Posted on 06/10/2007 4:52:45 PM PDT by Alien Syndrome
LONDON, June 9 A British teaching assistant is suing an elementary school in London after being disciplined for refusing to listen to a child read a "Harry Potter" book. Sariya Allen told a tribunal she resigned from her post at Durand Primary School after being suspended for "her obstructive conduct over time," the Daily Mail reported Saturday. Allen claims she was "harassed, humiliated and discriminated" against because of her religious beliefs. Her last alleged act of "obstructive conduct" before resigning in 2006 was refusing to listen to a 7-year-old girl read a "Harry Potter" book because she said it was against her Christian faith. Her employers disciplined her after she told the girl "I don't do witchcraft in any form" and said she would be "cursed" by hearing the novel. She is seeking about $100,000 in damages from her former school for religious discrimination.
"I admit I said to the child that I don't do witchcraft in any form," she said. "I was put in the position that listening to the child reading this book would compromise my religious beliefs."
All education of the young must include moral / civic teachings.
All moral/civic teachings have their foundation in a religious system somewhere. No exceptions.
Therefore, education of the young must take place in a setting where there is something resembling agreement in religious teachings.
If you don’t believe me, just look at the education mess that takes place when the community doesn’t seem to have any morals or religious beliefs.
Greater is HE within thee than he that is in the world.
Get saved, honey.
You have to read this to believe it ping.
I think this woman needed to be the adult in the situation. If her beliefs are so rigid that she can’t allow a child to read a children’s book aloud, then I think she’s in the wrong position or needs to find a Christian-based school where such conflicts won’t arise.
Actually, having certain things read that might have objectionable content leads to a chance to discuss and analyze the content and develop critical thinking, something in short supply in much of education which could serve the children well later in life.
Instead, she chose to teach children the wrong lesson.
A seven year old was reading a book bigger than her head. Sorry, but I find that something to cheer over.
Then again, I’ll probably be standing in line at eleven o’clock with my daughter waiting to buy the last book in the series with a lot of other parents, all of us marvelling over what we are doing.
Who knows, maybe in a few years, he'll be reading Friedrich A. von Hayek, Whittaker Chambers, Leo Strauss, Irving Babbitt, and James Burnham.
Bottom line...all children’s movies, books and games are suspect in this Age of Agenda. Isn’t Nemo just a shill for eco-craziness? It looks that way to me.
I've always thought that those inserts that they give you with your prescriptions are creepy. Nausea, vomiting, lightheadedness and all.
Every time I get one of those handouts with a prescription, I am always on the lookout for “Major Law Suit” symptoms.
Nausea and vomiting must be worth at least 250K...oh wait, the medicine is to cure nausea and vomiting, Never Mind!
Dr. Seuss has always given me the major creeps, and I won’t be apologizing for that anytime soon! And Harry Potter is no better...
Absolutely, that’s the problem with public schools; they teach no reliable moral code to the children because it would be “politically incorrect”. And what’s more they are forcing gay propaganda into the curriculum; talk about liberal “tolerance”.
I’m not complaining about Harry Potter (Book 5 is in my top 10 of books), I’m just against how the school treated the teacher. She has the right of freedom of speech and doesn’t have to be force to listen to what she doesn’t want to listen to.
Betty Bowers placemarker
I had plenty of Dr. Seuss books growing up and it didn’t turn me into an atheist.
As I said before, reading some books from a different world view allows for a chance to discuss and analyze what was just read which can lead to deeper thinking by the children as opposed to only exposing them to philosophies you agree with.
True, a lot of stuff is agendra-driven or indoctrinating but if I were an elementary teacher and some child brought in “Heather Has Two Mommies”, I wouldn’t shriek and run from the room in a childish fit, I would politely let the child read the text and then explain some of the benefits of having a Mommy and a Daddy present in the household, expressing sadness for any children present who had two mommies but no daddy.
It might still get me in trouble to do that but I’d at least demonstrate I was open-minded to the child’s curiosity then expressed a countering point of view then allowed the children to think for themselves.
The first law of teaching is that you should be smarter than your students. Demonstrating that you have confidence in your beliefs in the face of countering points of view is far more compelling to a child than acting as a censor. That’s what I hate so much about the NEA and other academia attempting to squelch any discussion of creationism or intelligent design. If they had any confidence in their belief, they wouldn’t try so hard to prevent anyone else from disagreeing.
Oh, how silly! She didn’t have to listen to a 7-year-old “read a Harry Potter book.” The dang things are hundreds of pages long; please don’t drop one on my foot!
At worst, she’d have had to listen to a paragraph. Big FReepin’ deal.
(And for the record, I’m a fundamentalist Christian, okay?)
Applying your scenario of an elementary school teacher, I would have caught “Heather Has Two Mommies” at the door, and it would never be an issue for a classroom full of very young and innocent children. Eternal vigilance and all that...
I have never been a teacher, but I have been the mother of three small children. The cardinal rule is, “Never let them outnumber you”. I would teach Johnny Tremain and the Sons of Liberty, Mark Twain, and (my favourite!) The Little Engine That Could. And, in NEA 2007, I would be promptly fired. Teaching patriotism is now grounds for dismissal.
Multiculturalism is the hot new ticket. It’ socialism, but who cares?
I DO.
In a home context, grabbing a book like HHTM and not allowing it is fine. That’s your home.
Here’s the thing. The teacher must have had a role in assigning children to bring something to read before the class, yes? Then maybe she should have been more explicit in what sort of material was appropriate to bring.
The child brought something the teacher found unacceptable. Fine. You can either shame the child and make them wonder what they did that was so wrong or you can allow them to have their moment, praise them for their reading skill (which is likely the whole point of the assignment in the first place) and then spent a moment discussing with the class any ideas you thought were confusing/upsetting. In some circumstances, you might even take it up with the child’s parents so you can avoid the situations in the future.
In other words, act like the adult instead of the dictator and you’ll receive more trust and confidence from the children and they will be more likely to follow your lead.
Just to be clear, the complaining woman is a teaching assistant. It is likely that the teacher encourages free reading, but the assistant didn't like the choice.
Harry Potter is fantasy folks. Get a freakin’ life. Or did you all become cannibals from reading Hansel and Gretel?
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