Posted on 12/26/2005 8:11:14 AM PST by Conservatrix
To the Editor:
"Last week I substituted at a local elementary school in Lebanon County. The lesson plan required me to read the 1882 poem “The Night Before Christmas” by Clement Clarke Moore to two classes of students. While I can appreciate the poem for its literary value, the subject matter is offensive to me, and the reading of this poem to the children imposed values upon me which are against my deeply held religious beliefs. I could not in good conscience present the notion of Santa Claus as a truth to the children, and stated so.
No public school teacher should be required to teach a belief, or custom, or religion that he or she believes to be false, or be required to pass those purported falsehoods onto impressionable children, without the right to state a disclaimer. Furthermore, freedom of speech and religion, no matter how unpopular the speech or against cultural norms the religion, are protected rights under the Constitution of the United States. A secular public school should not be propagating any kind of religion. The belief in Santa Claus as a divine, magical, omniscient, powerful, giving, loving father-figure, to which children are taught to make supplications and requests, is a religion indeed-- a distorted substitute for the Judeo-Christian God; a false form of Christianity; a zealously-protected American idol.
In presenting the poem, I gave the children quick historical background about the Santa Claus myth-- its evolution from the historic Nickolaus, Bishop of Myrna in Asia Minor, who died in 343 A.D., to its amalgamation with ancient Western pagan traditions of German, Scandinavian and Dutch origins, to the current manifestation in the secular Christmas culture of today. (Dutch children, for example, would put their wooden shoes out at night for “Sante Klaus” to fill with candies.)
The current Santa Claus figure was popularized in the late 19th Century by artist Thomas Nast of Harper’s Weekly Magazine, who depicted “Saint Nick,” not as an elf, but a rotund, pipe-smoking man in a red and white suit. This is the deity to which countless public school children today are taught to make supplications, and about whom they sing their many songs at annual public school Christmas programs.
If people are upset about the revelation to children that Santa Claus is a myth-- which all children who are taught this lie find or figure out eventually-- perhaps it is because Santa is that zealously-guarded idol of their own modern religion. Therefore, as a religion, let Santa be kept out of the public school classroom (no more “Dear Santa” letters to line those school hallways)--or perhaps, in the interest of “diversity,” make his mythical, oversized personage share equal representation in literature, and song, and Christmas programs, with the other Person of the season: the Lord Jesus Christ, God made flesh, God with us."
That does it!
I have come to the conclusion that YOU are the little miss bimbo that this story is about.
I will take my leave, as I have entertained enough.
Be warned though, that should you and your Jehovah Witnesses approach my door again, I will toss you into the street ... again. ;)
It is part of a school curriculum, it is not a single person telling her to teach it...if she can't cope with following the curriculum, then she needs to quit!
Bingo.
"...take your self righteous prattle someplace else because quite frankly you're beginning to bore the hell out of me."
No, don't, I admire your spirited defense of your/her stance.
But why not tell the unvarnished truth, that Kwanza's founder is a marxist and a criminal teaching college somewhere? Where do you decide enough is enough? That's the point.
L
It's got nothing to do with Santa Claus. It has to do with a substitute teacher way overstepping her bounds. What would be your response if your child's teacher told your children that you are a liar and that there is a god? Beliefs, regardless of what they are, are not the domain for teachers. This substitute should have just read the poem or let the kids do a word find, but telling the kids that their parents are liars was what inexcusable.
I'm not quite sure what you meant by that, but I will take it in a positive spirit.
Thank you. You nailed it.
These folks are just like liberals...they know what's best for "the children"
I have only one firm belief about the American political system, and that is this: God is a Republican and Santa Claus is a Democrat.
God is an elderly or, at any rate, middle-aged male, a stern fellow, patriarchal rather than paternal and a great believer in rules and regulations. He holds men strictly accountable for their actions. He has little apparent concern for the material well-being of the disadvantaged. He is politically connected, socially powerful and holds the mortgage on literally everything in the world. God is difficult. God is unsentimental. It is very hard to get into God's heavenly country club.
Santa Claus is another matter.
He's cute. He's nonthreatening. He's always cheerful. And he loves animals. He may know who's been naughty and who's been nice, but he never does anything about it. He gives everyone everything they want without thought of a quid pro quo. He works hard for charities, and he's famously generous to the poor. Santa Claus is preferable to God in every way but one: There is no such thing as Santa Claus.
Six year old kids don't believe in Santa? The ones who went home crying still believed.
I see we have once again been invaded by the Holier Than Thou types; you know, the ones who are contrary about EVERYTHING and have a burning NEED to make the rest of us WRONG to puff up their self esteem.
Of course, these are the people who tell their children "the real truth" about Santa Claus and then ask their children to LIE to other children by NOT TELLING THEM, which, need I even say it, is a LIE OF OMMISSION.
Shortly they will be telling us that they NEVER lie to their children about anything -- even a little white lie.
I don't believe them about that either.
Any astute observer has noticed that the ancient Sumerians (the people who invented reading and writing, money, as well as civilization) had little statues of a figure who looks remarkably like our modern "Santa Claus" and of reindeer!In fact, if you carefully examine the head of the Sphinx in Egypt you will come across a red background with white dots (Santa Claus' "colors" eh).
The most ancient of traditions were maintained by the Sa'ami in Lappland long after other belief systems swept through the ancient world. The deal is the whole Santa Claus image is a composite of elements found in Little Red Man, Reindeer Man and Herb Woman, key characters in the traditional Sa'ami pantheon. Of course there are the "elves" who work all year long making toys, and they're fairly identifiable with the Sa'ami, who have the highest incidence dwarfism in the world, and who traditionally spent their winters making craft goods and toys for use at Christmas
This is the Old Time Religion which came about as a consequence of a dispensation from God. In more recent times it has been supplanted with a more comprehensive Revelation, but that in and of itself does not negate its original utility in providing an amnesty from oblivion. Some analysts are able to find Old Testament stories in the ancient traditions, and these, in turn may be identified in Sumerian texts that later found their way into the Bible (presumably because God, Himself, convinced some scribe or priest to include them).
It's not like I'm going to worship Santa Claus, but he came with the first Divine revelations and he'll still be with us long after we've forgotten the names of the more recent prophets and teachers.
The business about a Bishop in Turkey is a more recent "explanation" created by folks who had little or no knowledge of the more ancient sources. It's clearly an effort to Christianize "Christmas" if you will.
Oh, here we are again on yet another PRIG thead..........LOL.
*Snort*
And THAT is the point. If you have a problem with the lesson because of PERSONAL beliefs...you do not teach the lesson. You skip that part and deal with the consequences later. You have no RIGHT to alter the beliefs taught by a parent at that age. Period.
The same conservatives who are standing here applauding her would be the same ones screaming at her if she was in the class saying Jesus was a myth and that God did not exist. "That's not her RIGHT!"
Hypocrites.
He evidently is threatening to a LOT of people on this forum. It's amazing to see.
You don't seem to be able to discern between faith and a fable.
IMO, you have major issues -- and it's not about Santa Claus.
You seem like a very rigid and unhappy person. Please don't attempt to foist that rigidity and unhappiness on to the rest of us, as this subsititute teacher arrogantly did to those innocent children. Do you have children? If so, I'm assuming most of the Christmas specials and movies, including anything with Santa as well as "A Christmas Carol" (oh, no, there are "ghosts" in it!) are off-limits? How sad.
I still love that poem. There are doubtless countless other "poems" that should not be read to children with "religious content" or transcendentalism.
Having found out abruptly that there was no Santa Claus when I found a bicycle basket that was, in retrospect, carelessly hidden (what did they/she expect?) :-). My first thought was that God must be a lie, too. So I brought up my three children from the start by telling them that Santa Claus was just pretend; there really wasn't one. We celebrated Christmas with all the trappings almost like everybody else.
Then granddaughter comes along. She was taught the same and one night before Christmas got very upset with me when she was quite young. She insisted that we put out some milk and cookies. So what can one do? I had to drink the milk and eat the cookies.
Then I left a hand-printed note thanking her and telling her that (as Santa) we need to clean out our chimney because I got my suit all dirty and I was tired of milk and cookies and next year, could she please leave put out a six-pack and tacos?
That was ornery. I will have to beg her forgiveness for that.
She still LOVES Christmas and is a professed atheist. She didn't get that from me as I used to pray regularly as I was a "new" catholic.
Then something really strange happened. She and her friend played here every night after school. I had in my bookshelf some of my father's old books. I think one was called The Golden Bough which looks like something esoteric, I did glance through it but was never interested in reading it. My father wouldn't have been into any of that I doubt, but I see it was considered some form of classic.
One afternoon after school, and her friend had set up a little altar with that book instead of the bible for some kind of pretend thing they were doing. Neither one of them I doubt knew what it was about because their reading wasn't that advanced yet. Maybe in a bizarre sort of way, they turned the tables on me. It still bothers me as I recall the two incidents. A lot. I will have to try to make some kind of amends with Somebody about it.
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