My teacher told us all this(long)

[SomeDude]

Hey,
been watching around here, just thought i'd post.
well, in 7th grade ( about 1 year ago) my teacher told us to write a report on what we thought about god in the pledge. as i was not atheist at this time, i wrote about how it should be in the pledge..i honestly didnt care, i was going to be atheist later that year. a kid wrote how it should be taken out. 5 days later after she read them all, she said some of us wanted to have god out of the pledge and was dissappointed with them.
i never saw the problem, she then shocked me when she said any of you who wanted god out of the pledge is stupid. come on lady, we were kids.

on career day, we chose from a list of careers we wanted to hear about. majority chose swat team as it was the coolest. then walks in some lanky wimp guy, i thought, this cant be a swat member. it seemed as though she chose pastor for us, the most boring hour of my life.

near the end of the year she wanted us all to say the pledge while saying under god in a loud voice. this lady is crazy.
do you think what she did was a wrong thing to do to us? sorry its long but this lady dsrove us nuts.

[BaalShemRa]

It wasn't long.

Unless you're in a religious school, she tried to push beliefs unto children in circumstances she wasn't supposed to, so yes, what she did ( again, if it's not a religious school ) was wrong.

[AuntieSocial]

Don't worry about the length of the post (I'm known for realllllly long posts). You might want to use the "Preview" button to have a look at your spacing before you post though. *smiles*

Yes, I do think what she did was an over extension of her authority, especially when she applied a value judgement, like stupid, to those that did not believe as she did. Having a pastor on career day is questionable. It is a viable career option, but she, again, made a decision based on her faith. Added to this insult, was the fact that your classmates voted (a nice exercise in democracy) and she over-ruled your choice (which I suppose could be seen as a lesson in Veto power *shrugs*). My gut reaction is she used her position to force her beliefs on your class and I would be willing to bet that part of her reason to do so was the knowledge that there were students in the class who held differing beliefs.

[Maverick]

I also think your teacher crossed the line. Regardless of whether or not you are in a religious school, I find the "stupid" comment to be extremely offensive. There is no excuse for belittling a seventh grader like that even if she didn't agree with some of your classmates.

As for the preist coming into class, I don't know whether that was crossing the line or not. If you attend a religious school, then I'd expect a preist to talk to your class at some point during your education there. If this is a public school, than I think it depends on what the message of the preist was when he spoke to your class. If it was only to tell your class what the preisthood is like and to answer questions, I don't think it was inappropriate. But if that preist came to preach to your class, we then have a clear establishment clause violation.

It's unfortunate, though, that she ignored your class and didn't get a swat person to talk to you. Along with her earlier comments, I'd be suspicious of why she invited a preist to your school.

Do you remember what the preist talked to your class about?

[nonny]

Yes, you teacher did go over the line. What class was this in?? BEcause she was probally taking away from the circulum that was supposed to be taught and might have impaired(is that the right word?) your learning enviorment. And your post wasn't that long.

[SomeDude]

BaalShemRa said:

It wasn't long.

Unless you're in a religious school, she tried to push beliefs unto children in circumstances she wasn't supposed to, so yes, what she did ( again, if it's not a religious school ) was wrong.

no, this is a normal Arizona public. now that im in 8th (soon to be nineth yay!) grade, the teachers dont care.

thanks for the replies. i think she ,ay be doing this according to my 7th grade sister, she has my old teacher, she still does this. the preist was eyeing me * knew i was going to convert later in the year* kind of weird

[SomeDude]

Maverick,
the preist talked about his career and what he does.
not much to say. i think i would have loved the look on
my teachers face if she heard me tell the preist i was friends with the devil lol!
i had my wisdom teeth pulled gotta lay down. bye

[AuntieSocial]

SomeDude said:

the preist talked about his career and what he does.

Okay, in this case, I don't think it was entirely inappropriate. At least the priest had the integrity to keep his talk on topic. I still think that she should have found a SWAT Team member for you, though.

However, calling the students "stupid" is inexcusable.

What sort of things is she saying to your sister's class?

i had my wisdom teeth pulled gotta lay down. bye

OUCH! Hope you're feeling no pain real soon.

[Griffey]

I agree that perhaps while getting a pastor to talk to your class was iffy, her other behavior is over the line. By saying anyone who wanted "under god" out of the pledge was stupid, she was singling out those kids who did write that. I believe that a teacher who calls a kid or group of kids "stupid" should be fired; this is inexcuseable. That kind of thing can leave some psychological scars that may seem insignifigant or minor but end up causing problems later.

Hopefully this lady has moved on to a job where she doesn't have the opportunity to exercise mind control on children.