Frank Navarro is the veteran history teacher who was briefly suspended from his work at Mountain View High School for discussing parallels between the rise of Hitler and the rise of Trump. The actual content of his lesson has not been disclosed. He is a specialist in the teaching of the Holocaust. He is back in his classroom.
The United Educators of San Francisco released the following statement supporting his freedom to teach:
Affirming the right to Academic Freedom
Many UESF members have expressed great concern over teacher Frank Navarro being placed on leave from his teaching duties at Mountain View High School for pointing out the similarities between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Hitler’s rise to power.
UESF has strong contractual language that acknowledges that a “teacher’s academic freedom is his/her right and responsibility to study, investigate, present, interpret and discuss all the relevant facts and ideas in the field of his/her professional competence. This freedom implies no limitation other than those imposed by the generally accepted standards of scholarship. As a professional, the teacher strives to maintain a spirit of free inquiry, open-mindedness and impartiality in the classroom….The teacher is free to present in the field of his or her professional competence his/her opinions convictions and with them the premises from which they are derived.(Article 6.2.1)
UESF has an unequivocal stand that academic freedom must be defended in our classrooms and in our schools. Our students need teachers who can teach without fear of censorship or reprisal for encouraging students to be critical thinkers.
UESF has reached out to district leadership to ask that SFUSD also take a public stand in defense of academic freedom. We contacted the Mountain View Teachers Association to offer our support for Frank Navarro and his union. Finally, we also reached out to CFT,CTA, NEA and AFT to urge that the state and national leadership of our affiliates take a clear public stand on this critical issue.
Lita Blanc
President, UESF
Diane Ravitch's blog 
However, he could benefit from reading this list
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/11/17/opinion/a-12-step-program-for-responding-to-president-elect-trump.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=0&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fm.facebook.com
There are parallels and it is important to make such a comparison. This is a teachable moment. By making a comparison like this, it can be a preventive measure as students can see what in the self was appealed to. Perhaps Trump will be fine – but the campaign and his choice of words during were not. Has the effects of globalization been something like the Treaty of Versailles to a large swath of Americans?
To: Involved Mom:
Human beings are always master whereas animals never can be.
All sentient beings have a brain and many senses like fear and joy in their own path of life.
People are master because they have dignity, decency, responsibility, and a critical analysis from their learning of others’ experiences in sufferance.
Animals only have their “EMOTIONAL” but NOT “thoughtful” reflective actions for survival.
IMHO, if people cannot be civilized, then they are not human beings regardless whatever ideology they believe in.
I appreciate the link that you provide. But , I hope that you would agree with me that the writer of those steps is very gullible. Back2basic
“Animals only have their “EMOTIONAL” but NOT “thoughtful” reflective actions for survival.”
I don’t believe that statement about animals “not thoughtful reflective action” has been or can be proven true. We know not the inner workings of the minds of animals, much like we can never truly “know” the inner workings of the mind of another human. We homo supposedly sapiens cannot fathom the inner mental workings of other sentient beings, therefore we cannot understand them.
Personally, from having observed wild life for more than a half century, I know that I will never know those inner workings.
Hi señor Swacker:
I am speechless when I read that few of people, who must be Trump’s supporters, defend for his outspoken way in which both Trump and his supporters do not have any sense of humanity and civility.
It is very easy to read others’ mind if you can calm your chattering mind because all sentient beings’ nervous system is composed by neurotransmitters whose synapses produce transmitting frequency. This explains that someone is suppler than others.
If we are impartial and naturally loving and caring for all, then our neurotransmitters’ frequency can pick up others’ neurotransmitters’ frequency = read others’ mind.
We need to trust and believe absolutely the virtue like patience, kindness, forgiveness and impartial judgment through learning and experience with PURE logical mindset.
Respectfully yours,
May
Never mind Hitler or Mussolini. Trump is still a reckless and irresponsible demagogue who can do untold damage to our country: by appointing far right wing judges, by lowering taxes on the rich, by going on a deregulating spree and setting us up for another deep recession or worse, by pandering to racists, bigots and sexists, by making rash world shattering decisions unregulated by common sense or rationality, by ignoring climate change and giving carte blanche to the fossil fuel industry etc., ad nauseam. It’s a very sobering thought that Bush the incompetent got 2 terms with his 2 wars of occupation and a deep brutal recession.
In this threat, I hope that all union leaders show their strong support for 40 years teaching career of educator Frank Navarro.
The blaze of political INCORRECTNESS should be immediately put out. Awareness of cruelty and disrespect for women and minority CANNOT be treated as momentarily mental tantrum.
Freedom expression is limited to the verbally, emotionally, and physically actions that harm the safety and the security of person and of country.
All chants in madness should be penalized. All physical attacks should be penalized.
I hope that some Supreme Court Judges will have GOD given conscience and courage in order to stand up for the true meaning in humanity and civility.
In God, people should trust so that we unite and care for the peace in our neighbor, our nation, and our world. Back2basic
I’m happy to learn that he’s back in the classroom. I wish my boys had a teacher like him rather than Pearson drones.
The report, “Putting Democracy Back into Public Education”, by the Century Foundation, identifies how the school privatizers’ focus on market values over democratic values, contributed to the election of Trump.
IMO, the right-wing people most responsible are Gates, Walton, Columbia Teachers College, the hedge fund managers of DFER, and, administrators and faculty from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and school of education.