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How absurd and arrogant of this teacher, who reportedly threatens to lower a student's academic grade if they say the traditional, generic "God Bless You" after someone sneezes in the classroom. Sounds like the principal is intervening to stop the form of punishment; but its unclear if it will still be censored or not.
"Steve Cuckovich, a health teacher at William C. Wood High School in Vacaville, California, has attempted to banish the friendly gesture, as he believes it is both disrespectful and disruptive. To punish students who do, indeed, say “God bless you” after one of their classmates sneezes, he purportedly knocks 25 points off of their grade."
When I sneeze and someone say ''bless you'' or''God bless you'', my consistent reponse is to say ''thanks'' , even when I have no belief in God. I guess in a deep way, it can be considered offensive like the person should be thankful that God was kind enough to keep his or her heart pumping after the temporary pause. But what the teacher did was uncalled for and made it out of a big enough issue to drop a student's grade. Like c'mon, even us secular/non believers blurt out phrases sub-consciously that have a religious theme to it like ''Oh my God'' and ''God Damn'' and ''Jesus Christ!!''.
I guess in a deep way, it can be considered offensive like the person should be thankful that God was kind enough to keep his or her heart pumping after the temporary pause. But what the teacher did was uncalled for and made it out of a big enough issue to drop a student's grade. Like c'mon, even us secular/non believers blurt out phrases sub-consciously that have a religious theme to it like ''Oh my God'' and ''God Damn'' and ''Jesus Christ!!''.
People once thought that a sneeze was the body trying to expel an evil spirit or demon. That's the origin of the phrase, as I understand it.
How absurd and arrogant of this teacher, who reportedly threatens to lower a student's academic grade if they say the traditional, generic "God Bless You" after someone sneezes in the classroom. Sounds like the principal is intervening to stop the form of punishment; but its unclear if it will still be censored or not.
"Steve Cuckovich, a health teacher at William C. Wood High School in Vacaville, California, has attempted to banish the friendly gesture, as he believes it is both disrespectful and disruptive. To punish students who do, indeed, say “God bless you” after one of their classmates sneezes, he purportedly knocks 25 points off of their grade."
This guy should be fired. Disrespectful? To who? Did somebody complaign about it? It's known as a common courtesy. At least the school agreed with the students who complaigned about this loon and he is pulling back it appears. Makes you wonder what other kinds of insanity this guy puts his students through though.
That's ridiculous. I used to say "Bless you" after a sneeze even when I was atheist. It's just a saying people don't mean literally. Linguists call it phatic communion. Another example is "how are you?"--99% of the time the expected answer is "good" or "fine thank you"--you're not actually asking for an in-depth discussion of how they are doing.
There are tons of linguistic rituals we go through every day that don't actually mean much. When a store clerk says "Have a nice day" do you think they really give a sh.t about your day? Not really. ALl of those just serve to smooth out every day interactions. Bless you" is no exception. You don't have to believe in God to say "bless you," just like you don't have to actually know someone well to ask "how are you?" or care about someone to tell them "have a nice day."
It seems we only have the father's word that this happened. Even The Blaze is smart enough to use words like "purportedly". Those of you calling for firing the teacher should think about "due process".
Location: Democratic Peoples Republic of Redneckistan
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Quote:
Originally Posted by swagger
People once thought that a sneeze was the body trying to expel an evil spirit or demon. That's the origin of the phrase, as I understand it.
Those ancients were wrong on so many things...at least now we know that the evil spirits and demons leave our bodies when we fart...we've come a long way baby
This guy should be fired. Disrespectful? To who? Did somebody complaign about it? It's known as a common courtesy. At least the school agreed with the students who complaigned about this loon and he is pulling back it appears. Makes you wonder what other kinds of insanity this guy puts his students through though.
Last time I checked, saying "bless you" was basic manners and basic manners are a way to show respect, not disrespect. This guy's got it backwards.
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