Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[beancurdturtle]

Since we have another topic regarding nudity and a teacher fired, I thought I would see what kind of opinions people have about this. Many people have commented on how liberal Americans are regarding nudity - but look what's happening to an American teacher.

[Lorikeet]

It sounds like Texas :p

[Anuradha Chepur]

The Principal has been unfair for sure. She should have tried to fix the mess instead.
The young art students are obviously too young and unprepared to appreciate what they saw.
Anyway, nowadays, it's parents who run schools and Principals are something like puppets.

[RedRose]

OMG!!!! that happened in US??? I thought US had an open environment for both students and teachers!

That's unfair. the teacher didn't do anything wrong IMHO. just a trip, just a nude sculpture, what's the big deal?

If the teacher posted her nude on internet and her students saw them, then I can understand the decision of the school managers. but the event happening in US wasn't that inappropriate.

Why? the teacher shouldn't be fired.

[Lorikeet]

[Edoardo]

Unbelievable...
I think it is more about ignorance than about "moral", actually... In some artcrafts (in certain styles, such as classicism, romanticism etc) the rapresented people are supposed to be nude for aesthetic and canonic reasons, and, except a limited period suddently after the Catholic Counter Reformation (16th century), anyone has never said anything about it. It is the language of the art that requires it!

Anyway, I would like to know which kind of sculpture in was... in which style, how "realistic", ect
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nudity_in_art

And anyway, that's nature, it is kind of weird to hide nature to a child....!!! a naked man is just a naked man!

[Bob S.]

Lori's right. This is not so surprising for the Bible Belt (a more religious and conservative region of the U.S.). But it is disappointing for the Dallas metropolitan area which I thought was a wee bit more cosmopolitan. It would not have been an issue if the school had been from a West Coast or Northeast state.

Say, wasn't this an episode of The Simpsons?
Helen: You've got to lead our protest against this abomination!
[shows newspaper article]
Marge: Mm, but that's Michelangelo's David. It's a masterpiece.
Helen: [gasp] It's filth! It graphically portrays parts of the human body,
which, practical as they may be, are evil.
Marge: But I like that statue.
Helen: [gasp] I told you she was soft on full frontal nudity!
Come on, girls...

[ClarissaMach]

I think this case is totally different from the other one. The teacher wanted to take students to a Museum to show them what is considered art -- the naked sculpture simply happened to be part of it.

Now, the reason why a naked sculpture is art, but a naked teacher is not, is another question...
_________________
Stormy Weather.

[beancurdturtle]

[CP]

My head hurts from slapping my forehead over this one.

These moronic parents ought to have taken their children to that art museum themselves a long time ago and many times since. Then they would not be shocked to learn that some statues are nudes, their children would not be permanently scarred from seeing the sculptures, and no one would give it a second thought.

I'm trying to imagine any parent in Sweden or France or Germany -- in other words, in any civilized country -- having a corony arrest on learning that his or her child went to a museum and saw a statue.

Good grief!
_________________
You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

[CP]

And furthermore, in this great but repressed land, when children go on field trips, as these excursions are called, they must first get permission slips signed by the parents. The permission slips tell when and where the children will be going, and any parent who objects to the trip can keep the child in school that day rather than let him or her go on the trip.

Did these nincompoops not stop to consider that their precious babies might be exposed to the devastation of seeing art if they allowed them to go on a field trip to the art museum?

Next time, let them keep the little ones at home. They can gaze at their parents' idea of good art -- portraits of Elvis on black velvet and of Jesus in soft light, or maybe posters of stock car drivers -- and save themselves from the nightmare of museum-quality sculpture.
_________________
You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

[beancurdturtle]

Well said CP!

It's good to see you a little "worked up." It started my day - that and your description of hillbilly art - with a chuckle.
_________________
Daniel

�Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.�
--Dr. Seuss

[ad-miral]

maybe the sculpture is too detailed
_________________
If I say "I love you" to someone, then I also have to say "I also love everyone else inside you, I love the whole world because of you, I also love myself inside you." -- Erich Fromm, the Art of Love

[Lorikeet]

[nana123]