The First Lesson of 'Monicagate': Let the Student Free Press Roll

By Leslie Seifert

The narrative of the White House sex scandal has an entry point for nearly everyone, and teachers across the country are said to be embracing it somewhat nervously as a "teachable moment" in which, as the San Diego Tribune reported, "an event outside the classroom delivers a lesson with real-life clarity." ( "Talking About the Presidential Scandal in the Classroom," Sept. 23, 1998.) History and social studies teachers are "talking about the news of the day as it relates to the Constitution and impeachment," wrote USA Today , while family-life and health teachers see "a chance to discuss responsible sex and the consequences of sex acts."

It's as if the legal, political, and moral issues raked up by the scandal belong to a separate world that crosses the curriculum only as a source of supporting illustrations for a pre-agreed, tradition-hardened lesson plan. This is also an occasion, however, to see how much of the Clinton-Lewinsky affair is played on the school's own stage every day.

Doesn't the school have leaders (some elected, some not), laws (rules and regulations), and citizens (students and teachers)? Aren't there elections for governing bodies: student officers and school board? Doesn't the principal have a mandate? Isn't he subject to censure or dismissal if he fails? Aren't teachers accountable to a curriculum, to laws, to parents, to administrators? Aren't students accountable to teachers, to curriculum, to parents, to laws? Don't the students and advisers who volunteer to organize extracurricular activities have an obligation to the student body to do a good job? Does anyone in school (students, teachers, or administrators) have sexual feelings? Do they ever act on these feelings? Do these actions sometimes have consequences that affect other individuals...