stevenpiziks @ 2022-03-17T19:48:00
https://www.theoaklandpress.com/.../lawsuit-school.../
I have a lot to say about this lawsuit.
You'll notice that Litkouhi (who is clearly a shill for the Mackinac Center) has children in the district, but nowhere does the article say she has children in the class. Why is she demanding lesson plans for a class her children aren't involved in? (Answer: she and the Center are just trying to make it look like the district is keeping secrets about what it's teaching.)Litkouhi also claims she demanded curriculum, but didn't get lesson plans, videos, activities, or tests, so she's suing. But these materials aren't curriculum. Curriculum is the overall stuff: learning goals, benchmarks, and so on. The delivery of curriculum via daily lesson plans is up to the teacher, but those plans and materials aren't part of the curriculum. Litkouhi got what she asked for, and she's complaining about it.We have some information here that's fuzzy. Various articles note the course is brand new. This would indicate that the materials Litkouhi is demanding literally don't exist yet. Most teachers plan about a week in advance. Plan further ahead than that, and you're asking for trouble--too many circumstances will force you to change stuff (snow days, fire drills, assemblies, teacher absences, the need to re-teach, and on and on and on).
Other articles claim the course has been taught for six months, but the district claims they don't have the material in question. See? They're KEEPING SECRETS. But it's not clear that lesson plans fall under FOIA. Teachers aren't required to file them officially or anything. The district as an entity doesn't actually have any way to ensure that lesson plans exist in written form. They may exist solely in the teacher's head. I know some teachers who have been teaching for so long, they don't write lesson plans down, except perhaps as cryptic notes like "Unt. 4, x 1-20." Additionally, since school districts don't keep teacher-created lesson plans on file, the district has no real way to confirm that lesson plans actually exist. The district could order teachers to hand over copies of their notes, but if the teacher said, "I don't have any," or if the notes made no sense to an outside reader, there's nothing under FOIA to require them in written form.
Litkouhi is also demanding prompts the teacher created in Flipgrid and on Google Classroom. But those materials actually belong to Flipgrid and Google. Litkouhi wold have to file a FOIA from them. Good luck with that.
In any case, I don't understand why Litkouhi doesn't simply ask the teacher. Or the students in the class.
It's NEVER a secret what a teacher is teaching. I have over 160 students. Do you think ANYTHING I do in the classroom is a secret? That I could somehow force 160 teenagers to keep quiet about what happens in my class? Please. Litkouhi and the Center are just trying to get support for the "force schools to post all lesson plans a year in advance" movement.
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I have a lot to say about this lawsuit.
You'll notice that Litkouhi (who is clearly a shill for the Mackinac Center) has children in the district, but nowhere does the article say she has children in the class. Why is she demanding lesson plans for a class her children aren't involved in? (Answer: she and the Center are just trying to make it look like the district is keeping secrets about what it's teaching.)Litkouhi also claims she demanded curriculum, but didn't get lesson plans, videos, activities, or tests, so she's suing. But these materials aren't curriculum. Curriculum is the overall stuff: learning goals, benchmarks, and so on. The delivery of curriculum via daily lesson plans is up to the teacher, but those plans and materials aren't part of the curriculum. Litkouhi got what she asked for, and she's complaining about it.We have some information here that's fuzzy. Various articles note the course is brand new. This would indicate that the materials Litkouhi is demanding literally don't exist yet. Most teachers plan about a week in advance. Plan further ahead than that, and you're asking for trouble--too many circumstances will force you to change stuff (snow days, fire drills, assemblies, teacher absences, the need to re-teach, and on and on and on).
Other articles claim the course has been taught for six months, but the district claims they don't have the material in question. See? They're KEEPING SECRETS. But it's not clear that lesson plans fall under FOIA. Teachers aren't required to file them officially or anything. The district as an entity doesn't actually have any way to ensure that lesson plans exist in written form. They may exist solely in the teacher's head. I know some teachers who have been teaching for so long, they don't write lesson plans down, except perhaps as cryptic notes like "Unt. 4, x 1-20." Additionally, since school districts don't keep teacher-created lesson plans on file, the district has no real way to confirm that lesson plans actually exist. The district could order teachers to hand over copies of their notes, but if the teacher said, "I don't have any," or if the notes made no sense to an outside reader, there's nothing under FOIA to require them in written form.
Litkouhi is also demanding prompts the teacher created in Flipgrid and on Google Classroom. But those materials actually belong to Flipgrid and Google. Litkouhi wold have to file a FOIA from them. Good luck with that.
In any case, I don't understand why Litkouhi doesn't simply ask the teacher. Or the students in the class.
It's NEVER a secret what a teacher is teaching. I have over 160 students. Do you think ANYTHING I do in the classroom is a secret? That I could somehow force 160 teenagers to keep quiet about what happens in my class? Please. Litkouhi and the Center are just trying to get support for the "force schools to post all lesson plans a year in advance" movement.
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