Posted on 12/24/2005 12:18:34 PM PST by Excellence
Grinchy remark sends kids home in tears By RORY SCHULER Staff Writer Lebanon Daily News
LICKDALE — Jamey Schaeffer stretched her mouth open wide, showing off a pair of twin gaps in her smile. With a mouthful of fingers, she said she has no interest in two front teeth for Christmas. Instead, she’d like a Barbie doll from Santa Claus — and Santa Claus only.
But a substitute music teacher almost came between the 6-year-old and a Christmas Eve spent dancing cheek to cheek with sugar plums.
Theresa Farrisi stood in for Schaeffer’s regular music teacher one day last week. One of her assignments was to read Clement C. Moore’s famous poem, “A Visit from Saint Nicholas” to a first-grade class at Lickdale Elementary School.
“The poem has great literary value, but it goes against my conscience to teach something which I know to be false to children, who are impressionable,” said Farrisi, 43, of Myerstown. “It’s a story. I taught it as a story. There’s no real person called Santa Claus living at the North Pole.”
Farrisi doesn’t believe in Santa Claus, and she doesn’t think anyone else should, either. She made her feelings clear to the classroom full of 6- and 7-year-olds, some of whom went home crying.
Schaeffer got off the school bus later that day, dragging her backpack in the mud, tears in her angry little eyes.
“She yelled at me, ‘Why did you lie?’” recalled Jamey’s mother, Elizabeth. “‘Why didn’t you tell me Santa Claus died?’”
Elizabeth Schaeffer said she was appalled by Farrisi’s bluntness.
“I had to call the school,” said Schaeffer, a part-time custodial employee for the school district who is on temporary leave after complications from her last child’s birth. “I had to do something.”
Meanwhile, Farrisi, who is well versed on the history of “Santa Claus” — the traditional and literary figure — clarified her comments.
“I did not tell the students Santa Claus was dead,” she explained. “I said there was a man named Nickolas of Myrna who died in 343 A.D., upon whom the Santa Claus myth (is based).”
On Monday night, Jamey started to recite Moore’s famous poem while sitting on a couch next to a freshly cut tree, trimmed in tinsel and topped with a golden star: “’Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house. No creatures stirred.”
She paused, looked up, and said that’s when the teacher interjected, just a few lines before the verse that announces the arrival of “a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer.”
“The teacher stopped reading and told us no one comes down the chimney,” Jamey said, curling into a ball on the couch, bracing her chin on her knees, her voice shrinking away like melting ice cream. “She said our parents buy the presents, not Santa.”
Sharing in the belief of Santa Claus is a very special event in the Schaeffer home. Jamey’s the second youngest of five children. The three oldest have already grown up and left the family nest. Only Jamey and her 18-month-old sister, Amanda, remain.
Last year, Elizabeth Schaeffer recalled, Santa left a trail of boot prints in charred ashes from his feet-first landing in the fireplace. And this year, the family will continue their tradition of leaving him a plate of cookies, a tall glass of milk and a ripe, shaved carrot for Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer.
The Schaeffer family wasn’t the only one taken aback by Farrisi’s approach to Santa.
Tim and Beth Rittle said they found their 7-year-old daughter, Holly, in tears in the back seat of their car after they picked her up from school that day.
“All of a sudden, Holly just started crying,” Beth Rittle said. “She said she had a substitute in music class, and she told the class there’s no such thing as Santa Claus.”
Schaeffer and Rittle both called Northern Lebanon School District Superintendent Don L. Bell.
Since the issue involves personnel, Bell said Monday, there is little he can say about the incident, adding that it has not been determined if any disciplinary action is warranted against Farrisi.
Bell said he was aware that several parents have expressed concerns about the incident.
He also noted that the handling of Santa Claus isn’t covered in the school code.
“We do not have a Santa Claus policy,” he said. “It’s unfortunate, but I really can’t say anything about it.”
Farrisi said she considered approaching the school’s administration with her concerns about how to handle Santa Claus in class. Instead, she said, she decided to add a disclaimer to her lesson.
“Those same children are going to know someday that what their parents taught them is false,” she ex-plained. “There is no Santa Claus.”
Meanwhile, Elizabeth Schaeffer was carefully thinking about her next step. She decided to make a photocopy of editor Francis P. Church’s famous response to a little girl, who wrote to The New York Sun many decades ago, asking the same question Schaeffer’s daughter struggled with last week.
“I mailed (Farrisi) a copy of ‘Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus,’” she said, giggling with satisfaction. “I wish I could be there when she opens it.”
As for Jamey, in an attempt to reaffirm her spot on Santa’s nice list, she drew up a new letter in bright red magic marker, a message destined for the Santa she refuses to abandon.
“Dear Santa ... How is the North Pole?” she said, reading her letter loudly and proudly. “How is Mrs. Claus? You are Great. From Jamey.”
Consumed by the mirth of Christmas cheer, I, for one, would like to beat this woman within an inch of her life with a pillow case full of doorknobs.
Owl_Eagle
"You know, I'm going to start thanking
the woman who cleans the restroom in
the building I work in. I'm going to start
thinking of her as a human being"
What a bitch. Proves that liberals have no understanding of concepts such as "fun", "imagination", "innocence", or "American tradition".
I'm surprised she didn't tell the kids about their parents' unavoidable coming deaths: "better prepare yourself for that unpleasant reality too. Merry f*$&ing Christmas!"
Doorknobs?
Creative.
Coffee on the keyboard warning.
Santa doesn't exist. Neither does the easter bunny and the tooth fairy exist. I'm shocked--NOT.
I learned they were lies, untruths, fables, myths, talltales, fibs, and "harmless white lies" at an early age from someone in the family. I never cried. I never fussed. I lived life and have been a productive, sane person in society. IMO, this is much ado about nothing.
What really makes me angry is that tax cuts are not permanent, government gets bigger and more intrusive, hair falls out and skin sags after age 35, and I can't lose weight as easily as I gain it.
Here is the "vision" for the Northern Lebanon School District:
The vision of the Northern Lebanon School District is "Kids First, Progressive Not Perfect, and A Legacy of Unity". We will place "Kids First." This is not a teachable trait but more of an educational attitude for all to embrace. Second, we are "Progressive Not Perfect." Progressiveness shows a desire to become better while Perfect shows a lack of openness to new ideas. Third, we will "Create a Legacy of Unity." Together the community, staff, students, and parents create many great opportunities for all to cherish and remember. Our vision will be the guiding force behind our yearly goal development, curriculum revisions, program planning, budgetary development, facility enhancement and educational training.
Source: http://www.norleb.k12.pa.us/702075426102613/site/default.asp
Why do I suspect that this woman would love to pass out "Heather Has Two Mommies" to these 6-year-olds?
"Consumed by the mirth of Christmas cheer, I, for one, would like to beat this woman within an inch of her life with a pillow case full of doorknobs."
Or is it 'Consumed by the dearth of pre-Christmas beer'?
The woman is right, though the parents should be hearing this from their pastors, not their children from a public school employee in an era when public schools are increasingly militant temples of the secular religion of deference to the messianic pretensions of the modern secular state. If Christian parents aim to raise children who take the reality of Christ and His claims seriously, they misfire when they deceive their kids about the reality of Santa Claus. They should not be surprised if, having disovered that their parents perpetrated one fraud, the children quickly conclude that the rest is fraudlent as well.
She doesn't sound that joyful to me.
well put
OK - style question here. The round smooth metal kind, or the crenelated glass ones??
Parents should recognize that this is part of the risk of sending their children to government schools for the "education".
Ms Farrisi is the joyful mother of six children and an award-winning author of two books. She has also been conductor of the TEACH homeschool co-op choirs of Lancaster county and soprano soloist at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Lebanon.
She doesn't sound that joyful to me.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
I would feel comfortable having her involved with the home schooling of my grandchildren. If she is both joyful and addicted to avoiding deception, she would be a worthy teacher. The story does make her come across as a Grinchy type; this additional color concerning her background does a lot to neutralize that depiction, which is framed in the context of a public school classroom.
I'd go with a two to one mix metal to glass. I like the heft of the metal, but the glass can really do some damage.
Owl_Eagle
"You know, I'm going to start thanking
the woman who cleans the restroom in
the building I work in. I'm going to start
thinking of her as a human being"
Our children are bombarded with enough attacks on their childhood, why did this bitch take it upon herself to ruin something so special to these children.
The sack of doorknobs sounds real good about now.
My boys are grown but the the memories of the lights in their eyes on Christmas morning still brings tears to my eyes. I look forward to my grandchildren having those same happy memories.
BTW.....lol
Santa was a hairy black man in my house, with bad morning breath and impossible to deal with before his morning cup of coffee.....
Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year to all in Freeper Land
Leo
Let me have her when you are through, Owl.
I am still furious over a PC Sow who publicly shrieked at berated my niece for daring to say"Merry Christmas" when she was a clerk at a convenience store a couple of years ago.
Obviously, I was not there, since I am able to post this. Otherwise I would be in the Big House for stomping the b!tch to death.
Season or Not.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.