Teacher gives kids handout: Why Jesus is Better Than Santa Claus

[proud2BlibKansan]

IRASBURG, Vt. -- Parents in Irasburg, Vt., said a teacher crossed the line between church and state when he gave out a handout entitled, "Why Jesus is Better than Santa Claus."

Parents also said that the handout is reflective of a pattern of religious-themed material being given by Irasburg Village School language arts teacher Wally Rogers.

Mel Downs, a father of a seventh-grader at the school, said Rogers has the Ten Commandments on a classroom wall and religious-themed books on the shelves. Downs said he contacted the American Civil Liberties Union, which sent a letter to the school's superintendent.

Downs said he doesn't want other people teaching his kids religious beliefs contrary to his own.

more . . . http://www.kmbc.com/education/15139465/detail.html

[pinto]

1. If a publicly funded school, it would seem he has a case.

Not sure if it's worth fighting, but I see the point.

[Mythsaje]

2. He's just lucky he's not trying to feed that stuff to MY kids...

Their mother would go ballistic.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. So would I

This is horribly unprofessional.

[Mythsaje]

6. He'd be safer stuffing fireworks in his pockets

and fire-walking.

Me, I'd at least try to be diplomatic. My ex would go apeshit.

[CC]

4. Good thing he never had my kid because

after the kid was done with him there my not be enough left for me to get all old testament on his ass.
Besides how is a christian parent to know if the teacher is the "right" kind of christian? :rofl:

[John Q. Citizen]

5. At least the teacher puts Santa and Jesus in the same overall category.

Since 7th graders presumably no longer believe in Santa, maybe they will see the connection.

I wish they provided the reasons for one mythical being's alleged superiority to another mythical being.

[mwb970]

13. Actually, I think Santa is better.

Who ever got a brand new bicycle from Jesus?

[Control-Z]

7. Hey, that's like the

"Superman is stronger than Mighty Mouse" argument we used to have in preschool. But by the 7th grade most of us had figured out that Mighty Mouse wasn't even real. We didn't need a teacher to tell us.

[varkam]

8. No wonder our public education system sucks so bad.

I can't believe teachers still do this crap.

[Political Heretic]

9. Now if they were handing out Why Beer is Better than Jesus, I'd approve:

* No one will kill you for not drinking Beer.
* Beer doesn't tell you how to have sex.
* Beer has never caused a major war.
* They don't force Beer on minors who can't think for themselves.
* When you have a Beer, you don't knock on people's doors trying to give it away.
* Nobody's ever been burned at the stake, hanged, or tortured over his brand of Beer.
* You don't have to wait 2000+ years for a second Beer.
* There are laws saying Beer labels can't lie to you.
* You can prove you have a Beer.
* If you've devoted your life to Beer, there are groups to help you stop.

[RoadRage]

17. Fantastic.. i'm copying this to send to my in-laws.. NT

[gratuitous]

19. Beer has never caused a major war?

Au contraire!

[lapfog_1]

10. "This time we finish it!"

[no_hypocrisy]

11. Reminiscent of a true story. Dateline: Lynchburg, VA ca. December, 1978

Jerry Falwell's (then) Liberty Baptist College had a teacher's training division and sent its student teachers into Lynchburg's public schools for practical experience. One such missionary had a kindergarten, maybe at EC Glass Elementary School. And that student teacher flat out told the kiddie-poos that there was no such thing as Santa Claus but they had something much better: Jesus Christ.

The kids more or less freaked at no Santa Claus, the Board of Education had to field a lot of complaints from parents (this, despite the fact that Lynchburg had ca. 90+ Baptist churches, Jerry's being the biggest), and a lot of damange control ensued. The student teachers were not banned but their evangelical wings were severely clipped for a long time.

[EvilAL]

14. I had a teacher

in grade 6 that used to make the whole class say "our father" in the morning, but she added something onto the end of it, "thine is the kingdom....." and I told my parents and they didn't seem to give a shit that they were making me say a different prayer than I was learning at church.
Let alone the fact that the teacher got away with it with all those students.
Rise and sing O Canada, then say the prayer and start the day.
Fucked up now that I think about it.

[EvilAL]

12. My kid has a Moral Education class

and I've been watching for signs of the teacher throwing his own crap in there.
She doesn't talk about it much, they have little projects to do and stuff that don't really make a statement or a moral issue that could arise.
She did tell us she didn't want to drink milk anymore because it clogs your arteries according to the guy, though. I'm not gonna jump to conclusions, but between him and the other teacher with "all the bibles" I'm keeping an eye.

This is a school with about 100 kids grade 1-11. The student to teacher ratio is great, they should all be excelling. That's what I focus on, what are they teaching her and what are they telling her?

[LWolf]

15. Parents are right.

"Crossing the line" is an understatement.

How about "traveling so far over the line that it is lost on the horizon behind you?"

[proud2BlibKansan]

16. Good point

:rofl:

[angstlessk]

18. I went to Catholic school for my 8 elementary years and they LOVED Santa

of course we did all the religious plays for the parents but Santa was never dissed, in fact we had cut outs of mangers AND santas and his tiny reindeer!