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Updated: 2002-11-01 01:00

Teacher Put on Leave Over Letter About Black Students(2002/11/01)

美激进教师看非裔学生不顺眼 散发恶意信件终被停职(2002/11/01)

Teacher Put on Leave Over Letter About Black StudentsA 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,美国加州帕萨迪纳一所高中的一名教师被勒令停职,原因是他四处散发信件,宣称校内大部分行为不端、成绩较差的都是美籍非裔学生。

39岁的斯科特·费尔普斯在约翰·米尔高中教书已有12个年头了。他说自己只是认为学生表现地差强人意是造成学校下一年整体成绩较低的直接原因,而在米尔高中,美籍非裔学生占了大多数,因此他推测就是这些学生在"兴风作浪"。

同时费尔普斯也想把这封信当作是一个反击,因为他所在街区的教师因为学生成绩太差而受到当局的批评。

他说:"我只是希望当局不要再责怪教师,或是让他们为学生的不良表现负责。不同的种族差别是很大的,我是说,行为上的差别。我认为我说的并没有错。"

Teacher Put on Leave Over Letter About Black Students帕萨迪纳地区联合校会的发言人埃里克说:"目前费尔普斯已经被留薪停职,等待进一步的校内调查结果。"

调查将于一周之内结束。届时调查人员将结合各方面因素来决定费尔普斯的信件是否对学生造成了侵犯,并在学生中煽动了敌对的情绪。

费尔普斯毕业于美国加利福尼亚理工学院。他一向是个直率激进的教师。并带头在因特网上一个经常抨击校会的聊天室中发布了自己的那封信。

随后,他又把邮件发给了自己的同事们。

费尔普斯在这封流传一时的信里提到了这样几点:

1. 今年学校的学术水平统计成绩有了提高,主要是因为二年级和四年级的学生表现很好。
2.但是明年学校的成绩肯定会有所下降,因为两个"害群之马"的存在--一年级和三年级。
3.而原因就是:他们的表现实在太差。

信中还提到:"最主要的是:那些在走廊上大吵大闹的,整天对老师大呼小叫的,上课极不专心的,在课堂上聊天的,沉迷于男女关系而荒废学业的学生,简言之,拉了我们学校后腿的,都是美籍非裔学生。"

费尔普斯的信激起了社区其他人的不满。他们对所谓表现恶略、成绩落后导致学校教学水平下降的逻辑提出了质疑,认为其根本思想是一种种族歧视。

(中国日报网站译)

 
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