Sunday, December 5, 2010

High school teacher calls creationism "superstitious nonsese." Gets sued.

Or, "How to not be a teacher".



Let me first get it out of the way that I agree with every single thing the teacher said. Creationism is superstitious nonsense. But this asshole was way out of line. It's okay to talk about religion when you talk about European history. In fact, you are quite simply not talking about European history if you don't also discuss religion. In my art history class last year (which focused on western art), Whalen gave us a disclaimer at the beginning of the class, and said the vast majority of the art we'll be studying is based on Christian ideas. He said the class was not meant to convert anyone, it's simply what these artists painted. The disclaimer was completely unnecessary, because that should all go without saying. Christianity was embedded into that culture. They were experimenting with art for the first time since ancient Rome, and there was nothing else they knew. It's like saying you're not trying to convert people to ancient Egyptian pantheism when you talk about the pyramids.

But this guy went way too far. It's one thing to say "Those in power often manipulated religion into a tool," which I think was the point he was trying to get across, but it's another entirely to say "when you put on your Jesus glasses, you can't see the truth." You're in a fucking high school. Stop. This shit is exactly what Christians feared when prayer was taken out of public schools, and as the subjective strokefest that consisted of the interview demonstrates, this teacher has given them all the ammunition they could ever need. Just listen to that kid, "Teachers all over the place are doing this." Oh really? Then why did you only sue one of them you little snot? People like him are going to generalize the fuck out of public schools now. Thanks, guy.

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