I think AJ’s brilliant and passionate and creative, and I link to him all the time on my blog. He’s going to be a fantastic freelance teacher. I even have a project I’d like to collaborate with him on once I figure out how. Sometimes when I read his “informal action research introspection” posts I literally jump out of my chair and pump my fist. But I think he wastes a lot of his potential by over-investing in his “rebel” self-identity, and unfortunately his students suffered this time.

I had read through his other blog but was amused rather than worried though since I have a pretty laissez-faire attitude about all that. Unfortunately, I hadn’t thought about the cultural implications that nongnoi points out.

But more importantly, when will people figure out that to be truly subversive you can’t go around and scream “HEY EVERYBODY! I’M SUBVERSIVE!”? The true subversives are under the radar, quietly working towards getting things changed and getting things done.

One problem was that he was teaching and grading without regard to any curriculum, or standards set by the university. However much you might disagree with some things at a Thai university (or any university), using the students to be what he boasted as “subversive” just isn’t right.

What really got people worried, though is his other blog that the students had access to: http://hobopoet.blogspot.com Here, he goes on and on about the virtues of not working for a living, how to beat “the system”, but worst of all, about drugs. He also includes instructions for the manufacture of drugs. In a country with the death penalty for drug offenses, and teaching rather impressionable 18-22 year olds, I don’t have much sympathy for him anymore.

Unfortunately, the students got caught in the middle.

I think about what James Farmer went through a while back when he was given a cease and desist notice from his university. He received a lot of support from the edu-blogging community, yet I don’t remember anybody waiting around to hear from the university on the issue before they voiced their support. Granted, James had already established solid online presence and trust through all of his valuable contributions, but having met AJ and spent some quality time with him, I trust him and feel that he had been unfairly taken advantage of. I would do the same for anyone I trusted, including all of you who have left comments here.

And I *could* be wrong - I am aware of that. But unless we speak up when we see evidence of injustice, then injustice will continue to happen. If we constantly wait for the other side to put forth an explanation, we’ll be taken advantage of constantly by those wishing to silence us.

It might be interesting to find out what the students think of it through their personal blogs. Are they allowed to keep them and continue the exchange or will they be censored and expelled if what they say does not fit in?

Aaron Campbell, Marco Polo, and JH (whom I found via Marco and am adding to my blogroll) have all written very interesting and thoughtful peices that any teacher should read.