Posted on 02/18/2010 2:50:26 AM PST by bogusname
An eighth-grade teacher has accused her students of committing a "hate crime" and being "cruel" because they left a Bible on her desk and a Christmas card with the word "Christ" underlined.
Melissa Hussain, an Apex, N.C., science teacher at West Lake Middle School, is suspended with pay and may lose her job after she purportedly clashed with students on the subject of religion and sent students to the school office when they asked about the role of God in creation during a lesson about evolution.
Hussain wrote on her then-public Facebook page that it was a "hate crime" when her students left a Bible on her desk, according to the Charlotte News & Observer. She complained about students singing "Jesus Loves Me" and wearing Jesus T-shirts.
Hussain said she "was able to shame her kids" over the incidents.
"I can't believe the cruelty and ignorance of people sometimes," Hussain wrote on the social networking site.
She said she wouldn't let the Bible incident "go unpunished."
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
oh, brother. Hussain? Hmmmmm
She complained about students singing “Jesus Loves Me” and wearing Jesus T-shirts.
Kids figured out how to push a hysteric over the edge.
This must be the week for my getting back to posting. I am a public school teacher and I think the students in this story are awesome! What sounds like extra good news is that the teacher is the one in trouble. I think it’s safe to guess this teacher has had other “issues” in the past.
I’m going to contrast that story to what happened in our 6th-grade class in the late 50s. I know, I know, but...
At our elementary school, both the kids and the faculty were about half Jews and half Christians. There were two 6th-grade classes in the school; one taught by a Jewish lady, and the other by a Christian lady.
According to the customs of the time, we saluted the flag every day, said the Lord’s Prayer (some of the kids said the words and others stood silently) and were read a passage from the Bible every day, sometimes the Old Testament (Jewish Bible), sometimes the New Testament (Christian Bible). Our teacher read from a tattered black Bible.
In December, we decorated the school for Christmas and Hannukah, and learned Christmas carols and Hannukah songs for the yearly concert. It was commonplace for the girls to wear a cross or a Star of David around their necks, and most of us were familiar with many Yiddish expressions, as well as the main holidays of both religions.
The year that we were to “graduate” from 6th grade, a group of us, both Christians and Jews, discussed what gift we would give our teacher — a bunch of red roses or a new Bible. Ultimately we appointed one kid to ask her which she wanted. She opted for the Bible, and we chose one covered in white leather, with gold leaf on the edges of the pages, had the store emboss her name on the cover in gold, and presented it to her on our last day of elementary school.
Thirty-five years later, we had a wonderful reunion, attended by about half of the class and their spouses. Most had married within our respective religions, handful had “married out”, and one girl had not married. The organizers read a letter from our much-loved teacher. She had moved across the country to be with her grandchildren. Then in her 80s, her letter recalled many of her pleasant memories of individuals in our class, and also jokingly thanked us again for having given her the Bible instead of the red roses, since she still had it. Even though our generation was the vanguard of the Youth Rebellion, her mention of the Bible brought out no negative comments at the reunion.
Now that I had her address, and knowing I would be traveling out west that summer, I decided to go the 500 miles out of my way to see her.
Although I hadn’t seen her since I was 11, and was then 46, she recognized me instantly. I gave her our alternate class gift that day, a big bunch of red roses. She showed me the now-worn white Bible, saying how much it had meant to her, and that she had loaned it to both her daughter and her granddaughter to carry under their bouquets at their weddings.
She also related how she had become a teacher. At the beginning of the post-WW2 Baby Boom, there was such a demand for teachers that she was recruited although she had no formal education credentials, having formerly been a college graduate, but an office worker. This news shocked me, since she was one of our district’s best teachers of all from K to 12.
She said she felt apprehensive about taking the job with no specific education training, so she had called her father and asked him what to do.
“Just love the children,” he replied. I can tell you, that is exactly what she did. By that I do not mean what today’s gutter minds might be thinking.
She was kind, caring, conscientious, pleasant and enthusiastic, naturally commanding respect and good behavior. She made the lessons fun and interesting. She encouraged each child, no matter what they were like (a couple of our classmates would today have been Special Ed); and we knew she would have permitted no bullying. She made special small groups for kids interested in various topics. A few weeks into the term, a black child entered our class for the first time in school district history, and she was as supportive of him as of any of us. While most of the white children’s parents were executives, government employees or professionals, he was the child of the school janitor. Today he is a lawyer.
That teacher’s guiding principles and selfless love for others came from the religious traditions expressed in the Bible. For generations, until the 1960s, it was the one book found in every American home and classroom. I realize this sounds like an article from a religious magazine; however, this is my actual experience of growing up in the DC area in America as it once was.
That’s what a teacher is supposed to be, frankly.
Most of mine growing up were that, with varying levels of success.
Unfortunately, when teaching left the church/local municipalities, and became a national effort, the ‘standards’ went down, as well as the professionalism and morality of the teachers.
Additionally, it’s also a function of increased numbers - more teachers = more idiots as teachers.
Instead of crying “Hate crime” she should have said “You flunk”. Much more effective.
These liberals act like a Bible and religion are mirrors and spikes to Dracula.
I think it has more to do with, as you said, wresting control of education away from the local community, and also the demonization of Christianity. It has been a shock to me that secular persons of Jewish descent have been so prominent in their lawsuits against Christian expression in schools, given the experiences I had with Jewish/Christian benevolent co-existence in our school.
Like I said, I attribute it to both. Local control for local community standards is the right way to go, in my humble internet opinion. Test the basic knowledge, critical skills, but put the local community standards in place. I know that flies in the face of our ‘globalized economy’, but my guess is most people don’t like being lied to, want to trust someone who gives them their word, doesn’t like to be stolen from, beat up, attacked, called names, want to help their neighbors, or be helped by their neighbors.
bttt
She’s gaming the system. She doesn’t give a rat’s fart about bibles or evolution. She has her eye on the tax-payer-funded ball.
Oh Precious Lawsuit, Hallowed be Thy Name.
Wish I had teachers like that . I did have good teachers until high school though. (early Gen-X)
My senior year in high school a chemistry teacher who cooked acid , a Spanish teacher who used to drink vodka in her class room , an art teacher who used to go outside to smoke pot. They all eventually got fired but it took years to get rid of them.
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If so, the "teacher" needs to find immediate employment elsewhere. As in now. Bu-Bye Hussain. Stop ignoring your students.
A Muslim pretending and acting.
A good teacher finds that any happening is a good opportunity to teach!
Mel
The hippies ruined this country. I try to explain to my son what it used to be like. The entire Western culture of honor, virtue, sacrifice, etc is being destroyed. In its place? Porn, sloth, selfishness and violence.
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