Teacher asked about my religion...

damn...i mean i live in NC too but school for me is nothing like that, my history teacher is extremely tolerant.

 

That's why I try avoiding generalizing too much. Yeah, I do have an overwhelming cynicism about the system, but some great ones do escape.

For example, my mentor (who is a pagan) is a biology teacher at my high school. But, to be fair, she hates her job because of all the BS, so I guess it's rare to find a good soul entrenched in the Establishment. But there are always exceptions.

 

Ok here is an update about it, and this really pissed me off.

We are doing a mock trial in the class, and I am a witness in the trial. I found out there is one other pagan at my school and he just happens to be in that class, and then there is a girl in there that doesnt feel comfortable swearing on the Bible, well I told her that I was going to swear on the Bible(the teacher) and she said"oh justin come on". Well I walked out of the room so the guy could come get me when it was time for me to make my mock testimony, and he did and as soon as I walked in the room she said that I was anti bible, and I said no I'm not, even the bible says not to swear upon it,

I respect the bible so I am not going to swear on it, especially about something that isnt even true, since its a mock trial, that is really serious to me.

Well that really made me mad she said that to me, so I told that other guy that I was going to wait until after eveyrone left and told her I didnt like that hse called me that infront of the whole class. Well I did and she was like I DIDNT SAY THAT! and she started yelling saying that she "asked me" if I was, and I told her it sounded like a statement, and the guy that told me said yeah you told him he was you didnt ask it, and then she said What is he supposed to be your little witness, and I said no hes just stating the facts of what happened, I didnt raise my voice once to her, she said well you are the one that said you didnt want to put your hand on the bible, and I told her yeah but that doesnt give you the right to call me Anti- Bible. I said thats all I have to say about it, I dont appreciate what you did, and I left.

 

It is sad that this woman seems to seek out conflict so. I wonder if she thinks she is imitating Christ in her mannerisms. But, it just goes to justify my assertion that these people are indeed confused. Did she seem to genuinely believe that she had asked you a question, or was she just trying to entrap you?

But, the general tone of your predicament does seem to have changed. I don't know all the details, but I'd say you probably need to do some meditation concerning your future course (if you haven't already). You might need to take the path of least resistance, but you might also need to seek a more drastic approach and shake her foundation to the core. It could be that you are being handed an opportunity to change the society around you; it could also be you are being tested to see how humble and patient you are. Only you can know. When I am in difficult situations like that, I find it helps to "lose myself" (mentally) in the wilderness, and open myself up to the universal consciousness. I often hear messages that clarify everything.

Either way you choose, at least you will have benefitted from a deeper understanding of the issue.

Best wishes and blessed be,

Brian

 

what this woman is doing is NOT permitted in any manner in public school. going straight to the ACLU probably wont do much good now, though. they're a big organization and have to handle a lot of cases. they would tell you to try to handle it by the proper channels within the school, first. do you have a student handbook? get one. read what it says about student/teacher conflict. if going through the proper channels within the school doesn't get results, then you may have a case the ACLU might be interested in.

you should definately NOT just let it go, though.

 

I agree 100%.

 

Call the ACLU, i had trouble with my sons kindergarden teacher teaching
Jesus songs at a public school.

In no time i had her crying and the principal begging me to have a meeting
with them. They folded quickly, even gave up the "he dont have to sing it"
argument, after I delt them the "you are creating an environment for him
being ostracized (SP?)" and the song stopped.

Did i mention that I made her cry? lol.

If you dont contact the ACLU, someone may come next year
and she might break them.

Want me to call her and make her cry? I will tell her that
I am a pagan minister, and that I offer you council.

Nah, seriously though take care of this yourself, she has
no right to act that way.

 

I agrre, I'm an ACLU member and I would definitley contact them if her "converting" persists. Don't allow the "religous" right to trample your freedom of worship.

 

LOL go you

We used to sing hymns in school, amongst other things, and it was a perfectly ordinary otherwise secular school.
If you minded that much you could kick up a fuss and be exempted but most people just didn't care. We were kids and didn't understand, there was nothing to reinforce those message so they got lost.

It's a diffrent culture in Britain. We don't go in for the seperation of church and state the way American does (hence, I suppose, the notable absence of blinding hypocracy). We're a pretty secular agnostic society in practise, though keep a pretence of being Anglican as a point of principle. You can in actuality think and do as you wished so long as it didn't infringe on the rights of others, even bringing up religion in everyday conversation is frowned upon.

Those songs aside we don't really let religion in school stray out of religious studies classes. Unless of course its a faith school, then you agree to, and usually pay for, the privelege.

The average teacher would never be allowed to express strong religious values and/or belittle those of a student. It is such a taboo through the rest of society. It seems only university lectuers are allowed to express possibly contriversial oppinons about anything, even they aren't offensive.

 

I agree with you, actually. Most people have some sort of religious beliefs, and it's important that we learn about them so we can understand eachother.

This semester, I'm taking a Philosophy class called Religions of the West. I love it. My professor is awsome, he teaches about the different religions in such a way that you know that he loves them all, and you can't help but love them as well. People have no idea what his religion is- well, I know because he told me: he's Catholic, but if he didn't tell me, I wouldn't have guessed- and I've learned so much that I've decided to take his Religions of the East class next semester and I'm thinking of become a Cultural Studies major when I go to a four year school, partually because of him.

I think it would be a great thing to have similar classes in a high school. I've always thought they should teach Philosophy in high school, but I think it's really important to have it center on religion because there are so many problems these days caused by different faiths not understanding eachother. That's the kind of thing people need to learn.

As for the original topic, you really need to report your teacher. This is a real problem. She's stepped way over the line to the point of harassment. Not only is she abusing her authority to try to convert you, which is forbidden by the law, but she's singling you out and mistreating you. She can't do that. If she feels comfortable treating you like that, she's going to treat other people like that too. She's already started to.

 

"Though I must say, in North Carolina there was a course in which we were taught about the five major world religions. However, there was a cynical connotation attached to the whole process (mainly the teacher's fault). And, to be truthful, I've seen a lot more bias than scholarly pursuit of knowledge on these subjects in my experiences"
What were those 5 "Major world religions"?

 

the "big 5" are christianity, judaism, islam, buddhism, and hinduism. they are considered to be "major" world religions not because they're seen to be "better" or "truer", but because most of the people in the world "belong" to one of those 5, albeit often loosely defined.

 

...

 

thank you very much, kitty fabulous.