Comment by Wendy on March 6, 2009 at 9:39pm

Hi all. In the process now becoming certified as a 4-8 generalist teacher in Texas (AHHHHH!!!!) and very wary of how much religion is just "assumed" here.

Anyhoo, very religious background (any pk's in the house?) and now deep in the bible belt so I can talk the talk if necessary.

HI!

Comment by Merelen on March 18, 2009 at 5:51pm

FSM help me, I've applied at a catholic school. *sigh* Odds are they won't hire me, but if they do I'll be here a lot asking for advice.

Comment by animus on July 29, 2009 at 6:14pm

Hello fellow teachers! As a person who home schools children. It has been fun, interesting and never dull. Just thought I'd jump in here a bit to help and learn new things. Smile, it will brighten a gloomy day!

Comment by animus on July 29, 2009 at 6:21pm

This site has been very helpful to me.
http://www.learner.org/resources/series49.html?pop=yes&pid=393#
It's a great resource for teachers, home-schooling or parents.

Comment by Harold Shuckhart on December 8, 2009 at 6:36pm

As a writer for Examiner.com, I subscribe to a variety of email lists including news releases from Liberty Counsel, an off-shoot of Jerry Falwell's Liberty University. Recently, they put out a release about a elementary principal in Oregon who was not allowing an evergreen tree to be used as a seasonal decoration in her school. You can read the article from the Oregon newspaper here: I posted a comment in support of the principal on that site.

It was interesting that the newspaper was more concerned about the SALES of evergreens rather than any religious controversy.

When I started teaching in Minnesota in the 60s, we had trees, carolers, and the principal reading from Luke over the PA system before dismissing the students a couple of minutes early for "Christmas Vacation". Even then, I knew of Jewish students in the school of 2400, and I wondered how they felt. At the time, I did not have the courage to stand up for anyone, including myself, over the issue.

Times change. After several years of teaching, when we had a 'jock' from the Fellowship of Christian Athletes speak to the entire school and talking about how much Jesus helped him on the field, I and two Jewish teachers got up and walked out. Nothing was said about our abandoning our supervisory roles during the assembly.

When I moved to a new school district in 2000, the opening day of teacher's workshop featured a singing group from Russia. Many of their songs were religious in nature. I spoke to my new principal afterwards and told her I thought the songs were inappropriate considering that there may be many teachers who were not Christian. She agreed with me and told me that the Superintendent had instructed the planning group to 'be more careful' in the future.

Recently, when I was back at that school subbing, I was pleased to see posters announcing meetings for a 'gay/lesbian/straight/ alliance'. I am still waiting for the posters for the 'atheist/agnostic/skeptical club'.

Comment by Harold Shuckhart on December 8, 2009 at 6:43pm

I don't understand why this site is so unfriendly to html. I included links in my post, using the link icon, but they just don't show up in the text. Here they are, cleverly disguised: http://bit(dot)ly/no-tree and http://bit(dot)ly/Harolds-articles. If you want to unmask the urls, replace the '(dot)' with '.'

Comment by Maria Aladren on January 10, 2010 at 7:17pm

Theatre teacher here at a Performing Arts Conservatory.
So far, I've been lucky. I think everyone, from teachers to staff to students, is aware I'm an atheist--courtesy of the fact my son is also in the program.
So far, I get a lot of questions from adults and some from students which I just return as opportunities to use their brain.
These holidays I got a lot of "Happy Atheistmas" cards....kind of made my day.

Comment by Deanna on February 21, 2010 at 4:17am

Hello! History/Social Studies teacher from NZ here - having to be very PC about my non-belief in front of students can be difficult...

Comment by Chris Highland on April 11, 2010 at 7:02pm

Education is critically important for the next steps beyond religion and faith. I teach at a university with Catholic roots and a seminary with Pagan roots. My social work has been with people of all faiths and no faiths cooperating to do "the right thing." To me, the education begins and ends with people setting aside their beliefs to learn from each other and the great classroom of Nature. This is why I draw sips of wisdom from Muir, Burroughs and others to keep up the strength in the face of so much ignorance, irrationality and fear. Thanks for the group.

Comment by Zhi Le on May 25, 2010 at 4:56am

Hi Everyone! New here and quite new to the education scene in Hong Kong. Been quite bothered by how loopy Christian schools can be in HK (they are the majority here, and the most powerful ones) when it comes to religion and brainwashing kids with those noxious fairy tales. Hope to gain some words of wisdoms from folks like you : )

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