"then what the he## is she doing teaching in elementary school?"
Why the ***% is Santa being taught in public school as a religion?
Where does the "Night Before Christmas" get religious? 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??
"Why the ***% is Santa being taught in public school as a religion?"
Explain to us how reading a very well known, popular, seasonal poem is teaching a religeon. In addition, if you are so worried about a "competing religeous figure," why the need to represent vulgarity in your response?
This woman is silly, ignorant, and a real b****. If she honestly had some serious religious objection to the lesson plan she could have refused to teach it, or not accepted the job. But, she didn't do that.
No, she decided that she was going to foist her own petty brand of meanness on a bunch of 6 and 7 year old kids who couldn't point to Eastern Europe on a map, much less comprehend what the year 562 was.
This dried up, pinched out, warped, frustrated, ill-tempered, shrivel souled bitty tried to foist her personal phony 'religious convictions' on a bunch of innocent kids. She got caught and called on it.
Now she's squealing like a stuck pig, a rather apt analogy if you ask me, because a bunch of parents objected to her inexcusable and mean spirited behavior. Had she done this to my child, I'd have her job on a platter at the very least.
This smug self righteous slitch doesn't belong in an elementary school classroom in a public school. And her 'religious freedom' argument is a canard....
She's a bi***, plain and simple.
L
1. No sane, rational adult truly believes that the figure "Santa Claus," as described in contemporary culture, actually, ontologically, exists. None, zero, not one. NOBODY believes in a figure living in the North Pole, working with elves and flying reindeer, monitoring the works of all children omnisciently, creeping down chimneys each 12/25 to reward the good. Nobody, not one person.
2. Yet countless adults assure naive, innocent children that they should actually accept this untruth as truth, should actually believe in the actual existence of such a being, should structure their lives and hopes and expectations and joys in part on that premise (which they know to be false) -- and they go to great lengths to fool these helpless children into believing this lie.
3. If anyone suggests that children should not be misled, hordes of conservatives -- conservatives, mind you, who pride themselves for their rationality and superior grasp of facts, and their eschewing of deception and misinformation -- will swarm that person with countless groundless accusations against the person who suggests that deliberately deceiving a child isn't a good thing.
These facts are undeniable, and this thread already bears them out. It is the juxtaposition of them which honestly, sincerely, absolutely baffles me.
Prediction: unless the presence of this prediction discourages it, my undeniable observations will make me the target of #3 above, and this targeting will wander far from any of the points I actually made, dwelling largely instead on insinuations not in evidence.
Santa is real AND a symbol of Christan giving- but he is also plain old Common culture. Deal with it.
It isn't. All she was supposed to do is read "Twas the Night Before Christmas". All she had to do was read it. She didn't have to say she believed it or not. If someone asked her beliefs, she could have told the kid that she keeps that to her self. If they asked if it was true, she could have told them to talk to their parents.
You ignorant troll! Where, exactly in your precious article and rebuttal article is that little factoid expressed?????
Semper Outraged
I haven't been to church in a long-long time, but I don't think it was Santa who died for our sins. How is "The Night Before Christmas" in any way religious, other than it takes place on Christmas eve?
This chick should just STFU. Let someone who isn't a soul-sucking joyless wonder turd read the poem to the kids. The kids would probably enjoy it more.
It's a poem.
It's not "taught as a religion". She is "teaching religion" if she seeks to disabuse the children of the Santa Claus "myth" out of a fear he is usurping Jesus Christ. She is a hypocrite of the highest order.
Santa Claus is a cultural persona and if this idiotic person is going to refrain from "teaching" anything that she disagrees without without positing a "disclaimer" to the kids, she cannot read anything by EB White "people cannot have mice as sons"; "farm animals cannot talk"; Erich Carle, JK Rowling, fairy tales, just about anything suitable to read to six year olds. She has no business in the classroom, period!!!
Ridiculous!!