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FYI, for those of you who love to blather about the evil of "tenure", I'm in my 33rd year of teaching in a PUBLIC school and teachers in my state are NOT tenured.
If high school students still believe in Santa, they have bigger issues to deal with than this teacher.
Were the signs appropriate? NO
But the easiest thing to do would be for the principal to tell him to take them down and if he didn't, to deal with it within the school or district. I don't see this as media attention worthy.
Now, if he was a first grade teacher, my opinion would be different.
I have read the article and found the way he dealt with it really immature. Now, being a history teacher, regardless if he was teaching 1st grade or 10th, I would not object with him teaching how and where the roots of this began. I didn't believe in santa at age four. My kids were never lied to. I find it very strange and creepy that parents want their kids to believe until they are through the 6th grade or better. Do you not get it? Barring some mental illness, most kids have the logic ability to question the reality by the first grade. Those who lie and try to make it more and more elaborate in order to continue the lie are only forcing their children to pretend to believe for the sake of their parents...or because their parents tell them if they don't believe in a lie, they won't get presents, which is just plain mean and abusive.
The way this guy went about it is very uncalled for. There are more tackful ways of teaching kids that santa's a fake...even though a santa we had in our town about 15 years ago got busted with a "present" standing up right when the kids where sitting on his lap at the local Walmart and that is enough to make me have serious doubts of the healthiness of the whole practice but I would not gerneralize all those dressing in red in such a way.
I have read the article and found the way he dealt with it really immature. Now, being a history teacher, regardless if he was teaching 1st grade or 10th, I would not object with him teaching how and where the roots of this began. I didn't believe in santa at age four. My kids were never lied to. I find it very strange and creepy that parents want their kids to believe until they are through the 6th grade or better. Do you not get it? Barring some mental illness, most kids have the logic ability to question the reality by the first grade. Those who lie and try to make it more and more elaborate in order to continue the lie are only forcing their children to pretend to believe for the sake of their parents...or because their parents tell them if they don't believe in a lie, they won't get presents, which is just plain mean and abusive.
The way this guy went about it is very uncalled for. There are more tackful ways of teaching kids that santa's a fake...even though a santa we had in our town about 15 years ago got busted with a "present" standing up right when the kids where sitting on his lap at the local Walmart and that is enough to make me have serious doubts of the healthiness of the whole practice but I would not gerneralize all those dressing in red in such a way.
Oh, heaven forbid your kid participate in a little make believe and a little magic in their very short childhood. It's too bad your kids can't have any fun.
Frankly, the most appalling thing about the whole business is the randomness of the spelling and capitalization used by the writer of the article. This is supposed to be a professional effort?
Oh, heaven forbid your kid participate in a little make believe and a little magic in their very short childhood. It's too bad your kids can't have any fun.
A child's imagination is far more elborate than a fat man in a red suit flying around ho-hoing and only a very small part of their imagination as it is something they only think about a small part of the year. In fact, we threw out all toys that were not imagination building as all the toys were overstimulating and grew on those that required imagination to be played with from puppets, dress up clothes, blocks, potato head, ect. No Dora or other Nick, Disney, ect crap they would never play with anyway. They have a ton of fun and since they homeschool and are done by 1PM, they also get all those extra hours for fun time. They have also written a book on their own worthy of widespread publication so their make believing is actually much further advanced than most kids their age.
But since many are uninformed, many psychologists agree that the whole santa thing is not good psychologically to children, that it sends a mixed message about lying, damages trust, ect. An article I read many years ago actually had kids talking about their experiences with their parents and santa. They felt like they would be punished if they did not play along and older kids felt embarressed when parents would tell their friends parents that they still believed in santa when they did not. Studies show that kids figure out the truth by age 7. Many parents punish them for reaching the age of reason however, and they are forced to pertend that he is real up for 5-8 years after they know the truth with the threat they will stop getting gifts at the front of their mind. It is not healthy.
Not to mention the fact that your children are being taught that if they live a well behaved life they are simly worthy of deserving whatever it is they want, that they deserve that. It is a poor lesson to children to not know where and how the things they own were obtained. It is indoctering them with matterialism. There are so many Christmas roots that children are never exposed to. The truth is stops short of the fat guy or the made up "real" St Nick as to keep kids from learning the real truth about why certain things were celebrated. It is a big curtain to hide reality.
You also have the gifted aspect. The higher IQ, the measurement of their logic reasoning, is, the younger they will question santa and kids with IQ's over 130 are even more likely to question it between the ages of 2 and 4. My children would never have believed it for one second. Imagination at those ages for them was much more advanced than other kids and they played with 5 and 6 year old kids.
Besides, this thread is about school and isn't the school's place to teach real history to kids?
Quote:
When your child ask if santa is real look quizical and reply, " What do you think? Let the child believe what it chooses too. Bets are the child will believe that santa is real. When the child is older (5) start steering the santa conversations to a more practical approach. When the child inevitably realizes there is no santa allow them to realize you were just seeing playing along. Till then let them learn to develop a fertile imagination through allowing them to think there is really some magic in their lives. We should not teach our children about Santa Claus [Archive] - Online Debate Network Forums
WOW! That is EXACTLY what we did? We never made mention of santa. The kids would ask if there was a santa and we asked them what they thought, let them work it out in their mind. Each one, before age five, had figured out on their own that santa was not real and they didn't have to think real hard about it. Now they question why parents go so far in the lie and not let the kids make their own decision on it. I think it is more important that children are not forced to believe something just because their parents want them to believe it.
Last edited by flik_becky; 12-06-2009 at 06:01 PM..
Funny - this topic came up 5 minutes ago when my 7 year old son told me he didnt think Santa was real. I asked why and he said Santa is either a spirit or someone who comes into your house. LOL! Keep in mind his 10 year old sister is still perpetuating the fraud and wrote her letter to Santa for me to mail yesterday! I asked whether they had discussed Santa and whether he was real and he said no. I didnt confirm or deny.
Im in no hurry to have my children grow up - that happens fast enough. Oh and in my opinion being gifted or "bright" doesnt mean that you cannot suspend reality - to the contrary actually.
A child's imagination is far more elborate than a fat man in a red suit flying around ho-hoing and only a very small part of their imagination as it is something they only think about a small part of the year. In fact, we threw out all toys that were not imagination building as all the toys were overstimulating and grew on those that required imagination to be played with from puppets, dress up clothes, blocks, potato head, ect. No Dora or other Nick, Disney, ect crap they would never play with anyway. They have a ton of fun and since they homeschool and are done by 1PM, they also get all those extra hours for fun time. They have also written a book on their own worthy of widespread publication so their make believing is actually much further advanced than most kids their age.
But since many are uninformed, many psychologists agree that the whole santa thing is not good psychologically to children, that it sends a mixed message about lying, damages trust, ect. An article I read many years ago actually had kids talking about their experiences with their parents and santa. They felt like they would be punished if they did not play along and older kids felt embarressed when parents would tell their friends parents that they still believed in santa when they did not. Studies show that kids figure out the truth by age 7. Many parents punish them for reaching the age of reason however, and they are forced to pertend that he is real up for 5-8 years after they know the truth with the threat they will stop getting gifts at the front of their mind. It is not healthy.
Not to mention the fact that your children are being taught that if they live a well behaved life they are simly worthy of deserving whatever it is they want, that they deserve that. It is a poor lesson to children to not know where and how the things they own were obtained. It is indoctering them with matterialism. There are so many Christmas roots that children are never exposed to. The truth is stops short of the fat guy or the made up "real" St Nick as to keep kids from learning the real truth about why certain things were celebrated. It is a big curtain to hide reality.
You also have the gifted aspect. The higher IQ, the measurement of their logic reasoning, is, the younger they will question santa and kids with IQ's over 130 are even more likely to question it between the ages of 2 and 4. My children would never have believed it for one second. Imagination at those ages for them was much more advanced than other kids and they played with 5 and 6 year old kids.
Besides, this thread is about school and isn't the school's place to teach real history to kids?
WOW! That is EXACTLY what we did? We never made mention of santa. The kids would ask if there was a santa and we asked them what they thought, let them work it out in their mind. Each one, before age five, had figured out on their own that santa was not real and they didn't have to think real hard about it. Now they question why parents go so far in the lie and not let the kids make their own decision on it. I think it is more important that children are not forced to believe something just because their parents want them to believe it.
WoW, I just can't imagine living the life you live and your extreme views on the world. I know NO parents that "punish" their kids for not believing in Santa--where do you get this crap?? Oh, and historically Santa is real, St. Nicholas, heard of him?
Whether Santa is real or not or kids believe he's real or not is not precisely the issue here, I think.
The fact is, the teacher behaved with an astonishing lack of professionalism.
1. It's inappropriate to have any posters mentioning pedophilia on public display in a school. The only possible exception I can think of is a "stranger danger" poster, and quite obviously, posters of that nature do not go into detail about what kind of "danger" a "stranger" can pose to a young child.
2. It's inappropriate having posters mentioning Satan. The only possible exception I can think of is maybe some poster about Dante's Inferno, but that's seriously about it.
Many students would find a poster mentioning Satan (outside of a literary or historical context) to be offensive to their religious beliefs or lack thereof. It's simply not worth the hassle.
3. It's inappropriate to have posters referring to prostitution for basically any reason. I cannot think of one reason why that subject would be at all appropriate to put on a poster for display.
It's as if he were trying to get fired.
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