America's Christian Heritage

[Meriweather]

Substituting a milk toast word like "literature" for scripture

'Literature' and 'Scripture' are not synonyms. Any "substitution" was on the part of the reader, not the writer.

 

[Meriweather]

I stick with my original position.

1) It’s a slippery slope to inject religious stories into the curriculum.

2) The majority of our kids are not reading at grade level, have a poor grasp of history, cannot do basic math, and cannot write a grammatically correct sentence. We need to focus all efforts on these basics.

3) I find it hard to believe that religion is not an issue among students. Even 50+ years ago, when I was a student, I had the word “Jew” keyed across my locker more than once. Now, with antisemitism on the rise, there is a tremendous degree of hostility toward Jews in my liberal public school system.

I stay firm. Steer clear of Bible stories. There’s no place for them in our public schools.

As far as I know, nothing in the Bible shows up in text books. When a story from Hinduism, Taoism, and all other ancient religions is noted in a history text, religion is not a part of the lesson. It's included as a cultural aspect of that society.

The school where I teach is a true melting pot when it comes to cultures and religion. Often students have excused absences for religious reasons. It's expected, and no one has ever made an issue of it. When something cultural is mentioned in a textbook, students who have roots in that culture give additional, informative information which enriches the lesson.

I am not a fan of ignorance of religion(s) any more than I am a fan of ignorance of arithmetic, in art, or any other subject. For some odd reason, I think it important that students also learn how to properly lift weights.

 

[Grumblenuts]

'Literature' and 'Scripture' are not synonyms.

Duh. Nonetheless Christian scripture (Bible stories such as that of A&E) are what you're here promoting be taught in all public schools to captive audiences of easily indoctrinated little kids. Sick. My dad studied Literature. You study what again? The effing Bible. Cut the crap. There remain no shortage of churches and private schools around for that nonsense.

 

[Grumblenuts]

I stay firm. Steer clear of Bible stories. There’s no place for them in our public schools

Thank you!

 

[alang1216]

Some parents will complain about anything. How do you think we got to the point where students who do not know how to add and subtract are placed in pre-algebra classes, how children who don't even know how to read are in middle school classes--and some are even high school graduates. We have parents who complain children should not have to be outside if the child thinks it is too hot or too cold to be outside--and heaven forbid if a single drop of rain should fall on them. School choice, I say! School choice!!

So a teacher's job isn't hard enough, you want to add another level of complexity and conflict? School choice should mean they choose not to teach the Bible at all.

 

[Lisa558]

So a teacher's job isn't hard enough, you want to add another level of complexity and conflict? School choice should mean they choose not to teach the Bible at all.

Also, for parents who want their kids to learn about their religion, an appropriate place is Church or Synogogue classes.

 

[Meriweather]

Duh. Nonetheless Christian scripture (Bible stories such as that of A&E) are what you're here promoting be taught in all public schools to captive audiences of easily indoctrinated little kids. Sick. My dad studied Literature. You study what again? The effing Bible. Cut the crap. There remain no shortage of churches and private schools around for that nonsense.

Sir, you are reading too much into what I write. I simply point out the actual story in the Bible does not mention "Original Sin" and that without that, the story could be presented as cultural literature of an ancient time, just as other such story blurbs already are. From this you are wrongly convinced I am promoting teaching to all students the story as religion.

For the record, I have always been in favor of public education being open to having as an elective classes in any and all religions where there is an interest in that specific religion/faith/philosophy. Seriously, do you think any school would be over-run if this were offered? First, one's religion as an elective would be competing with other electives such as art, music, foreign language, computer science, drama, student assistant, student leadership, yearbook, and probably a few others that didn't readily come to mind. Imagining schools being over-run by students electing to study their religion as their elective is absolutely nuts. Like all the subjects I did mention, it's a special interest held by few.

 

[Lisa558]

Sir, you are reading too much into what I write. I simply point out the actual story in the Bible does not mention "Original Sin" and that without that, the story could be presented as cultural literature of an ancient time, just as other such story blurbs already are. From this you are wrongly convinced I am promoting teaching to all students the story as religion.

For the record, I have always been in favor of public education being open to having as an elective classes in any and all religions where there is an interest in that specific religion/faith/philosophy. Seriously, do you think any school would be over-run if this were offered? First, one's religion as an elective would be competing with other electives such as art, music, foreign language, computer science, drama, student assistant, student leadership, yearbook, and probably a few others that didn't readily come to mind. Imagining schools being over-run by students electing to study their religion as their elective is absolutely nuts. Like all the subjects I did mention, it's a special interest held by few.

An elective at the high school level.

 

[Blisterfinger]

Christians killed more people and dropped more bombs last year than any other denomination.

Link?

 

[Meriweather]

So a teacher's job isn't hard enough, you want to add another level of complexity and conflict? School choice should mean they choose not to teach the Bible at all.

Perhaps reading Post #867 will set matters straight. I am certainly not in favor of teaching religion in math, English, PE, science, history, Spanish/French, art classes, etc. Trying to teach a few kids arithmetic after presenting the pre-algebra lesson while helping students with pre-algebra questions takes up every second of class time.

 

[BULLDOG]

As you know, I am Jewish and don’t believe in Jesus. That said, that was a really stupid and unacceptable thing for the teacher to say. I hope you reported her.

Do you think it would be stupid to not believe as your daughter does?

 

[Meriweather]

Also, for parents who want their kids to learn about their religion, an appropriate place is Church or Synogogue classes.

Often not enough time in the day, plus the added travel time of daily taking their children to another site.

 

[Meriweather]

An elective at the high school level.

Or middle school as an elective class is also offered at that level. Electives are not offered at the elementary school level--at least not in our area.

 

[Lisa558]

Do you think it would be stupid to not believe as your daughter does?

I don’t have a daughter.

 

[Blisterfinger]

Christians killed more people and dropped more bombs last year than any other denomination.

Islam severed more heads last year than any other denomination.

 

[alang1216]

Also, for parents who want their kids to learn about their religion, an appropriate place is Church or Synogogue classes.

Hard to believe anyone wants the government teaching their child about religion. Also Meriweather is a proponent of school choice, which here means private (not run by the gov't) school. Curious.

 

[Lisa558]

Often not enough time in the day, plus the added travel time of daily taking their children to another site.

My parents did it. You make it work if religious education is important.

 

[Lisa558]

Hard to believe anyone wants the government teaching their child about religion. Also Meriweather is a proponent of school choice, which here means private (not run by the gov't) school. Curious.

I honestly don’t think Merriweather understands the dangers of teaching various religions when ONE religion is in the majority and others - in my case, Judaism - are small minorities subjected to bigotry and assaults.

 

[alang1216]

I honestly don’t think Merriweather understands the dangers of teaching various religions when ONE religion is in the majority and others - in my case, Judaism - are small minorities subjected to bigotry and assaults.

I never think of Christianity as one religion. Meriweather is Catholic so there is a single authority. Here there seems to be a endless variety of Christianities. Some might be fine with teaching the Bible as literature, others would object to treating it as anything but literal scientific and historical fact.

 

[Meriweather]

Hard to believe anyone wants the government teaching their child about religion. Also @Meriweather is a proponent of school choice, which here means private (not run by the gov't) school. Curious.

Where I am it means the parents be allowed to choose the public school they wish their child to attend. It also means opening the door to public schools to build their own curriculum over unions/state demanding the same curriculum taught the same way be taught everywhere. May I ask that at the very least you don't tell others what I am or what I mean? I have enough people misunderstanding me when I write out what I do mean.