Randy Turner

As a teacher who has had English students write research papers each year on the American Civil Rights Movement, I was stunned to find out a few moments ago that I am on the wrong side of the great civil rights issue of our time.

It has to be true....

President Barack Obama spoke at the Joplin High School Graduation Monday night.

Today, the one-year anniversary of the tornado that destroyed one-third of this community and killed 161 will be observed with a unity walk that will cover the path of the tornado and end at Cunningham Park...

The annual exercise in paranoia known as the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) ended a few weeks ago and I do not have the slightest idea what was on the tests that will likely determine how my school and my teaching are perceived by the general public.

Our Department of Elementary...

Many of the writing assignments I teach are based on classroom discussions and each year some of the most interesting discussions concern the First Amendment rights of students.

Naturally, I talk about the Tinker case, in which Justice Abe Fortas wrote that students do not shed their constitutional...

The following blog was written in the early morning hours Wednesday.

Alone with my thoughts.

That is a scary enough prospect, but at this point Tuesday afternoon I would have opted for any momentary diversion. I could have even listened to Fox News analysts explaining why Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum...

One of the most frustrating things teachers have to deal with every day is this myth that our profession is filled with lazy, undermotivated educators who arrive just in time for the first bell and leave immediately at the end of the school day.

We watch as, year after year,...

One of the lasting symbols of the May 22, 2011, Joplin Tornado was a makeshift sign that stood in front of the destroyed Joplin High School.

Where those who had passed the forlorn sight earlier had seen all but two letters blown off the sign, someone saw those two letters,...

Someone had to take a stand against ridiculous bonuses and high executive pay and that person was Gannett CEO Gracia Martore.

A definitive proxy statement filed Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows that Ms. Martore, who ascended to the CEO position this year after the resignation...

Only a few short weeks after announcing a centralization of layout and copy editing that will cost jobs at its more than 300 newspapers across the nation, GateHouse Media revealed Friday it has awarded more than $1.4 million in bonuses to its top four executives.

In...

The timing of Missouri Speaker of the House Steve Tilley's announcement that he had named Rush Limbaugh to the Hall of Famous Missourians could not have been any worse.

It has only been a few days since Limbaugh went on a verbal rampage, referring to Georgetown student Sandra...

Debate is scheduled to begin this week in the Missouri Senate on another of Sen. Jane Cunningham's anti-public education bills.

Just as she did (unsuccessfully) during the 2011 session, Mrs. Cunningham is trying to bring an end to teacher tenure. She continues to foster this myth that Missouri's...

Expect the number of students using computers in the Camdenton, Mo. school district to dwindle over the next few weeks. Thanks to a ruling by a federal judge Wednesday, Feb. 15, the school district has 30 days to eliminate an Internet filtering system that allowed students access to explicit sexual...

In the middle of a speech in which he demanded an end to teacher tenure, retired billionaire Rex Sinquefield unleashed the following bombshell:

The Ku Klux Klan got together and said how can we really hurt the African American children permanently? How can we ruin their lives? And...

The 22 years I spent as a reporter before entering the teaching field left me with a healthy skepticism for any words escaping the lips of politicians.

That being said, I was encouraged by President Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday night.

My optimism had nothing to do with...

I could be fired tomorrow.

That is not a prediction, (I'm keeping my fingers crossed) but a simple statement of fact. This is my 13th year as a classroom teacher and my ninth with the Joplin School District, but if, for some reason, school officials determined I no longer...

Public schools are a place where all children should feel welcome.

That has always been my goal and the goal of the teachers who work with me. If Missouri State Sen. Will Kraus, R-Lee's Summit, has his way, that will continue to be the case, unless you have...

With just a few notes of music, the secret that I have kept hidden for nearly four decades returned to my mind in vivid stereophonic sound.

It was the same song -- Philadelphia's Ernest Evans, better known as Chubby Checker, exhorting listeners to do the twist. At that Student Council...

It was with sadness that I recently realized that it was not only the public schools but our Sunday schools that are failing us.

In the story of the creation that was taught to me when I was a child, I remember that God rested the seventh day. Why did...

Leaving politicians in charge of solving the problems that face American education is an endeavor that is doomed to failure since the politicians are the problem.

Evidence of that was seen in Missouri last week when an interim committee met in St. Louis to discuss the problems of students whose...

For the last few months, the buzzword around the nation has been the 99 percent.

Supposedly, representatives of 99 percent of the population of this country are the ones who are occupying Wall Street and numerous other places. From their vantage point, one percent of the country is basking in...