Spring Break
Teacher has artistic license
By: Elizabeth Chapman
Issue date: 6/28/06 Section: Opinion
Quick! Someone tell the Venus de Milo to put on a bra! Put a blouse over that pert pair on CPR Sally! And could anyone hand those aboriginal women on the cover of National Geographic some pasties? Austin Independent School District (AISD) has made it clear that breasts have no place in the classroom.
Red, rosy nipples - a longtime foe of decency and the public good - led AISD to begin a campaign to fire one of its most well-loved high school art teachers. Tamara Hoover, 29, was shocked when she was escorted off campus after school administrators found topless photos of her online.
Hoover maintains that the photographs, taken and posted on Flickr.com by her partner, Celesta Danger, were in good taste. She describes them as having "high artistic merit," both in their subject and composition, and absolutely refutes any charges of pornography. But what Hoover took to be an artist expression of the "human spirit," campus officials found to be a threat to the welfare of their students, and subsequently dismissed the teacher.
Given the nature of the photographs and the fact that they were displayed on a Web site unaffiliated with the school, the district's actions seem to be little more than a vestige of Victorian prudery. It's no surprise, however, that administrators would take such a stance - schools in this country have long been in the business of legislating morality. From "separate-but-equal" facilities, to abstinence-only education, to moments of silence, schools have traditionally served a dual role as the mouthpiece of majority opinion on issues of moral concern.
But when the public perception of what is right changes faster than a person can say "areola," it's time to consider whether school districts' time and resources might not be better spent on, say, teaching. Twenty years from now, bare breasts might be as common a sight as bikinis and miniskirts are today, and historians will look back at today's puritanical critique of toplessness and chuckle. The dismissal of Tamara Hoover will be seen as a regrettable concession to conservatism, and the case will be recognized for what it is: the sacrifice of an extraordinary teacher in a time when young people are more in need of strong educators than ever before.
By all accounts, Tamara Hoover was an excellent instructor and will be a great loss to her school. She is clearly passionate about her subject and devoted to her students; as a teacher, she used her own money to pay for her class to enter competitions and rummaged through junkyards looking for extra art supplies. Her students have banded together to raise funds for her legal fees leading up to her appeal of the district's decision - Hoover hopes to be able to return to the school in the fall.
When it comes time to consider her case, AISD officials are welcome to cluck quietly to themselves that real artists don't pose nude (try telling that to Josephine Baker, Marilyn Monroe or Georgia O'Keefe). After all, the debate over the definition of art is as healthy as it is long-standing. But they should not let their antiquated sense of decency deprive their students of a superior educator.
Red, rosy nipples - a longtime foe of decency and the public good - led AISD to begin a campaign to fire one of its most well-loved high school art teachers. Tamara Hoover, 29, was shocked when she was escorted off campus after school administrators found topless photos of her online.
Hoover maintains that the photographs, taken and posted on Flickr.com by her partner, Celesta Danger, were in good taste. She describes them as having "high artistic merit," both in their subject and composition, and absolutely refutes any charges of pornography. But what Hoover took to be an artist expression of the "human spirit," campus officials found to be a threat to the welfare of their students, and subsequently dismissed the teacher.
Given the nature of the photographs and the fact that they were displayed on a Web site unaffiliated with the school, the district's actions seem to be little more than a vestige of Victorian prudery. It's no surprise, however, that administrators would take such a stance - schools in this country have long been in the business of legislating morality. From "separate-but-equal" facilities, to abstinence-only education, to moments of silence, schools have traditionally served a dual role as the mouthpiece of majority opinion on issues of moral concern.
But when the public perception of what is right changes faster than a person can say "areola," it's time to consider whether school districts' time and resources might not be better spent on, say, teaching. Twenty years from now, bare breasts might be as common a sight as bikinis and miniskirts are today, and historians will look back at today's puritanical critique of toplessness and chuckle. The dismissal of Tamara Hoover will be seen as a regrettable concession to conservatism, and the case will be recognized for what it is: the sacrifice of an extraordinary teacher in a time when young people are more in need of strong educators than ever before.
By all accounts, Tamara Hoover was an excellent instructor and will be a great loss to her school. She is clearly passionate about her subject and devoted to her students; as a teacher, she used her own money to pay for her class to enter competitions and rummaged through junkyards looking for extra art supplies. Her students have banded together to raise funds for her legal fees leading up to her appeal of the district's decision - Hoover hopes to be able to return to the school in the fall.
When it comes time to consider her case, AISD officials are welcome to cluck quietly to themselves that real artists don't pose nude (try telling that to Josephine Baker, Marilyn Monroe or Georgia O'Keefe). After all, the debate over the definition of art is as healthy as it is long-standing. But they should not let their antiquated sense of decency deprive their students of a superior educator.
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