Coragyps

This isn't a Church vs State issue yet, but given the deep fundy nature of our little town, it might be soon. This is an excerpt from a letter to the editor in our local paper today:

"My daughter told me that they are having a problem in one of her school rooms, her science class at junior high.
It gets me so mad to hear that her teacher in school won't let them even mention the word God because she says that there is no such thing.
She says that scientists made man and for the kids not to talk about it. I think she is very wrong in teaching our children this."

(The antecedents to the pronouns are a little vague, I know.) I will bet that we'll have a shitstorm over this, no matter how twisted the child-to-mama-to-newspaper translation was. My wife works at the junior high, and may be able to at least find out which teacher was involved - she heard right at the start of school that some boy got detention hall for saying, to some other teacher, "I heard that Mrs X (a new teacher) is an atheist. What's that?"
Details will follow, if they become available.

Zimyatin

Well if a teacher is telling children that there is no god then that does violate church-state. However, I suspect that this whole thing is made up or a gross misunderstanding. Either way, I bet the excrement will hit the air conditioner!

beejay

Detention because of the horrible display of ignorance in not knowing what the word means?


Or, more likely, because the question was such a horrible accusation, akin to "I heard that Mrs X was a mass murderer..."

Undercurrent

And if s/he is teaching that "scientists made man" then she is just wrong.

I'm guessing that the teacher in question is teaching evolution and "there is no god" and "scientists made man" is an interpolation on the part of the student.

m.

Wyz_sub10

I agree. It sounds like an outright lie or gross misunderstanding.

Who on earth says "scientists made man"? And what kind of teacher says "and for the kids not to talk about it", unless she is referring directly to creationism.

Alonzo Fyfe

Actually, the "scientists made man" remark pretty much settles the issue in my mind that the author was responding to a straw man of her own creation rather than an actual teacher or incident.

galiel

It's alive! ALIIIIIIIVVVVVE!!!!!!

With apologies to Mary Shelley - or is a Mel Brooks reference more appropriate in this case?

Igor: It's times like this that I remember what my old dad used to say.
Dr. Friedrich von Frankenstein: What was that?
Igor: "What the hell are you doing in the bathroom all day and night? Why don't you get out of there and give someone else a chance?"

sbaii

Who on earth says "scientists made man"? And what kind of teacher says "and for the kids not to talk about it", unless she is referring directly to creationism.[/QB][/QUOTE]

The teacher may be reacting to the latest ploy by the fundies. Students are now trained to "witness" and disrupt class for Jesus. Rather than ask a question, they give a sermon.

4th Generation Atheist

Or the story might have been made up out of whole cloth.

So, why doesn't the local paper in Snyder, TX have a decent copy editor? I'd be ashamed to print something that poorly written if it were my rag.

beekay

I think many papers have a policy of "print it as-is." Gets the paper out of hot water if the editor tries to correct something only to find out it should not have been corrected or should have been corrected in a different way. Am I making any sense ... ?

Kids do have a tendency to bend the truth or leave out vital information when telling a story about something that happened. My daughter related a story about having gotten out-of-date milk at school one day and the teacher wouldn't let her get up to get another one. We thought the teacher was out of line after hearing my daughter say that. However, the reality was that my daughter had never told the teacher the milk was bad. A very important piece of the puzzle, eh?

So, I wonder what the full and accurate version of this particular story is?