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No, I think her student took from the lesson that the teacher was challenging her faith. Whether the teacher did or didn't is immaterial. Teachers have an obligation to consider the negative impact of whatever lessons they create and to take into consideration the developmental level of their students.
First of all, how this single student perceived an innocuous question is entirely irrelevant and I suspect you would have no problem with an atheist student being offended by a teacher's implication that God is real.
Second, teachers have no obligation to cater their lesson plans to overly sensitive students that have poor reading comprehension and reasoning skills. The point of education to make you smarter, not reinforce your intellectual deficiencies. That you disagree makes me think you shouldn't be an educator.
The teacher never said or implied God isn't real, only one student perceived the question as one of God's existence, and that student later admitted her mistake. Period.
First of all, how this single student perceived an innocuous question is entirely irrelevant and I suspect you would have no problem with an atheist student being offended by a teacher's implication that God is real.
Second, teachers have no obligation to cater their lesson plans to overly sensitive students that have poor reading comprehension and reasoning skills. The point of education to make you smarter, not reinforce your intellectual deficiencies. That you disagree makes me think you shouldn't be an educator.
The teacher never said or implied God isn't real, only one student perceived the question as one of God's existence, and that student later admitted her mistake. Period.
I would have serious problems with a teacher discussing God's existence or non-existence in a public school regardless. As to the rest.... It's not even worth getting into.
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...teachers have no obligation to cater their lesson plans to overly sensitive students that have poor reading comprehension and reasoning skills. ...
Actually, at that grade level, yes they do. Different students are at different points in their intellectual development, and that needs to be taken into account in the development of lesson plans. And yes, teachers should develop lesson plans -- perhaps at varying levels within a classroom -- to address varying reading comprehension and reasoning skills among students. In the old days, schools segregated students based on those very factors. In my middle school when I was growing up, in middle schools there were a, b, c, d, and e levels, and those levels addressed such differences. Where I began my career as an administrator, there were below-average ability classes, average-ability classes, and high-ability classes, and those 3 levels were designed to address just such issues. Now mainstreaming is more common, perhaps with gifted classes being separate.
I disagree. And again, she did not discuss God nor whether God exists. For all we know she is a bigger believer than anyone in the school. You keep trying to act like this was some sort of subjective opinion she gave in class, that is not the case at all. Whether something is fact or a belief is as objective as you can get.
There is a well-known private school here that's associated with a very large Baptist Church. In order to send your children to the school, you have to sign a form that says that you denied evolution ever happened. Why anyone would want to purposely dumb down their children is beyond me. The friends I have who do send their kids there have to tell them to ignore that part. It is some really seriously sick crap to think about the world economy and what our kids have to compete with while educators like this tie one hand and one leg behind their back and expect them to race against those who can leave their religion at home or at church and use school as a time and place to learn useful, applicable information.
Why are they sending their kids to that school if they don't agree with that? If I was going to shell out money for private school tuition, it wouldn't be to a baptist school. It would be a Catholic or Episcopal school, or a college prep like Kincaid. I'm pretty sure I know what school/church you're speaking of. I went to a Baptist school my senior year of high school back in the '80s. I would never send my kids to one after that experience. It wasn't that they were mean, it was that those kids didn't get a great education. I remember a discussion I had with my Geography teacher because she made us rip out the introduction page in our brand new textbook, that discussed evolution and the Big Bang theory. I asked why she would want us to do that...basically saying that I didn't think evolution and Christianity was mutually exclusive. She then told me that she believed the earth was only 7,000, and that noted religious leaders had determined that by studying Genesis. This woman wasn't just the Geography teacher, she also taught biology!
That school's mission was to give a Christ centered education to the kids that focused on biblical principals and how they are appljed to our lives. They also prayed before every class and lunch, wouldn't allow girls to wear pants, and wouldn't allow girls to wear shorts in gym class. The boys could wear pants, and shorts in gym class. It was a nice place, but I was grateful I went to other schools most of my life. There were kids that went there since preschool. They got a decent education in some areas, but a bad education in science. Oh, and I forgot to mention we did not have a prom because Baptists back then did not believe in dancing. The large Baptist church you mentioned has salsa lessons held there nowadays. I guess the Baptists figured out they were losing members with their more strict doctrine.
I disagree. And again, she did not discuss God nor whether God exists. For all we know she is a bigger believer than anyone in the school. You keep trying to act like this was some sort of subjective opinion she gave in class, that is not the case at all. Whether something is fact or a belief is as objective as you can get.
It did not belong in an English class, there were examples she could have used that would not have created this controversy but would have met the objective of the lesson. It is immaterial what she believes, it is immaterial what she actually said, the bottom line is that it created a problem that could and should have been easily avoided.
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