED...
Steve, as Independence Day approaches, I hope the Franklin School Board will honor our Founding Fathers and American history, and consider standardizing the use of BC. There is no room for teachers’ personal preference in the classroom.
Patz to Keller: Actually, no, I don't agree that something "isn't quite right here". We don't consider advocating for particular positions but do feel that our teachers are professionals and will appropriately address any issue that may be controversial to someone while in the classroom. Additionally, not everyone shares the opinion of others so advocating for one side would exclude the opposing opinion.
Lastly, this body has a clear direction and your opinion to the contrary is just that, your opinion.
Keller to Patz: I can’t say that I agree with your apparent blind faith that teachers will “appropriately address any issue that may be controversial to someone while in the classroom.” One teacher’s personal view of what’s appropriate or suitable may not be appropriate in another’s view. Isn’t that why we need policy?
Also, based on your response, I believe you more than likely misunderstood me when I asked: “Does this body’s lack of direction to its teachers reflect a ‘politically correct’ desire to avoid advocating 'BC' because it’s an acronym for 'Before Christ?'”, when you wrote: “Lastly, this body has a clear direction and your opinion to the contrary is just that, your opinion.”
I was questioning the board’s direction to teachers, not the clarity of this body’s overall direction. The board’s lack of clear-cut direction to teachers with regard to controversial subject matter like this is—in my opinion—irresponsible. It’s clear to me from your emails that had I not brought this matter to your attention in the first place, you like me and your curriculum director, had no idea how BC and BCE were being taught in FPS classrooms. Would you agree with that? A curious person would ask what other controversial subject matter is being left to the professional discretion of teachers. In my opinion that’s no way to run a school district. By the way, you never directly answered my question.
When it comes to the school board taking a stance on this or any other matter, your point that, “not everyone shares the opinion of others so advocating for one side would exclude the opposing opinion,” is, with all due respect, rather ridiculous. Schools cannot present every side to every issue. There will always be opposing views.
School board members are elected to make myriad decisions, some difficult, some not so difficult; some popular, some unpopular. You were hired by the board—and thereby, the people—to carryout its decisions. And I find that with the usual exception of Janet Evans, this board appears to be taking a backseat on this issue. That is not what they were elected to do.
By your emails I have no idea whether you are including board members in our discussions. If they have been copied, why don’t your emails show this?
Patz to Keller: I will not be recommending anything to the board regarding your issue. To me, asking a board to react to what your children allegedly heard 10 years ago is not appropriate. Additionally, your continued sarcasm and criticism of the district, myself and the board is counterproductive. The board has, and always will deal with controversial issues when it's appropriate to do so.
Keller to Patz: As a Franklin citizen and taxpayer I find your comments arrogant, self-serving, and ironically—counterproductive.
If you reread my email, you will see that I was not asking you to as you wrote, [ask] the board to “react to what your children allegedly heard 10 years ago is not appropriate.”
Frankly, whether you feel my concern is appropriate or not, is irrelevant to me since I wasn’t addressing you. I wrote:
By copy of this email to Franklin School Board members, I am asking that a discussion pertaining to the use of BC versus BCE in the classroom, be taken up by Board, with the goal of issuing a written policy statement on the subject…” As I wrote in an earlier email, there is no room for teachers’ personal preference in the classroom.
Do you oversee the school board, or do its elected board members?
Be assured that regardless of your opinion as to what you or the school board deem as “controversial issues,” I will continue to exercise my First Amendment Right to Free Speech when, and any way I see fit. That includes supporting or criticizing the school board or its members, including you as superintendent.
We'll have some final thoughts tomorrow.
Friday, July 31, 2009 at 11:03AM 
Fred Keller
