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This has happened several times in my sons classes. Nothing new. We even had one young woman teach the Christ myth theory. What that actually had to do with history, I do not know. She even went as far as not saying anything about Constantine or the Edict of Milan.
What is really funny is how teachers bend over backwards to subtly preach atheism when dealing with Christianity or Judaism. All of this teachers assignments listed dates as CE and BCE, she was meticulous about it.
But when it came to Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism it was interesting and cultural and all of a sudden we need to be respectful of others cultures and religions. She taught everyone about yoga and most Hindus practice ahimsa. I have never had a teacher try to push agendas that hard.
Modern liberal teacher mantra: Christianity=imperialisim/bad. Other World Religions=culture/good.
We have parent teacher conferences tomorrow. I have a feeling I'll hear quite a bit of atheist rambling. I know I will hear the term "holidays" quite often.
While I don't doubt your personal experience, I think the frequency of such incidents is quite small. In 20 years as a school administrator of a middle school, I never once received a complaint from a parent about a teacher pushing atheism or agnosticism, and was never aware of a teacher doing that; in fact, I'm not aware that we had any teachers in our school that were atheists or agnostics (although I'm sure we did).
On the other hand, we had a couple of teachers on whom we received complaints about pushing Christianity, including one that was complained about so often that the principal before me (when I was the assistant principal) had to persuade that teacher to leave after he repeatedly ignored orders from the school and school system to desist. For example, he frequently told female students that, "If you continue to wear skirts (or shorts) that short, God is going to condemn you to hell".
In terms of CE and BCE, that seems to be the growing world standard when discussing history since much of the world does not base things on when Christ was born.
So when you say that "teachers bend over backwards to subtly preach atheism", personally I think that's nonsense.
Ugh, so many "I agree with her, but she was wrong to say it" posts. If she's an atheist (as I am), let her atheist a little without fear of rebuke. Yes, I did just use "atheist" as a verb.
Well, in this reactionary world, watch what you say!
A and B....and then C
A: About the only way to talk any religion in a public school is as a mythology. The problem seems to be, though, that while I (and others) may see mythology as a system of beliefs and even the foundations of some cultures, most people, it seems, hear the word "myth" and think "lie' or at least, "untrue".
B: At a cousine's wedding in the 90's, I had a chance to talk to the priest for a few minutes. I asked him why the Bible only lists angels and archangels, the latter being the highest rank, but then other sources have ranks like thrones, cherubs, virtues, and so forth (keep in mind, this was in the pre or early Net and we still got our information from books). He explained that the Bible references were of the religion around angels but the other were from the mythology of angels.
C: At early elementary school age, Mom would tell us Chinese proverb stories and one of them involved awaiting the arrival of the "kitchen god". When I asked my mother about that, she explained it was the way that the people in the story saw God. Hence, one and two. One, I learned that people will have different ways of viewing what I may believe in. Two, to me, I believe that those who believe in one God, who practice a philosophy of good, are not to be damned, even if their interpretation of their belief is different from mine.
Of course, it would be inappropriate for a teacher to make a point blank statement like this about God one way or the other (There is a reason our Forefathers believed in Separation of Church and State) - and it would be inappropriate topic for children this age imo..... But reading the contents of the article, shows the whole thing blown out of proportion to me, it was testing critical thinking and asked if God was a fact, a common assertion or an opinion...which is a fair question to a certain degree in my opinion, and everyone is greatly over-reacting. Religion is not a subject that should be taught in public schools in my opinion, in any capacity other than perhaps comparative religion when studied in an completely unbiased and non-proselytizing way.
Asking if God is a fact, assertion or opinion is not really the same thing as saying God is a Myth.
(I did vote that yes, she took it too far, but I think the headline was misleading.)
Last edited by Crazee Cat Lady; 10-29-2015 at 02:37 AM..
I don't know about you all, but back in my day (and, at age 29, I'm easily younger than the city-data median age poster, I'd wager), we distinguished solely between 'fact' and 'opinion'. A 'common assertion' will be one or the other. I think her trichotomy-not-dichotomy was a false one.
Yes, they were. Schools and teachers have a responsibility to respect their students' cultures, including their religion. There was no reason to use this as part of a lesson for 7th graders, they are not developmentally where this is appropriate. It definitely shouldn't have been graded. Someone had an agenda.
The student may say that, but that's not what was in writing on the test or lesson or whatever the classroom work was.
No mention of myth. No denial of God.
Hell, I even asked myself this one after reading it. Is it common assertion or opinion? Both, I think. Faith is like that.
So nice to say such things, but it's going to come up. Kids are going to be (inquisitive) kids, and their human/adult 'mentors' are going to be human.
**** religion. Also, **** life. Humans are so stupid. That they keep reproducing is evidence of their stupidity.
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