English teacher fired for promoting gay agenda with homophones.

[AndaliteBandit]

Homophones, as any English grammarian can tell you, are words that sound the same but have different meanings and often different spellings — such as be and bee, through and threw, which and witch, their and there.

This concept is taught early on to foreign students learning English because it can be confusing to someone whose native language does not have that feature.

But when the social-media specialist for a private Provo-based English language learning center wrote a blog explaining homophones, he was let go for creating the perception that the school promoted a gay agenda.

Tim Torkildson says after he wrote the blog on the website of his employer, Nomen Global Language Center, his boss and Nomen owner Clarke Woodger, called him into his office and told him he was fired.

As Torkildson tells it, Woodger said he could not trust him and that the blog about homophones was the last straw.

"Now our school is going to be associated with homosexuality," Woodger complained, according to Torkildson, who posted the exchange on his Facebook page.

Torkildson says he was careful to write a straightforward explanation of homophones. He knew the "homo" part of the word could be politically charged, but he thought the explanation of that quirky part of the English language would be educational.

Nomen has removed that blog from its website, but a similar explanation of homophones was posted there in 2011 with apparently no controversy.

Woodger says his reaction to Torkildson’s blog has nothing to do with homosexuality but that Torkildson had caused him concern because he would "go off on tangents" in his blogs that would be confusing and sometimes could be considered offensive.

Nomen is Utah’s largest private English as a Second Language school and caters mostly to foreign students seeking admission to U.S. colleges and universities. Woodger says his school has taught 6,500 students from 58 countries during the past 15 years. Most of them, he says, are at basic levels of English and are not ready for the more complicated concepts such as homophones.

"People at this level of English," Woodger says, " … may see the ‘homo’ side and think it has something to do with gay sex."

He says Torkildson had worked at the center for less than three months before he was terminated in mid-July.

Interestingly, he was hired on April Fools’ Day.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politic...guage.html.csp

Those pesky homophones, teaching people the difference between knowing your shit and knowing you're shit.

[Masark]

Hmm. The crazy isn't coming from Florida for once.

[Deleted]

Those pesky homophones, teaching people the difference between knowing your shit and knowing you're shit.

People at this level of English," Woodger says, " … may see the ‘homo’ side and think it has something to do with gay sex.

This made me laugh. If that is the impression the students get then they obviously are not very good at educating them. Following that guys logic will they think its something to do with gay sex using phones?

[Nobleshield]

There has to be more to it than this. What's next? Firing a science teacher for teaching that the scientific term for humans is homo sapiens?

[Adam Jensen]

In other news, a biology was teacher fired for promoting the gay agenda when speaking of Homo Sapiens.

Are people this retarded? Seriously?

Homo is a prefix that means "same," not "gay."

[Deleted]

haha that's probably thes (least) funniest thing i read in a long time. i think nobleshield is right. the homo genus will go next. after that homogenization. and after that homolouges.

[Delekii]

that is both fucking hilarious and and fucking horrifying at the same time.

[Argarock]

There has to be more to it than this. What's next? Firing a science teacher for teaching that the scientific term for humans is homo sapiens?

Im willing to bet, pretty much anything, that this has already happened somewhere.

[-aiko-]

I heard about this, it happened not far from here. I think there's more to it but even so, associating homophones with homosexuality is just...yeah. Besides, it's not even pronounced 'homo' as in 'homosexual'.

*facepalm*

[Adam Jensen]

So what happens when they start talking about Homo Erectus?

[Gheld]

Please tell me this was a satirical article.

[Masark]

In other news, a biology was teacher fired for promoting the gay agenda when speaking of Homo Sapiens.

No, they were fired for promoting the Evolutionist agenda. Teaching that humans are part of a genus of similar denies the Truth of God's Creation.

[MatadorMedia]

Human beings shall now be referred to as Hetero sapiens.

[Deleted]

I heard about this, it happened not far from here. I think there's more to it but even so, associating homophones with homosexuality is just...yeah. Besides, it's not even pronounced 'homo' as in 'homosexual'.

*facepalm*

hmm it should be pronounced exactly the same, as the prefix homo- is exactly the same. as said before it just means "same" e.g. "samepronounced" or "samesexual"
the homo in homo sapiens and homosexual isn't the same. but it's pronounced the same anyway

[Deleted]

Im willing to bet, pretty much anything, that this has already happened somewhere.

That would instantly nullify the "sapiens" part for those people, at least in MY books

[Deleted]

"People at this level of English," Woodger says, " … may see the ‘homo’ side and think it has something to do with gay sex."

Yeah, and then this would happen to them:

[Revi]

Hahaha. so now you can't teach subjects that contain any word that could be misconstrued to mean gay. I really hope there's more to it than this, no one this dumb should be in charge of a school.

[Kalis]

hmm it should be pronounced exactly the same, as the prefix homo- is exactly the same. as said before it just means "same" e.g. "samepronounced" or "samesexual"
the homo in homo sapiens and homosexual isn't the same. but it's pronounced the same anyway

The first o in homo can be pronounced long or short, and seems to be random rather than regional.

[Naxere]

This reminds me of all of the controversies about use of the word "niggardly." The uneducated take it as a racial insult.

[MerinPally]

What a wonderful school system you have over there. I thought this was going to be Russia at first with their no advertising gays thing.