Beside, You at a teacher can always begin the class by saying “I am a Christian and I do not believe in this but I have to teach it”. I had teachers who said that! (Morgana)
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Is anyone holding a gun to the head of any Christian teacher that they would be “forced” to teach a lie?
So? ...Why would a Christian teacher stand at the head of a class, declare that they were a Christian, and then proceed to teach a falsehood? What they are teaching the students is that Christians lie and will declare themselves Christians **before** they do it!!!!
By using the word “forced”, do you mean they would lose their job and paycheck? Then what they have just taught the students is that Christians will lie for money!
On a plane, the flight attendants advise passengers to put the oxygen mask ONE THEIR OWN FACES FIRST! Once they have done this, then they can help others.
What Christian churches, and their members, are failing to do it put the oxygen mask on their own faces FIRST. If they do not consider their OWN children, as their most important mission call, then the church will not be able, ( in the future) to help others as effectively as if they had armies of valiant youth. When 85% of Christian children who graduate from government school are not active in the faith 2 years later, this is evidence that the oxygen mask did not get to the faces of their OWN children! In contrast more than 90% of homeschoolers are active in their faith.
If children from Christian homes have such a poor success rate, then I think Christian teachers are foolish to think that they can influence the children of non-Christians in their position as teacher. In fact, by lying to non-Christian students, they are making it much more UNLIKELY that these non-Christians would be attracted to Christ.
Wintertime, you couldn’t be more wrong. More and more Christians need to get into public education - not out of it. In addition, Christians need to vote for conservative school board members, conservative county and state representatives, and of course conservative federal representatives. These are the ones who determine the curriculum.
There are many, many strong consevative teachers who pass on conservative values to their students. What better mission field for consevatism and Judeo-Christian values than in the public school!! It is true I cannot “preach” to my students and try to get them to “convert” to Christ - but I can give them all the sides to historical, moral, and political issues. Kids are not stupid - if given the truth, they can figure it out.
Also, many parents who cannot afford to send their students to private school appreciate teachers giving their kids good moral values. Most parents are conservative in their views about right and wrong - even the ones who are not particularly religious. I have been teaching in public school for 13 years and I have never had a parent complain to me about including traditional Christmas carols in our school programs (I am an elementary music teacher). I get to expose my students to the music of American culture (our folk music, spirituals, American composers), the “unrevised” version of American history, and the Judeo-Christian historical background to 95% of our holidays.
For the last three weeks I’ve been able to tell over 700 students (mulitply that by 13 years and it comes to over 9000 kids) that attend my school the story of Christmas and I get to tell them where the story comes from - I do the same for Hanukkah as well (which is also mentioned in the New Testament). I can give them the facts - I don’t have to tell them what they have to believe. At least they hear the truth - and you would abandon these wonderful kids??? I have made this presentation on Christmas in front of our assistent principal and had no problems. Of course there are some public school principals who are “gun-shy” about any mention of religion - but this is more from lawsuit happy lawyers than antagonism toward religion. Presenting information to kids is non-religious. I tell my students that this is what Jewish people believe or this is what Christians believe - and then I give them the facts. I haven’t preached at them or advocated anything - just gave them the facts. And you want me to give this opportunity up? No way!
You are trying to frame the question as a “lying - don’t lie” issue. It isn’t lying to give students all sides of a subject - even sides that the teacher may personally disagree with - their students are going to have to face these opposing views sooner or later - why not from someone who will give them both sides? Why leave them to the mercy of the ACLU and the NEA. Which by the way, I do not belong to our teachers union - I belong to Christian Educators Association. Most teachers are conservative, but are scared into joining the local union for the liability insurance because they are unaware of other sources of this insurance.
You are a discouragement to those conservative, (often Christian) teachers who doing their best to make a positive impact - instead, you shoot us in the back when you should be cheering us on. But, I’m not a quitter. There may well come a time when giving all the facts will get me in trouble. If it does, so be it, but for now I do all I can to teach my students all the truth I can. Why don’t you help instead of surrendering?