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Friday, November 25, 2005

A QUIZ

BENNINGTON, Vt. --The school superintendent whose district includes Mount Anthony Union High School has labeled "inappropriate" and "irresponsible" an English teacher's use of liberal statements in a vocabulary quiz.

"I wish Bush would be (coherent, eschewed) for once during a speech, but there are theories that his everyday diction charms the below-average mind, hence insuring him Republican votes," said one question on a quiz written by English and social studies teacher Bret Chenkin.

The question referring to the president asked students to say whether coherent or eschewed was the proper word. The sentence would be more coherent if one eschewed eschewed.

Another example said, "It is frightening the way the extreme right has (balled, arrogated) aspects of the Constitution and warped them for their own agenda." Arrogated would be the proper word there.

Chenkin, 36 and a teacher for seven years, said the quizzes are being taken out of context.

"The kids know it's hyperbolic, so-to-speak," he said. "They know it's tongue in cheek. They know where I stand."

He said he isn't shy about sharing his liberal views with students, but invites vigorous debate in the classroom.



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UD was able to get hold of Chenkin’s entire quiz. It’s fascinating. It incorporates a number of even more hyperbolic statements America’s high school, community college, and college teachers have made of late.

The original authors of Questions 3 through 5, for instance, are Ward Churchill, Nicholas De Genova, and John Daly. See if you can match author and sentence!

(3.) “Real freedom will come when American soldiers in Iraq turn their guns on their (superiors, fascist death merchants) and fight for just causes and for people’s needs.”

(4.) “The only true heroes are those who find ways that help defeat the U.S. (military, totalitarian murder machine). I wish for a million Mogadishus."

(5.) “The (people, imperialist pigs) in the World Trade Center were little Eichmanns.”