Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Teacher banned from saying the word "Christmas"
worldnetdaily ^ | Dec 13, 2002 | Joe Kovacs

Posted on 12/13/2002 8:41:00 AM PST by patriot5186

At a time when Americans of many faiths – and even no faith – gear up to celebrate Christmas this year, a first-grade teacher in Sacramento Co., Calif., says she's been ordered by her principal not to utter the word "Christmas" at school.

The 24-year education veteran, who wishes to keep her name and the school anonymous at this time, claims she and two fellow instructors were told that use of the word "Christmas" in the classroom or in written materials was now prohibited.

(Excerpt) Read more at worldnetdaily.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; US: California
KEYWORDS: christmas; hohohuh; pcgrinch; waronchristmas
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-76 next last
To: patriot5186
Rest assured the little kiddies will be getting lessons on how to celebrate Kwanzaa though..
21 posted on 12/13/2002 9:21:55 AM PST by FormerLurker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: expatpat
Oh, no, no.

In the NYC public school system, they specifically provided areas for muslim kids to have their own Ramadan observances.

I'm not making it up....

22 posted on 12/13/2002 9:22:22 AM PST by gaijin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: patriot5186
1380 AM KTKZ in Sacramento did a story on this today. This nonsense is not going to stand.
23 posted on 12/13/2002 9:27:19 AM PST by doug from upland
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Spiff
Well-put. May Isengard (Sacramento) be overthrown by the ancient army of Fangorn. Where is Mithrandir!?
24 posted on 12/13/2002 9:27:29 AM PST by My2Cents
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Spiff
The evil of Mordor, land of Sauron, lies to the East. It can be found sandwiched between the realms of Maryland and Virginia.

Exactly. And who does the bidding of Sauron? The 9 Dark Riders. The 9 Nazgül. Now whom do you suppose they could be? All 9 in their dark flowing robes. Dispensing "Justice".

25 posted on 12/13/2002 9:28:16 AM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: patriot5186
Here in The Peoples Republik of Illinois, we couldn't have a Christmas Tree at our local high school. We now have a 'Holiday Bush'. I saw our 'Holiday Bush' the other day and it bears a remarkable resemblence to a CHRISTMAS TREE!
26 posted on 12/13/2002 9:28:58 AM PST by teletech
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: VRWCmember; Bloody Sam Roberts
I am dying laughing. Love that movie!!! PLEASE tell me how to save those files to my computer so I can send them on. Thanks a million.
27 posted on 12/13/2002 9:30:38 AM PST by PLK
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: doug from upland
You should call KTKZ-1380, conservative talk radio in Sacramento. Eric Hogue would be the guy to talk with (morning guy, and program manager). Mark Williams, the evening talkshow guy at KFBK-1530, would be a good one too (good conservative). Actually, the #1 talkshow host in Sacramento, Tom Sullivan on KFBK (he's subbed before for Rush) would be sympathetic to some calls of protest.
28 posted on 12/13/2002 9:32:26 AM PST by My2Cents
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: patriot5186
District sued over Islam studies Students pretend to be Muslims, pray to Allah in classroom simulations

Posted: July 2, 2002
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Diana Lynne
© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com

While the whole country debates a controversial court ruling declaring "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional, a federal lawsuit filed in another California court last week seeks to stop a public school from having its seventh-graders pray to Allah.

On behalf of parents and four children, the Thomas More Law Center filed suit against the Byron Union School District and various school officials to stop the use of the "Islam simulation" materials used in the Excelsior Elementary School in Byron, Calif.

As WorldNetDaily reported in January, the public school students at Excelsior pretend to be Muslims, wear robes, simulate jihads via a dice game, learn the Five Pillars of Faith and memorize verses from the Koran in classroom exercises as part of a World History and Geography class that's being taught to seventh-graders all over the state. The class is included in the state's curriculum standards required by the state board of education. These standards outline what subjects should be taught and will be included in state assessment tests, but don't mandate how they're to be taught.

The Islam simulations at Excelsior are outlined in the state-adopted textbook "Across the Centuries," published by Houghton Mifflin, which prompts students to imagine they are Islamic soldiers and Muslims on a Mecca pilgrimage. The lawsuit also alleges students were encouraged to use such phrases in their speech as "Allah Akbar," which is Arabic for "God is great," and were required to fast during lunch period to simulate fasting during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

"While public schools prohibit Christian students from reading the Bible, praying, displaying the Ten Commandments, and even mentioning the word 'God,' students in California are being indoctrinated into the religion of Islam," said Richard Thompson, chief counsel for the national, public-interest law firm. "Public schools would never tolerate teaching Christianity in this way. Just imagine the ACLU’s outcry if students were told that they had to pray the Lord's Prayer, memorize the Ten Commandments, use such phrases as 'Jesus is the Messiah,' and fast during Lent," he added.

According to Thompson, "Although it is constitutional for public schools to have an instructional program about comparative religion or teach about religion and utilize religious books such as the Bible in courses about our history and culture, the Byron Union School District crossed way over the constitutional line when it coerced impressionable 12-year-olds to engage in particular religious rituals and worship, simulated or not."

Defending the course instruction in January, Byron Superintendent Peggy Green explained, "Dressing up in costume, role-playing and simulation games are all used to stimulate class discussion and are common teaching practices used in other subjects as well."

Excelsior Principal Nancie Castro maintained, "At no point do we teach or endorse religion; we teach about religions' impact from a historical context. ... This is the state-approved curriculum, using state-adopted textbooks and has been part of the instructional program in California for over a decade."

When contacted by WND, a Byron district spokesperson said officials knew nothing about the lawsuit and could not comment on it without seeing it. The attorneys representing the school district are on vacation this week and unavailable for comment.

While the international public-interest law firm The American Center for Law and Justice presses Excelsior to permit students to opt out of the course, contending it violates students' First Amendment rights, the Thomas More suit and one being prepared by the Pacific Justice Institute take issue with the course materials, including the textbook, which is used in public schools throughout the state and in districts across the country.

The Pacific Justice Institute, a nonprofit legal defense organization, mounted its challenge to the textbook earlier this year on behalf of concerned San Luis Obispo parent, Jen Schroeder, who noticed her son's textbook "had a distinct bias toward Islam over Christianity." Schroeder subsequently launched a campaign to raise awareness, posting a content analysis of the textbook on her website.

"There's so much in that textbook that I find offensive – both the Islam and the Christian sections," Schroeder told WND. While presenting a "white-washed version of Islam," Schroeder asserts the textbook goes out of its way to depict Christianity in a negative light.

"In the textbook, there is a large three-column block titled 'Understanding Religious Persecution,' which blames Christians exclusively for persecuting others and forcing beliefs, when in fact there have been more Christian martyrs than any other religion," said Schroeder.

As WorldNetDaily reported, Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes echoed Schroeder's complaints in a New York Post column, calling the 558-page textbook an example of "the privileging of Islam in the United States."

Pipes assailed the "covert propagation of Islam" in the textbook: "Everything Islamic is praised; every problem is swept under the rug." Pipes also complained the textbook promotes Islamic doctrines as objective fact and presents a distorted image of Muslims: "Jihad, which means 'sacred war,' turns into a struggle mainly 'to do one's best to resist temptation and overcome evil.'"

Houghton Mifflin denies the allegations. In a release posted on its website, the publisher stated, "Houghton Mifflin has always taken a neutral, fact-based approach to writing all of its educational publications, striving for a fair account of history."

In the company release, Director of Media Relations Collin Earnst explained that a "multi-cultural and multi-faith panel of scholars reviewed and approved 'Across the Centuries' before publication" and that the text is part of a two-book series developed for the state of California that covers specific topics mandated and outlined by the state board of education. As per California state standards, "the dawn of the major Western and non-Western ancient civilizations, including the origins of Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity" are dealt with in the text used in grade six.

Prompted by this argument, Schroeder delved into the sixth-grade companion textbook, "A Message of Ancient Days," and found it to be a "blatant misrepresentation of Christianity" and "Jesus presented as Islam believes." In contrast to the imagination exercises of the Islam section where students pretend to be Muslim soldiers, Schroeder says the only imagination exercises for the Christianity and Judaism sections is for students to imagine they are "with the Jews when they were conquered and forced to live away from their homeland" and to "imagine being in the buried catacombs of the dead Christians."

In support of Pipes' claims of the seventh-grade textbook promoting Islamic doctrines as objective fact, Schroeder found 998 references to Muhammad as prophet with only nine being accompanied by qualifiers such as "Muslims believe." In contrast, in the sixth-grade text Schroeder counted 116 references to Jesus as savior with 10 being accompanied by the qualifier, "Christians believe."

"Over and over again Christianity is reduced to 'ideas' whereas Islam is referred to as 'More than a Way of Life,'" said Schroeder. Schroeder also contacted the multi-cultural, multi-faith organizations Houghton Mifflin cited as having reviewed and approved the textbooks prior to publishing. These included the Council on Islamic Education, the Hadassah Academic Advisory Board, the Freedom Forum First Amendment Center, and the Christian Educators Association International. According to statements posted on Schroeder's website, Christian Educators Association maintains it only reviewed the Christian sections and the Hadassah Academic Advisory Board likewise states it only reviewed the portions pertaining to Judaism. Both groups indicated to Schroeder they made recommendations for changes which were not implemented by Houghton Mifflin.

According to a Thomas More press release about the lawsuit, "Houghton Mifflin and the publishers of the simulation materials acknowledge they were influenced by various Muslim organizations."

"We must guard what is planted in our hearts and in our sons' hearts," Schroeder told WND. "California has been planting some big seeds for Islam while hardening hearts toward Christianity through the Houghton Mifflin textbooks. ... John Walker Lindh is the fruit of California's efforts. He was a young impressionable child, just as my son is. How many more John Walkers before we stop promoting Islam in public schools?"

29 posted on 12/13/2002 9:32:46 AM PST by gaijin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PLK
PLEASE tell me how to save those files to my computer...

Right click on the link (that you would left click on to play it) and select "Save target as" and select a spot on your PC for it to be saved to. That's it. Enjoy.

30 posted on 12/13/2002 9:34:04 AM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: teletech
Are you allowed to have a star on top of your Holiday Bush? Here in the People's Republic of Cambridge no stars are allowed on our Peace Trees.
31 posted on 12/13/2002 9:37:13 AM PST by ladyjane
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: RooRoobird14
Next thing they'll do is try to ban Frosy, Rudolph, Santa Clause Is Coming To Town, Grinch, Charlie Brown, It's a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street......how pathetic is that....
32 posted on 12/13/2002 9:39:04 AM PST by geege
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: FormerLurker
I didn't know it was that bad.
33 posted on 12/13/2002 9:46:49 AM PST by jjm2111
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: patriot5186
This is really getting out of hand. How can we fight against this kind of anti-god thinking? We'd better do something soon or we've lost.
34 posted on 12/13/2002 9:47:39 AM PST by Marysecretary
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: expatpat
And certainly not "Yule." Oh dang, they can't sing "Deck the Halls!!"
35 posted on 12/13/2002 9:50:48 AM PST by thetruckster
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: patriot5186
Of course, she's probably allowed to utter the word 'Ramadan' until she's blue in the face.
36 posted on 12/13/2002 9:52:27 AM PST by Mr. Mojo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: patriot5186
The 24-year education veteran, who wishes to keep her name and the school anonymous at this time, claims...

It comes down to "put up or shut up." Otherwise it's simply another unsubstantiated allegation, and there are far too many of those everyday to start getting upset about them.

37 posted on 12/13/2002 10:01:45 AM PST by Slainte
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Comment #38 Removed by Moderator

To: patriot5186
Government censorship of religion. Not even the communist Soviet Union banned the words of religion.
39 posted on 12/13/2002 10:08:24 AM PST by PatrioticAmerican
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: patriot5186
It's banned at the White House too. You have to say "holiday" there.


40 posted on 12/13/2002 10:13:48 AM PST by FreedomCalls
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-76 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson