I do not know nor have my children had Jon Thorson as a teacher, but I am rather surprised that so well-respected a teacher would be forced to leave a position, in which he has earned so much good will, for anything but the most heinous of transgressions. I do not consider the use of certain expletives appropriate before a class or any public forum, but surely a better punishment would have been an apology and use of this as a teachable moment.
Our high school students cannot be so sheltered as to believe that even a respected role model will never vent frustration. We ask a great deal of our teachers, but perfection is beyond asking.If perfection were part of the job description, we'd have to pay them a great deal more.
If it is our school's responsibility to teach life skills, then dealing with mistakes has to be part of the curriculum. Students need to know that even the best of us will fail from time to time, and school administration must demonstrate maturity in dealing with personnel matters of this sort.
We can't have so large a surplus of excellent teachers that we can spare one for what seems so small a transgression.
Fredric Kleinberg
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Rochester
