DO YOU KNOW WHAT HIS BACKSTOP IS? if not then keep quiet. The guy has been doing this for years. I would presume his military background would have taught him the basics of gun safety. I would also assume that every kid in there was wearing "eyes and ears" as that is mandatory in my son and daughters science class rooms for anything other than lectures.
yes you can buy a fancy machine that does the same thing. but does it capture the imagination of the students? Does it get them talking about Science after the class is over. NO, but this does, and i am willing to bet this guy has higher test score students, higher science retention and more demand for his classes than any other teacher in the system.
This is the same sort of teaching by involvement that has kids building trebouchet's mock ups of Da vinci's catapult, and egg saving devices.
I used to be able to write all day on the black board about the effects of segragation and "seperate but equal" and jim crow, But until I instituted that only people with green eyes could eat and drink at lunch time, that people with brown eyes could drink, and blues could only watch, did the ideas about how much unfairness based on skin tone seem to hit home.
The same with the concept of giving "couples" in schools a fertilised chicken or turkey egg and they had to keep it warm and safe for two weeks till it hatched and alive for two more weeks gave kids an idea about the amount of care needed for a offspring.
I support his Principle for taken the stand that he knew about it and had allowed it after examining the idea. That takes the pressure off the teacher.
I quit teaching many years ago because I was left out to dry by an Administration that never bothered to check any facts but reacted to a hearsay statement of a statement that I never made. What I had said was so totally distorted that the statement made no sense at all as reported and despite having twenty two kids who heard what I said. The district super intendant made a decision based on talking to people who were not even in the building when I supposed said what I said. I have had a deep distrust ever since for almost all school administrators as I listen to them whine about so many issues when they choose not to solve the issue the way it has to be.
(What I said was to the girls in my class the last hour before prom. I said, "ladies, no matter how upset you think your parents will be if you call at 1 am and ask for a ride home because your date has had too much to drink, even if you have had something to drink too, They will be much more upset if you get in that car and killed in a wreck on the way home."
This was relayed to the school board by a mom of a girl not in my class, that I had condoned drinking as long as they had a ride home. Considering that my state was an 18 and up drinking limit, and almost all the seniors were 18, it was not a stretch to think some alcohol might show up at or after prom. My contract was not renewed, even though they later reoffered it, I had lost the taste for the school board.
