 A Pasadena high school teacher has been placed on administrative leave for disseminating a letter stating that, at his campus, most students who misbehave and are low academic achievers are African American.
Scott Phelps,39,a 12-year science teacher at John Muir High School, 39, said he was trying to predict that bad student behavior -- which, in this case, he said applies to many in Muir's large African American population -- will be responsible for the school's low Academic Performance Index scores next year. The letter was also meant as a counterattack to the bad rap he said teachers in his district get from administrators about low student achievement. "My intent was to get the district to stop blaming teachers or holding them solely responsible for performance," he said. "Different ethnicities are radically different.... I'm saying the behaviors are radically different, so we need to look at that. Nothing I said is false." Phelps was put on administrative leave with pay and benefits, pending the results of an internal investigation, said Erik Nasarenko, a Pasadena Unified School District spokesman. The inquiry -- which the district aims to complete within a week -- will, among other things, consider whether the letter created an offensive and hostile environment for the students. Phelps, a Caltech graduate and outspoken teacher, first posted the letter in an Internet chat room where the school district is frequently criticized. Then he also placed copies of it in his colleagues' boxes. The somewhat rambling letter touches on several points. * It states that this year the school's improvements in its API scores were aided by two "good cohorts": the sophomore and senior classes. * But then it warns that next year the school won't meet its goal because two "bad cohorts" -- this year's freshmen and juniors -- will hold back the scores. * The reason why the two classes are bad cohorts, the letter says, is bad behavior. "But overwhelmingly," part of the letter reads, "the students whose behavior makes the hallways deafening, who yell out for the teacher and demand immediate attention in class, who cannot seem to stop chatting and are fascinated by each other and relationships but not with academics, in short, whose behavior saps the strength and energy of us that are at the front lines, are African American."
Some in the community, rejecting Phelps' correlation of bad behavior and learning, took offense to what they saw as a racial sideswipe. (Agencies) | 近日，美國加州帕薩迪納一所高中的一名教師被勒令停職，原因是他四處散發(fā)信件，宣稱校內(nèi)大部分行為不端、成績較差的都是美籍非裔學(xué)生。 39歲的斯科特·費爾普斯在約翰·米爾高中教書已有12個年頭了。他說自己只是認為學(xué)生表現(xiàn)地差強人意是造成學(xué)校下一年整體成績較低的直接原因，而在米爾高中，美籍非裔學(xué)生占了大多數(shù)，因此他推測就是這些學(xué)生在"興風(fēng)作浪"。 同時費爾普斯也想把這封信當(dāng)作是一個反擊，因為他所在街區(qū)的教師因為學(xué)生成績太差而受到當(dāng)局的批評。 他說："我只是希望當(dāng)局不要再責(zé)怪教師，或是讓他們?yōu)閷W(xué)生的不良表現(xiàn)負責(zé)。不同的種族差別是很大的，我是說，行為上的差別。我認為我說的并沒有錯。"  帕薩迪納地區(qū)聯(lián)合校會的發(fā)言人埃里克說："目前費爾普斯已經(jīng)被留薪停職，等待進一步的校內(nèi)調(diào)查結(jié)果。"
調(diào)查將于一周之內(nèi)結(jié)束。屆時調(diào)查人員將結(jié)合各方面因素來決定費爾普斯的信件是否對學(xué)生造成了侵犯，并在學(xué)生中煽動了敵對的情緒。 費爾普斯畢業(yè)于美國加利福尼亞理工學(xué)院。他一向是個直率激進的教師。并帶頭在因特網(wǎng)上一個經(jīng)常抨擊校會的聊天室中發(fā)布了自己的那封信。 隨后，他又把郵件發(fā)給了自己的同事們。 費爾普斯在這封流傳一時的信里提到了這樣幾點： 1. 今年學(xué)校的學(xué)術(shù)水平統(tǒng)計成績有了提高，主要是因為二年級和四年級的學(xué)生表現(xiàn)很好。
2.但是明年學(xué)校的成績肯定會有所下降，因為兩個"害群之馬"的存在--一年級和三年級。
3.而原因就是：他們的表現(xiàn)實在太差。 信中還提到："最主要的是：那些在走廊上大吵大鬧的，整天對老師大呼小叫的，上課極不專心的，在課堂上聊天的，沉迷于男女關(guān)系而荒廢學(xué)業(yè)的學(xué)生，簡言之，拉了我們學(xué)校后腿的，都是美籍非裔學(xué)生。" 費爾普斯的信激起了社區(qū)其他人的不滿。他們對所謂表現(xiàn)惡略、成績落后導(dǎo)致學(xué)校教學(xué)水平下降的邏輯提出了質(zhì)疑，認為其根本思想是一種種族歧視。 （中國日報網(wǎng)站譯） |
Updated: 2002-11-01 01:00
