I do think it’s the job of a teacher to make students uncomfortable through challenging dogmatic beliefs. It’s ok to believe something, but you ought to have a better reason for believing than simply because that’s how your parents believe.

A conservative teacher in liberal Douglas County might be exactly what those kids need, but evidently something went wrong with how he presented those views. I really don’t want to believe his firing is as simple as having an unpopular point of view (though I suppose it could be). Sometimes how your message is presented is every bit as important as the message itself.

Failure to acknowledge the right of your intellectual adversary would amount for me to legitimate grounds for a sacking.

Teachers have a duty to be fair, but I like your preference for presenting facts and supporting information. My state has in the past become embroiled in controversy over teaching evolution & intelligent design in the science classroom. To me, one is a scientific theory, the other an article of religious faith cloaked in “science.” I don’t envy teachers struggling to juggle that particular issue in the name of openness to differing opinions.