Michael Baker Has Left the Building
Michael Baker, a sometimes-controversial teacher at Lincoln East High School, has retired. Or been fired (sorry, “asked to retire"). Or something. We don’t really know for sure, but he is no longer at the school.
You might recall Baker as the history teacher who taught history backwards, from the present to the past. The School Board got in a huff over that a couple years ago. This spring, Baker showed the graphic HBO documentary Baghdad ER in class. Was that the straw that broke the camel’s back?
I don’t know Mr. Baker and I know very little about him, so I have no idea if he or his teaching methods should be attacked or defended (or ignored). I do hope that this isn’t yet another example of the dumbing down of public education by eliminating those who challenge students using unorthodox, but effective, methods of instruction. (Just to be clear, that’s a dig on public education nationwide, not specifically on LPS.) Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. Maybe the guy has terminal cancer and the timing is just a coincidence. Who knows?
If anybody knows more about this situation, or if you know Mr. Baker, please share.
The Comments
jwiltshire May 8, 2007 at 8:47am
I do hope that this isn’t yet another example of the dumbing down of public education by eliminating those who challenge students using unorthodox, but effective, methods of instruction.
His methods were unorthodox, and they were effective, and this is an example of the dumbing down of public education. I only had the chance to take one class with Mr. Baker, his Vietnam history class, but many of my friends would sign up for pretty much any class of his that they could. It’s sad to see such a great teacher go.
Diane K May 9, 2007 at 7:17am
My daughter is really disappointed - she was signed up for Baker’s Peace Studies class next year, but now won’t be able to have him as a teacher.
I understand that he was retiring in a year anyway, so I wasn’t surprised that he chose to retire earlier than planned after he was suspended in April for showing the documentary.
I don’t know him personally, but I’ve heard many good things about him from East students. He got them to think about things, and they appreciated that.
Of course, his teaching methods (like teaching history backwards) didn’t usually match those required by No Child Left Behind rules, so he was always taking the heat from LPS. Now what do we have? The loss of a good teacher, and.... children left behind. Hmmmm....
East handled this in its usual secretive way - letting the East community rely on the rumor mill and the newspaper. We’ll most likely never know the “rest of the story”, but I’m sorry to him go.
Jake Meador May 9, 2007 at 2:58pm
As a former student of Baker’s (just last year actually), I’m extremely sad to see him go. He was easily one of the best teachers I had in my time at East. I don’t know anything about the latest issue with the documentary, so I don’t want to say anything about that. I do know that in the past LPS has had a tendency to conceal a lot of information from students, I remember similar issues just last year when Baker was told he couldn’t use his preferred teaching method.
That said, there are a lot of great teachers at East High. In my humble opinion, Baker was one of the best, but there are many quality educators at Lincoln East and I for one am tremendously grateful that I was able to spend four years of my life being educated by such fine individuals.