religion at school
i teach at a very conservative, yet PUBLIC, school. what sparked this new thread is an email that i just got about a student in our school district who has been diagnosed with cancer and just got out of the hospital to find that after all of his chemo and such that he doesnt have cancer! yay. so thats good. what bothers me though is that the email just says. no cancer, no cancer, god is good, thank you lord. then it goes on to talk about this boy. i get emails like this too often about praying for people, about church, christianity, and other churchey things forwarded to my school email address and to the whole school and/or district. in addition to this, at every teacher meeting, the principal or superintendent will say a prayer, a quite long prayer which makes me feel incredibly uncomfortable. while these prayers are going on, i have looked around the room to see if anyone else is not praying. but EVERYONE is praying, in a PUBLIC school. wtf. i dont know what to do when this new school year comes up. should i leave the room? thats certainly what i want to do, partly because it makes me feel incredibly uncomfortable and secondly as an act of protest. who is the superintedents higher up? do i need to report this? let someone know that this is going on? or is this so common now that its practically legal?
I say suck it up. A teacher getting into the debate is only going to hurt the teacher. I think it takes a parent to challenge systems like that. Do you know a parent you could cajole into taking on the system?
its mostly in front of the teachers. i think they try to keep school somewhat secular around the kids, which is good.
this describes every school i have taught at....in the south, that is.
when i taught HS they even prayed on the field at football games!
at my son's school last year they had a parent/faculty basketball game, and a preacher preached to us before hand!
at meetings when they pray I just never put my head down in the pray position and just kept looking forward.
HH is right....no need to make enemies. I think being an outspoken teacher (against the mainstream) is not a good thing unfortunately. Just vent about it here and laugh about it in your head ;)b
this describes every school i have taught at....in the south, that is.
when i taught HS they even prayed on the field at football games!
at my son's school last year they had a parent/faculty basketball game, and a preacher preached to us before hand!
at meetings when they pray I just never put my head down in the pray position and just kept looking forward.
HH is right....no need to make enemies. I think being an outspoken teacher (against the mainstream) is not a good thing unfortunately. Just vent about it here and laugh about it in your head ;)b
oh my goodness!! thats terrible! well, for us! i guess not for the christians in the school. i remember the first day i was working on my classroom, i went and met a really nice girl teaching 1st grade, i said something like "yeah, everyones just super nice here! i love it!" and she said "its because we're all christian! everyone is really nice here" i just kept thinking.... oh.... but im not christian : (
i just dont understand. there are private religious schools everywhere! why dont these people go teach there, leave the public school for everyone else. : )
Isn't the state supposed to be seperated from the church?
It's really unfortunate that you can't just tell them that it makes you uncomfortable.
If freedom of does not provide for freedom from, it enslaves.
Isn't the state supposed to be seperated from the church?
It's really unfortunate that you can't just tell them that it makes you uncomfortable.
If freedom of does not provide for freedom from, it enslaves.
thats what i thought. guess i was wrong. haha.. i like your saying.
I feel for you, that sucks. You are the only down to earth oddball there. (No offence to the cristians) What if you were another faith, then what? It is wrong in many ways but I think you are stuck sucking it up. :-X
Yeah, what if you were muslim or somthing? But when it comes down to it, it may be annoying, but is it hurting anything? Is it disrupting class?
Do they still say the Pledge of Allegiece?
I guess the students aren't required to pray?
But then again, there is supposed to be separation of church and state.
Wow, complicated issue. The arguement swings both ways, and both sides have good points, personally, I can see nothing wrong with either arguement, they are both right, and those kind of arguements are hardly ever won. If you protested it you would probably be just doing more harm to yourself then good. As long as it isn't distrupting class time or something like that I guess I would just let it go, but not participate in the prayer myself. I also don't really believe in praying, I have found out through experience that it does not work.
I had to file a police report earlier this year & I was given the option of swearing on the bible or affirming....I chose to affirm. I was really grateful for the choice. I would have felt like a total hypocrite if I swore on the bible.
Your case isn't all that different. In your situation, I don't think that I would complain to the higher-ups. It will probably only cause you grief. You don't need to join in on their prayers...sing a song to yourself, quietly reflect...heck, have a short nap ;D
a nap. hehe.