Declaration of Independence Banned from the Classroom

What if the teacher was simply teaching a lesson about the role of religion in this country's founding? Unfortunately, the blog provides no detailed facts about the content of the "supplemental materials" in question.

 

Actually, Huck, I think that would be an excellent idea. Not to teach only Christianity, but to also teach as many religions as possible in public school and the influence they have had on everything that we do. Though I'm sure someone would find a way to make this an issue as well, so I suppose people will have to wait until college to take world religions. There is nothing wrong with teaching the role of religion in anything. It is very influential in English as well, not just history. But as many others have pointed out there is a difference between preaching, or teaching religion, and teaching the influence of religion and its impact on society. I know that you are claiming that this blog doesn't prove that is what the teacher was doing, but what if he were teaching his religion. Then do you feel that it is wrong?

 

political correctness chould be about telling teh truth and by omiting God from history they are not being historically accurate.

 

For some reason I question the accuracy of much of what our children are taught about history to begin with. And I don't think political correctness has anything to do with telling the truth, I'm not sure where you came up with that notion. And I'm not sure that including the Christian God in teaching history is completely historically accurate either. It all depends on who is writing the history books and the perspective they take. If an athiest is writing the history book, he is going to have a completely different account than a Christian.

Here is something that some might find interesting. Others will just find it to be bunk. Either way I don't give a rat's ass because I didn't write it.

http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/farrell_till/myth.html

In any event, it is my opinion, that teachers need to leave their religions and political beliefs home. They should be unbiased (I know easier said than done); a good teacher will show students how to draw their own conclusions, even if they happen to disagree with the instructor. That is one of the major flaws with the American educational system. We teach children to regurgatate facts that we feel are important, but we never teach them how to think for themselves and make decisions. It is not easy by any means to be a teacher, and they should be getting a lot more compensation for what they do, unfortunately, in this country that is not the priority.

 

In my case I also had a doctorate of religion as well as two professors of history that I had gone to for advice. The result was that we offered to do just that. I felt it was important to not only ask for the pages removal but to also offer an alternate solution that would actually be beneficial to the student body. Basicly replace the 'Jesus' page with an interactive study of religion the world over. The response was that they can't teach religion, although they had been pushing it already through their website. Perhaps it's because this is the buckle of the bible belt but this sort of thing happens quite often. Until recently there was a rule at the local high school that forbid the wearing of anything that could be construed as 'satanic', though anything of a Christian message was fine. When questioned as to the reason why the principal simply stated "Because Satan lies, but God tells the truth".

When people talk about the South being backwards it's very true in many instances. The problem is that if you stand up to this kind of thing you're met immediately by a very large body of people who feel it is their duty and ticket to salvation to spread their religion. The influence extends into all manner of education and government far above and beyond the local sphere. i.e. , and I'll shutup. A Democratic rally/fundraiser held nearby prior to the election. For the entertainment portion, hymnal books were passed out while a reverand and the co-chair of the local democratic party led a series of songs of praise. Note, this was the democratic one. Mind boggling.

 

I'm confuzzled... there was a "Jesus page"? What they hell is that and why was it in the text book to begin with? This is what I mean about questioning the very text books used. So, teaching all religions is not allowed, but teaching "the religion" is ok? And this sounds right in what way exactly? I already know that people are going to come here and dispute that the fact is that this country was founded on Christian values and God played an important part in the shaping of our country. I disagree, and I wouldn't want my child taught that. (see my above post about the myths link) But as far as removing the Declaration of Independence, well, you just can't cut that out of history. Going off on some sermon about God/Jesus/Holy Spirit, and how we all can get "saved" (from what exactly I'm not certain) well yes, that can be left out. The Declaration of Independence was not a religious document. Just like this is not a religious document, even though I used the word God in it. I don't understand why it is so fucking difficult to grasp the difference. Grrrr!


I didn't have the opportunity to take US History in school because all they wanted us to know was the Bible (or at least their interpretation of it, which is all wrong in my opinion). We were not allowed to question any thing. That is the very reason why I was "dismissed" from that school, because I questioned my English teacher as to why we could not read the classics such as The Scarlet Letter and The Catcher in the Rye, but rather had to read those ridiculous Laura Ingalls Wilder books, which have no literary value in my opinion. But they felt that the classic books were evil and that they should not be allowed because of course, if I were to read them I might 1) get knocked up, or 2) kill John Lennon... no wait, I might go crazy and end up in a mental hospital like Holden... umm I don't know what they thought would happen. I read them anyway. (LOL I'm such a rebel!) I was concerned that I would not be up to par with others when I went to college, and rightly so considering not one person from that graduating class at that school managed to finish a 4 year degree(most didn't make it past the first semester of college, then again we are talking 17 people in the class, and half that even went to college). Getting kicked out of that school and continuing my education in public school was the best thing that ever happened to me in my entire life (hey I'm still young!).

When I got to college I was taught US History from a guy who was born and raised in England and who returned after teaching that summer. He was the best teacher I have ever had. We didn't use a text book, he chose literature of the times that he was teaching and had us read sections of it. He then asked us to describe what we thought was going on in that period. He let us draw our own conclusions and go with our ideas and discuss them with one another (granted it was a class of about 10, I guess school in the summer here is not very popular). He did teach us facts and figures, but he also had us do outside research. He didn't test our ability to memorize some BS that this government wants us to believe is the truth. He made us write pages and pages of what we believed and why, citing valid reasons for drawing that conclusion. He didn't tell us what to think or believe.

The whole Satanic t shirt thing is funny to me. Could you wear a shirt that said GAP by chance? How bout A& E? That freaks me out more than a picture of what someone preceives to be satan.

And my boyfriend wonders why I absolutely refuse to move to the South and raise a family. He can't figure out why I want to homeschool my children! Backwards does not begin to describe it. They would shoot me if I were there.

 

^sorry for the confusion. I posted earlier about my fight with the local junior high over a portion of their website. I went there one day to look for a listing of my son's homework (he has a tendency to 'forget') and I found a section that was one biblical quote after the other. Not only were they biblical quotes,they were preceded by questions like "How do you succeed?"... The page was decorated in crosses with a big picture of Jesus at the top and they'd embedded a bunch of cheesy gospel hymnals as a soundtrack. To top it all off there was even a pop-up asking if you'd like to donate to some Christian charity. The t-shirt thing was actually settled by a group of students. Congrats to them, rootbeers all around

 

Oh I see now. You are kidding me though, they actually had that up there? That is something that I would not expect. Scary actually. That is different from the original post though. As much as I would be against having Christianity taught in schools (unless all other religions could be represented) I still do not think that the Declaration of Independence is a religious document, therefore I can't imagine why anyone would remove it from schools. That is not to say that if a teacher used something such as that to preach to kids, that the teacher should not be relived of his duties in the public school system.

 

Actually no I wasn't kidding. I thought I explained it fairly well in my first post on page 1 of the thread but sometimes things get mixed in the shuffle. Anyway, yes, these things can and do happen especially in a community where the majority want them to happen and will let it go on (even highly praise it) until somebody speaks out.

But, my intention wasn't to hijack this thread with my own story, I was just putting in some personal experience on the matter of educators using the instituition to spread their own personal religious beliefs, i.e. using the constitution in a skewed way.

 

Talk about history, We celebrate The ONE good time we had with the Indians. The rest of the time we were slaughtering and killing them, so dont talk about rewriting the history of Thanksgiving they've already got it wrong.

 

No it is not. I heard about this on NPR and that story is gross exageration if not a mishmash of what actually happened. That teacher is an evangelical who has had a litany of complaints about injecting religion into the classroom at every opportunity, even math. Linking events with christianity at every turn an openly prostelytizing students. I'll see if I can find the other side of the story.

 

http://www.eriposte.com/philosophy/fundamentalism/stevenscreek.htm

 

On a marginally related note, this is good:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6396-2004Dec16.html

P.S. If the link stilanas posted above is accurate, then it sounds like this teacher was out of line. I'll be interested to see if the courts find any merit to his case.

 

See my right wing persecution complex thread.

 

Did anyone see Hannity and Colmes (sp?) tonight on Fox News tonight (Friday Dec. 17th)? The broacast was from a College Auditorium in California. The first guest was the teacher we have been discussing in this thread. The Principle or School board members didn't appear on the program. The Teacher basically supported Reuters news story.

Also on the programs as the person who almost had the "Pledge of Alliegence" declared unconstitutional.

Did anyone else see the program? I had to leave the room several times and lost track of things.

 

I don't watch Faux News. I pay attention to credible sources.

 

I'm still trying to figure out how you can put god or jesus into math. I mean I could have used their help this past semester, but they seemed to have ignored my desparate prayers.

 

2+2=4, and God saw that it was good. there was much rejoicing. if 2+2=5, then you're going to hell.

 

LOL. Thanks, guess I'm going to hell because I didn't do so well in math this semester, I passed, but I have to take another class this coming semester and I'm not feeling so confident. Good thing I don't believe in hell or worship god, cause then I'd really be screwed.

 

Convert the Math problem into a story problem without a definate "correct" answer. Then everyone gets saved! Who says the mystery of religion is eternal?