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Oh, now that is a real pity! A very worthwhile field trip lost to a technicality. But I can understand why you had to cancel it, given the way your school's curriculum was set up. Did the 6th graders and high school students at least get to go?
It's not a technicality. Our job was to arrange learning experiences that supported the curriculum being taught. Do you really think that in the Washington, D.C. area that there aren't exciting field trips to be taken that relate to 1877-today?
No, hopefully the school district will learn not to schedule field trips that are completely non-educational in nature and which are exclusionary by design. This event should have been canceled decades ago!
Do you really think that in the Washington, D.C. area that there aren't exciting field trips to be taken that relate to 1877-today?
Oh, I am sure there are! Everywhere you turn in that area you're practically tripping over history. But seeing Gettysburg (unlike visiting Santa) is the very definition of a GOOD field trip - just not one that was appropriate for that particular class, given the way your school's history courses were set up.
What's so unbelievable about taking the secular nature of public schooling seriously, or about requiring that field trips actually serve a true educational purpose?
What's unbelievable is that in 2015 there are STILL adults out there who can't grasp the problem with this particular "field trip," and would actually support continuing it.
No, hopefully the school district will learn not to schedule field trips that are completely non-educational in nature and which are exclusionary by design. This event should have been canceled decades ago!
This was well addressed in the thread, but I'll say it again in my own way. Santa is a sort of corruption of St. Nicholas, who is certainly a part of Christianity. Santa may not be "religious", but he is certainly a symbol of Christmas, which is a symbol of Christianity. Also, all school programs have to have some tie-in to the curriculum.
Seems people need to lighten up.......this mom could have kept her kid home. Why can one person be allowed to ruin things for others. If this was my child and I didn't want them to experience fun like other children ,I would have kept them home and let them do house chores.
Some parents have way too much time on their hands, to complain about their religion. Santa is for fun, not a religious symbol. This is when religion gets stupid!
Most posters appear to agree with the Jewish mom, but somehow I am sure the reaction would be entirely different if the mom was Muslim. Ah, you never gotta offend the Chosen Tribe.
You just know that being as how kids are, the kid of this woman is now going to get picked on something fierce over this.
Still won't be her fault....she will sue the school district saying her little blossom was bullied and the school district didn't do enough to prevent it
I see no problem with teaching about religion in schools, and I mean any religion.
The problem with teaching about religion in public schools is that kids might raise questions or want to discuss the "pros and cons" and individual teachings about a particular religion. I think it would be very hard for many teachers to keep it entirely "factual". For example, if a public school teacher were to say something like, "Christians believe that Jesus Christ walked on water and rose from the dead after three days", and some child were to dispute that, what is the teacher to say? Sure, it would be easy to say, "That is what some (many) people think," but what if the child were to ask, "Well, what do YOU believe?" If the teacher happens to be a non-Christian, then what? Sure, she or he could say, "Everyone's belief is his or her own business, and no one else's", but what if a child were to then say, "Well, my pastor says that it is every Christian's duty to try to spread the word of Jesus Christ," and then another child chimes in to say, "Islam is the only TRUE religion", and then what would you have? A mini religious war among, for example, nine-year-olds.
(As a matter of fact, in my son's kindergarten class, there arose something of an argument about whether Mary was the Mother of God, and we are talking about five-year-olds!)
In any case, maybe such a discussion as I described in the first paragraph above MIGHT be civilized among high school students, but I recall a thread about some seventh-graders being in tears because their teacher said that God was not accepted as fact by many people, so I think talking about religion is definitely out of the question for small children in a public school classroom -- not only for the example I used above, but also because many small children tend to view their teachers as all-knowing and/or infallible.
Last edited by katharsis; 12-21-2015 at 09:00 PM..
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