Reply #317: OK, I think I got it figured out...

[TreasonousBastard]

Your niece argued against the 6 day thing and for the big bang and got "sent to the office" for it.

It's mainly one teacher responsible for this, and the school administration or the rest of the faculty doesn't seem too upset.

(After all, she's a third-grader, ferchrissakes, and kids do say the darndest things...)

Some parents are cleaning the local Agway out of pitchforks and torches over this and causing the usual trouble mob thinking causes.

Your brother and sister-in-law are having their "How did we get into this mess?" moment.

And, last, but not by any means least, there are some here who don't understand the situation.

Am I close?

Anyway, it sounds like it really sucks, and the proper thing that should have been done would be for a quick conference with the parents over what was said and "we're not testing her on Genesis so we'd appreciate her not arguing with Church doctrine. Even false Church doctrine."

But, that apparently wasn't done, so everyone's in deeper shit than they should be in, and, not being there and all, I have no idea what the best course of action will be. But I would hope cooler heads prevail and some way is found to calm down the enraged parents and the kid stays in school for the safe secular part of the education.

I went to Lutheran grade and high schools with Jews, Catholics, and others, and this sort of thing happened from time to time, but it was an absolute priority to put the fires out immediately.

My Lutheran high school, btw, received massive Federal funding for state of the art science labs and teaching materials thanks to Eisenhower's massive education program. It didn't seem to harm anyone at the time, and made no demands on either our religious or secular education.