Teachers just can't be trusted to do their jobs. Consider Jane Ehrenfeld, a third grade teacher in Boston who received a letter of reprimand from her principal. Her mistake? Her students were reading books instead of watching television. Students in Ehrenfeld's school are supposed to watch Channel One, which includes the student news (apparently a real dud of a show, put on by the older students, and followed by a quick lesson, such as the reciting of a vocabulary word). There was an entire class of third-graders, all absorbed in their books, but their teacher got in trouble for it.

It seems that the TV in Ehrenfeld's class had broken, and she took the opportunity to encourage reading. When the set was fixed, the students had no desire to watch it. Once she was busted, Ehrenfeld had to turn the TV on at the required time because the principal began making sneak visits outside her class to determine whether the students were watching the show.

Ehrenfeld's students resented the intrusion on their reading time, and began hiding books under their desks and sneaking a read while the TV was on. She says she had to tell them to put the books away, but they ignored her and kept on reading.