[TankerKC]

Rather a classic poem, isn't it? Ever read a poem that contained elements of fantasy or faith that you don't believe in, just for literary value??

Well put.

[silverleaf]

"Bullfinche's Mythology": How offended must have been my teachers to include in our curricula, reading about beliefs with which they did not personally agree!

http://www.bulfinch.org/fables/welcome.html#Contents

How painful it must have been for my teachers to assign readings and to lead discussions of classical and contemporary literary works, about ancient beliefs and fables and gods and goddesses and metaphors for gods past and present. No John Donne, John Milton, Chaucer, Shakespeare! No Beowulf! No Iliad or Odyssey! No Kipling! Tennyson! Blake! Emily Dickinson! Robert Frost! No "Diary of Anne Frank"! No CS Lewis and "Narnia"! No Tolkien and "Lord of the Rings"...

No Judeao-Christian belief in the classroom! And no end runs around judeao-Christian beliefs by thinly veiled allegory in my classroom please!

Oh, the misery of the educator! Oh the responsibilty to speak from conscience and to disabuse the ignorant child from beliefs held irrelevant by the educator! Oh the agony of being excorciated for refusing to teach against matters of conscience!

As this teacher argues, no one should have to teach .... or to learn ........to that about which they do not personally believe.... right?