A New Hampshire teacher has been disciplined and is being monitored after issuing a (shall we say?) peculiar essay prompt to her 12th grade class, according to local news provider WMUR.
The prompt in question: “If you knocked your brother to the ground, would you urinate in his mouth?”
Jack Robertson, superintendent of the Governor Wentworth Regional School District, claimed that the teacher designed the question to motivate students to think creatively and improve their writing. He noted that the teacher, who previously had a good track record, did not exercise good judgment by assigning the question to the class. (Ya think?)
“While on the one hand, I appreciate her interest in trying to get kids to write, there are other topics and there are more appropriate prompts that could create that same kind of interest,” Robertson said.
The question had nothing to do with the book that the class was currently reading. School administrators discovered the questionable question when a student from the class asked another teacher for help with the topic. That teacher quickly informed the principal of the essay prompt.
(See also: a video report on the story from CNN.)