Posted on 12/01/2005 11:27:55 AM PST by Spiff
Thank you for that reminder. I'm trying to be careful not to use her to get at the teacher as he will pay if he used her to get back at us. She is fully aware of what is going on and we've talked to her at length about the things he might try to do to get back at us through her. She knows what to expect and what to do.
Last night I purchased a small digital recorder that we will now use whenever we have contact with the teacher. Likely, my daughter will bring it to school with her too so that she can record the teacher when he's being nutty and teaching nutty stuff. Once we have the evidence on tape, we have further proof of the problems with his science curriculum and what he's teaching in class. He's not going to get away with it and I want it to stop.
You are not alone. My children are in a private Catholic school and they have very similar stuff in their Math, Science and History books.
It is very frustrating.
Your "logic" here is worse than anything in that textbook by far.
My logic isn't important. My kids are.
I agree. The fact that I wasn't talking about you kids notwithstanding, I agree 100%.
Thank you for your advice. We purchased a digital recorder last night and will use it from now on.
This teacher is mean. This is what my daughter and other students report. He's already brought my daughter to tears on the first or second day of class, before we had this issue with the textbook. When we visited class yesterday, you could see that the students are very fearful of him. The first student who gave her report was very nervous and said, "I don't know if this is what you are looking for" to the teacher. She had somewhat of a hard time getting through her presentation and finally started crying and sat down and put her head down on her desk.
My daughter reports that her friends in class told her that the teacher had NEVER done oral presentations the way he did yesterday. Normally, he berates and belittles them, interrupting their presentations and reducing some of them to tears. This is exactly why I was concerned with this assignment to discuss the bizarre "laws and principles" in the textbook. I just knew that the teacher was going to use the opportunity to destroy any objections the students had to the statements. The teacher can expect my wife, me, or both of us to be sitting in on all the oral presentations until this assignment is finished. We're going to thwart his attempts to brainwash these kids and he's hopping mad about it. If he was teaching out of a regular science book and sticking to the approved curriculum and lesson plan (and state standards, for that matter) we would have no problem. He's not. He injecting bizarre new age religion garbage.
Well, I'm glad we agree.
LOL
Best three years of my life.
My wife attended the science class today. She brought her little recorder. Before class started, the science teacher had another teacher watch the class while he lectured my wife. He said that he would not permit her to sit in his class if she was there only to find fault. He said that she could sign up as a teacher's aide and help teach the class, but that he would not tolerate her "negative" influence. She basically said, "whatever..." Then, he said he was angry that I had "demanded" a copy of the current lesson plan and that all I had to do was ask for it and he would have given it to me. She corrected him and said that I had not demanded anything, but simply asked the principal for the current lesson plan. He then started the class.
Guess what? No oral presentations were given today. He rearranged the whole class schedule, announced that the test on the whole chapter that was going to be next week was now going to be tomorrow and then he launched into a review of the science portions of the chapter.
This tactic is not going to work because my wife is prepared to sit in that class until that "science" textbook is out of the school.
Here's where the story gets even more interesting. In the middle of class, another teacher (my son's teacher) came to the classroom to get my wife. She left her purse there with the recorder going and went to the principal's office with the teacher. She said that my 6th grader son was not in any kind of trouble, but that there was an issue that she could help resolve.
Yesterday, my son came home after school and wanted to talk to me about what he'd learned in History class. They are studying World History and they're currently on the set of chapters about World Religions. He had come home Monday night with a bunch of spelling words which were words from such religions as Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, Daoism, and Hinduism. We noticed nothing related to Christianity. My wife asked the teacher about that on Tuesday and she was more than comfortable with the teacher's plans to cover Christianity next week. In fact, the class is currently reading The Chronicles of Narnia and will be attending the film as a field trip on Friday. Additionally, the symbolism in the book and film has been discussed with the class.
In History class yesterday one of the high school teachers had come over and given a presentation on Islam. This teacher served as a Christian missionary in an Islamic country. He mentioned that he had to do so secretly or he could have been killed for trying to convert Muslims. He showed the a prayer rug, showed them how Muslims pray, and discussed other aspects of their religion and culture.
In my discussion with my son, who, by the way learned almost everything he needed to learn about Islam on 9/11, we discussed why the Christian missionary had to keep his mission secret. We discussed the Quran and the portions in it which proscribe the killing of those who convert Muslims to Christianity and to those Muslims who do convert to Christianity. We also discussed the head chopping habit with which Islam seems to be so enamored. We've discussed Islam before, he's seen the news reports about the hostages who have been killed on video by the "peaceful" representatives of the religion of Islam, and he's listened with me to Michael Savage in the car when Savage has been ranting about Islam. He is fully aware of what Islam is all about.
Even though the teacher was not pushing Islam, apparently my son took issue with him painting such a pretty picture of Islam by leaving out essential details.
The reason my son was in the principal's office is because his class was assigned to write a 'Thank You' letter to the teacher who gave the presentation. My son took the opportunity of that letter assignment to register his protest of Islam and the pretty picture that the teacher had drawn. He said something along the lines of, "Thank you for coming to our class and giving your presentation on Islam. It was nice, but you didn't talk about the slavery, torture, and killings that happen within Islam. You should have. Thanks anyway."
Apparently, the teacher questioned the tactfulness of the 'Thank You' letter my son wrote. My son felt VERY strongly about this issue and took his teacher's comments as an attack on his firm beliefs. He saw something that was wrong and he spoke up, through the letter, about it. My son can be somewhat emotional when he gets angry or upset, and apparently he shed a few tears as he defended himself against what he thought was an attack on his statements about Islam.
The teacher knew that my wife was on the school grounds, so she decided it was best to get everyone together and discuss the issue. The got everyone into the principal's office and explained to my son that he was not in trouble. He was told that he can keep his letter exactly as he wrote it. The principal told him that he was quite proud of my son for standing up so firmly for his beliefs, but that the method he used may not have been the best way to express himself. It was suggested that if he wanted to alter portions of the letter, that he may want to instead of attacking the teacher for leaving out the bad side of Islam, to have asked the teacher to come back and discuss the things like "slavery, torture, and killings" that happen in Islamic countries. He was sent back to class.
Now, I fully understand why my son chose to protest the way he did. He's attended protests and counterprotests with me. He's seen me in action and all of my kids love a good protest. They're just like I was when I was their age even though my parents were not politically motivated at all and I only once saw a protest when I was a kid, and it was against my church.
(Digression: When I was about my son's age I attended a large conference of my church in a city about 200 miles from my house. My whole family went. We had a great spiritual experience and walked out of the conference one day just filled with the Spirit. We came out and were assailed with all kinds of noise. This was during the push for ERA and my Church was against it. The conference site was surrounded by angry leftists protesting our opposition to ERA. They were chanting, had signs, and there was even a low-flying aircraft carrying a protest banner. There were protestors screaming at us. There were others standing just outside the doors of the arena who were passing out pamphlets to those attendees who were coming out. One tried to put a pamphlet in my hand and said to me, "You need one of these." I said, "No I don't", and I held my Scriptures up and said, "I only need these." I just love that look that a leftist gets when someone stands up to him like that. This was my first taste of it.So, now I have to decide if I back the teacher up and tell my son that he should have been a little more polite. Or if I applaud his protest. I can tell you right now that I'm really proud of him for sticking up for his beliefs even after he thought his teacher was attacking him. The teacher and the principal told my wife that they were thrilled to see such strong convictions in a child that age and that most of the kids in the school don't even know what they believe in, let alone have the ability to strongly advocate for their position.But I digress...on with the update.)
The principal told my wife that he wished that my son had brought up the issues in class during the presentation. My son is somewhat shy, unlike my daughters, so he probably just stayed politely quiet. The principal said that the school has to be careful about what they teach when it comes to religion - any religion - but that if a student asks about a certain religious topic that, by law, the teacher CAN discuss and teach on that topic. Now, I don't know why the principal felt that the very real situation of slavery, torture, and killings in the Islamic culture was one of those sensitive "religious" topics, but that is what he said.
I hope my son does decide to invite the teacher back to the class to present something on the issues he raised in his 'Thank You' letter to the teacher. That way, the whole class can be educated on the reality of Islam and its violent, oppressive culture.
Science class was over after this situation was dealt with. My wife retrieved her purse and the recorder. We haven't listened to what happened after she left yet, but we will.
She was told that the "science" book would only be used until the students were done with the test on this chapter. That it was gone, at least for the 8th grade. She didn't press for details about the 9th and 10th grades, but we will get that information as well.
You may have to make sure the teacher does not retaliate against your kid out of spite.
And make sure to always have that tape recorder rolling.
Bumping your whole family!
I like this approach: When a child asks a question about religion, the teacher should say,"that is a great question-little Sally I think you should talk to your parents about it and see if you can find a good book on the topic in the library."
You're close to the action and you seem like you have excellent judgement, so I shouldn't presume to presume, but here goes:
Reading between the lines, I get the feeling that you are being double-teamed. You may feel that people like the principal is somewhat on your side, but I suspect not. And do you think it is a coincidence that a teacher pulled your wife out of the science class? It was planned.
I know I'm cynical, but I say they are all lined up against you.
But you seem like you know what you're doing, so I suspect you'll be fine.
This text reeks of socialism. Title? Author?
Read the whole article that started this thread. It has all the info.
My wife and I have decided that it is most important that our children learn that it is important to respect the adults put over them, even when we disagree with the adults.
This teacher created a dillema for your son by changing the rules after the fact. I bet the teacher did not specify what was proper in the thank you note until after your son wrote what he wrote.
I think the best most respectful posistion your son should take is to withdraw his note. This path maintains respect for the teacher while allowing your son to maintain his stand.
Thank you for the advice. I think that a slight rewording that instead invites the teacher back (he didn't know this was an option when he wrote the original note) to present information about the slavery, torture, and killings done in the name of Islam would be a good way too. Not only does my son get to register his protest in a more tactful way, but he gets to achieve a larger goal of helping his classmates understand the issues that have not been presented to them previously. I'm leaning in that direction, but I have to get more information from my wife first and also from my son to make sure that I fully understand the situation and his feelings about it.
I would think that you could do both. I have said to my girls (I'm sure they would say way too often) that there are many ways to say a thing. It takes youngsters a while to learn tactfulness. His point was valid, but it could have been made differently. Based on what I have read here about the efforts that you and your wife are making to get this junk science removed from the school, it is obvious that you are both very tactful and polite while being quite firm. It takes some learning and practice to be able to do that and you are excellent role models for your son.
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