School districts, layoffs and other things of interest....

[Dunkopf]

Quote:
It means all our children are taught what REALLY happened since our country was formed. As told through the eyes of a very highly conservative school board. Wait till creationism is taught as fact. When 5 out of 8 primary candidates believe that the world is only 5000 years old you really have to wonder.

Defunding is used as a political tool. Look at the recent fiasco in Congress. Can't pass a budget because one side wants to defund environmental protection and women's health care. Sounds political to me. Of course that's just my opinion.

The same people who are so anti school are also trying to crash the economy for political purposes. So creating weak schools kind of goes hand in hand. Lower home values slows the recovery and raises the chances of taking power in 2 years. Once again just my opinion.

 

[mom'sfolly]

I'm going to the local school board candidates forum tonight. Texas' school board has way too much power for fifteen people. They, through the textbook approval process, manage to set curriculum for a number of states. The process is hugely political and very ideology driven.

 

[WriterofWords]

They could be like us, Balanced Literacy doesn't use textbooks. We have math and science books, but nothing for reading, writing, etc.

 

[AquaEyes]

Quote:
It means all our children are taught what REALLY happened since our country was formed. As told through the eyes of a very highly conservative school board. Wait till creationism is taught as fact. When 5 out of 8 primary candidates believe that the world is only 5000 years old you really have to wonder.

Defunding is used as a political tool. Look at the recent fiasco in Congress. Can't pass a budget because one side wants to defund environmental protection and women's health care. Sounds political to me. Of course that's just my opinion.

The same people who are so anti school are also trying to crash the economy for political purposes. So creating weak schools kind of goes hand in hand. Lower home values slows the recovery and raises the chances of taking power in 2 years. Once again just my opinion.

This is something I fear. It becomes much easier to be led to believe something that's not true when you're prevented from learning any alternative. Ever see this frightening video?

 

[chickened]

Frightening? what frightens me is a religion that says the kids strap on a bomb and blow people up and get a bunch of virgins for their effort.
Quote:
It means all our children are taught what REALLY happened since our country was formed. As told through the eyes of a very highly conservative school board. Wait till creationism is taught as fact. When 5 out of 8 primary candidates believe that the world is only 5000 years old you really have to wonder.

Defunding is used as a political tool. Look at the recent fiasco in Congress. Can't pass a budget because one side wants to defund environmental protection and women's health care. Sounds political to me. Of course that's just my opinion.

The same people who are so anti school are also trying to crash the economy for political purposes. So creating weak schools kind of goes hand in hand. Lower home values slows the recovery and raises the chances of taking power in 2 years. Once again just my opinion.

This is something I fear. It becomes much easier to be led to believe something that's not true when you're prevented from learning any alternative. Ever see this frightening video?

 

[chickened]

This also reminds me in a way of a certain countries' practice of burning books more or less it denies history and choice.
Quote:
It means all our children are taught what REALLY happened since our country was formed. As told through the eyes of a very highly conservative school board. Wait till creationism is taught as fact. When 5 out of 8 primary candidates believe that the world is only 5000 years old you really have to wonder.

Defunding is used as a political tool. Look at the recent fiasco in Congress. Can't pass a budget because one side wants to defund environmental protection and women's health care. Sounds political to me. Of course that's just my opinion.

The same people who are so anti school are also trying to crash the economy for political purposes. So creating weak schools kind of goes hand in hand. Lower home values slows the recovery and raises the chances of taking power in 2 years. Once again just my opinion.

 

[AquaEyes]

Quote:
This is something I fear. It becomes much easier to be led to believe something that's not true when you're prevented from learning any alternative. Ever see this frightening video?

::sigh::

It's not that christianity frightens me. It's christianity in a science classroom that frightens me. Science belongs in a science classroom, and christianity belongs in a church. Science is a part of school curriculum, and christianity is a part of religious education (if you choose it). When do you see science coming into a church? (now THAT would cause an outcry!!!)

And if you want to talk about a religion that says to bomb people, would you like me to bring up Northern Ireland? There are nutjobs in many religions. That doesn't mean everyone in the religion is a nutjob.

My point for posting that is that the kids are confused because that teacher is doing a "chicken manure" job of teaching biology. He knows it, and he's fine with it, because he'd rather those kids grow up confused and think that science is wrong. And I think that there's something of this thinking that goes along with distributing money for schools. Keep the poor people in the dark, so they'll be more easily convinced by lies. Let the rich kids get the proper education, so they can more easily inherit the reins from their parents. It was a great model for the Dark Ages.

 

[chickened]

Aquaeyes, why don't you just cut the "chicken manure" and say what you really feel about Christians? its obvious that you feel personally effected by the idea and you almost make me think you may have had some loved ones burned at the stake or dunked in a dunking chair. It isn't enough that you post a statement in your signature that anyone with a brain could figure out you are obviously an atheist and proud of the fact and then you post a youtube video(?) that could be part of a school play or who knows what and think that the kids in our schools are all confused idiots and the teachers are patronizing them because they choose Christianity. You may be able to get a rise out of like minded people and a big pat on the back or "yah you are my hero" but in reality you have done nothing but degrade, put down and equate Christians to uneducated Bible thumping hillbillies hellbent on proselytizing you into some religion that controls you. Another thing your "Ahems" and "sighs" do nothing but further prove your elitist attitude towards me and other Christians simply because you cannot just respect someone else's' belief but must stomp it in the ground. There will always be poor people and there will always be rich people for the poor hard work and diligence is the difference and the rich can loose it all through poor choices and foolishness. An education is a tool and is only beneficial when it is used rich or poor both are capable of failure or success. Being rich is not always measured monetarily.

 

[AquaEyes]

OK, so here's a little about me. WAY OFF TOPIC.

My mother's side came from Germany after WWII. I am a second-generation American. I was very close to my great-grandmother until she died when I was 21 and she was almost 90. She lived through two world wars being fought in her country. She made it clear to me how damaging exclusionary ideology can be. She did not suffer nearly as greatly as those who were exterminated by evil people in her country, but because she chose to marry someone who, despite being born in Germany, had a father who was born in France and lost his citizenship under Nazi rule. Her original request to marry was denied because he was not a German citizen. It wasn't until after their daughter, my maternal-grandmother, was one day shy of being a year old that they were legally allowed to be married. In doing so, my great-grandmother had to forsake her German citizenship. She carried what was in all intents and purposes a passport (which I have seen, and it bore numerous Nazi stamp-marks), and had her "papers" checked randomly when she walked anywhere in Hamburg, the only "hometown" she had known. <As an aside, the Arizona law passed last year made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck because it was all too familiar.> She lived through terrible inflation, times when there wasn't an assurance of food being on the table, was afflicted with polio and forever had walking difficulties as a result. Her only brother out of 7 siblings was drafted against his will to fight in the Nazi army, but he later deserted and lived in hiding until the war was over.

They came here because America is free, and is founded upon the principle that ANYONE can come here and make a place for himself, be productive, make a life, etc. and not be subject to ideology-based hatred or discrimination (well, in theory....). According to the way our country is set up, something like what happened in Germany could not happen here.

My family has a range of religious beliefs, from Lutheran to Evangelical to Jehovah's Witness to Catholic to Anglican and Episcopalian (the latter two on my father's side, but we won't get into that now). We accepted that each was entitled to seeking his own truth, but one thing that carried tremendous disdain was proselytizing. We were free to discuss what each other believed, but the idea that one of us was right and another was wrong carried disgust. It was a reminder to how one ideology can take over and destroy a nation. I also grew up without any racial or religious or sexual-orientation-based prejudice (I, myself, am "non-conventional", to be as kid-friendly as possible here, and that was accepted as well). The prevailing feeling I learned from my great-grandmother is that we are all people, and, to put it bluntly, "who the heck are you to say I'm less?" My great-grandmother would more politely put it as "leben und leben lassen" (live and let live). The act of proselytizing is completely contradictory to this premise. "Spreading the word" implies that your word is more right than that of someone else, and as far as religion goes, no one has any proof of that being the case (including atheists, as I am myself). Thus "who the heck are you to say I'm less?" translates to "who the heck are you to say you're right?" and that's how my family saw anyone who stepped up and said "these people are darn" or other such nonsense. It brought back too much anger and resentment over what similar ideas did to their homeland.

Our founding fathers likely saw similar things going on in Europe at the time. There were wars going on between Catholic and Protestant countries, all because of churches pulling the strings on the countries' leaders. Therein lies the problem. Religions are like mini-countries within the country. Religious leaders are not elected as are the leaders of our country. People follow them of their own choosing. Once a religion obtains political leadership, domination of other religions becomes a possibility, and our founding fathers saw too many examples of this in other countries, so they sought to keep the two completely separate and begin a secular nation.

Religion, in my family, is perceived as a personal philosophy -- something chosen individually, something that gives a plan to follow, something that offers answers in times of questioning, something that provides comfort in times of sorrow. And that's where it stays. And, as my great-grandmother told me, that's where it belongs.

So what do I feel about Christians? I have no opinion, because I don't characterize people based on their religion. Like I said before, there are nutjobs everywhere. And there are great people everywhere. So I don't have a universal feeling towards Christians. I may not enjoy a person who happens to be Christian, and I may fall in love with another person who happens to be Christian. What you might better ask is how I feel about Christianity. And what I feel is that, as a personal philosophy, it doesn't work for me, so I don't adopt it. If it works for other people, that's great. Happiness is "one of my gods" so I praise their happiness. What I don't like, because of how I was raised, is proselytizing. Unfortunately, this is a big thing for some Christians (not all, and not even most). And it's something that's rarely encountered with people of different religions. So when I jump on someone for proselytizing, chances are he calls himself a Christian. I'm not jumping on him for being a Christian. I'm jumping on him for proselytizing.

And so....there it is.

My apologies to the OP of this thread.

 

[chickened]

Please don't misunderstand me when I say I am not picking on you. I can understand your grandmothers reasons for the way she feels as you described them. There is a side to Christianity that differs from the stigma that has been attached to it from the past. The Great Commission was originally meant for believers to share the "good news" during a time when God was a real part of the world (not that he isn't now) and that news was/is that man now has direct access to God through his Son, something not available before due to sin. I know you do not believe in God and that is OK... with me. I don't believe proselytizing someone is anymore effective than handing out tracts but some Christian folk think obedience is being done and maybe it is I do not know that answer so I do not judge them. Other than a feeling of not being comfortable I cannot think of an instance when at least in this country where someone has been actually harmed by true Christians now cults are a different story and people join them willingly and the government staying within its separation clause is technically not allowed to interfere but as we all know they do. I have had bad experiences with some Christian folk and as a result I left some churches for some not so dissimilar reasons as yourself. But I will tell you one thing I have learned is to not live in the past as I have not burned anyone at the stake, never owned slaves, never participated in the crusades and I can only hope people will tolerate me. It is real easy for me to develop a negative image of certain groups of people from what they did in the past especially if I feel connected to the victims but I refuse to carry that burden it turns to bitterness and will rob you of all your joy in life, bitterness is a poisonous pill that I take and hope someone else dies. I know the part of the Bible that bothers you most it does not bother me but other parts that do point to my questionable behavior are just as grievous to God we all fall short my friend. It is cruel on Christians part to throw you under the bus and my "non-conventional" friends and acquaintances have expressed that to me when the subject is broached. Mostly they know that it is best to agree to disagree then no jumping on each other is needed.Josephus a secular Jewish historian wrote something like this, "The thing I noticed most about Christians was there love for one another" (paraphrasing) I believe he wrote this in observance of Rome burning when all but the Christians fled Rome while tending the needs of those that remained. another interesting read is about Mother Teresa of Calcutta and how she tended young girls (10 to 12 years old) abused by Hindu priests to put it mildly.

I don't know if I completely agree with your self assessment about not having an opinion one way or another about Christians you essentially are saying that proselytizing and Christians are synonymous. You may be right. All other religions have certain things you must perform, true Christianity says those things are done you must simply believe on what is done. I do appreciate you sharing your story, your grandmother has some stories too I bet.