A teacher at Spanish Fort High School in Alabama is under fire after giving kids a summer reading list by conservative authors for their class on government and economics. The authors include Ann Coulter, Mark Levin, Ron Paul, Ronald Reagan, and Michael Savage.
Gene Ponder, a former candidate for Alabama lieutenant governor turned high school teacher, instructed his students to pick one of the books from his selection that included SuperFreakonomics, Liberalism is a Mental Disorder, Liberty and Tyranny, End the Fed, Who Killed the Constitution, and 48 Liberal Lies About American History (That You Probably Learned in School, Gulf Coast News Today reported Wednesday.
The Baldwin County Board of Education President Shannon Cauley announced the list was not endorsed by the school and Ponder would have to email all of his students to announce that no summer reading list would be assigned.
While it’s a good idea for teachers to advice their students to read books with conservative values, Ponder’s mistake was giving a list full of political celebrities who are controversial firebrands and not necessarily academics. Had his list included books like Democracy in America, Economics in One Lesson, On Liberty, The Law, or even Ideas Have Consequences, there probably would have been no problem at all.
Conservatives pushing principles on students should be prescribed books by writers who weren’t talk radio or cable news celebrities.
