Separation of Church and State
This article talks about a teacher who has been fired for reportedly preaching to his class and burning the image of a cross into student’s arms. He taught for twenty-one years in that district and during that time taught creationism in his science class and refused to remove his Bible. Here is another version. How the teacher is portrayed is totally different depending on which article you read.
But let’s look at the facts. Much of what he did is protected by his first amendment rights. However, should a teacher really let his or her beliefs influence his/her teaching? I always felt that my religious beliefs had no place in a classroom. Why? Because of that little separation of church and state thing. Pesky as it may be it isn’t my place to teach children about my religious beliefs. Are my beliefs right? Of course. Should everyone learn about them and agree with me? Darn skippy. Does that mean I should shout it in the classroom or demonstrate my beliefs with abandon…not if I work for the government. The government doesn’t run schools you say? Yeah, right. We may not be an official branch of the government but as schools are currently structured it might as well be the fourth branch.
No matter which article you read you will see at least a bit of sympathy for the man because his beliefs are Christian. Do you think there would be any sympathy at all if the man was Muslim and had the Koran on his desk? Or if he had been Hindu and had the Bhagavadgiitaa out on display? My guess is everyone would be screaming at the top of their lungs about the separation of church and state in those cases and people wouldn’t be upset at all if a man of one of those faiths was canned for preaching.
So here are my questions. Do you think the man should have been fired? Do you think the separation of church and state is getting fuzzy? Do you think educators should be allowed to interject their beliefs into their curriculum?
What a great post Robin! I’ll try and briefly (haha!) give you my thoughts on the matter.
Here is what I believe in…. God, the planet, nature, and the idea that there is a whole bunch about all the above that I will never know or understand. I think the Bible is an extraordinary book of guidelines to live a good, joyful, and loving life. I don’t believe it was meant to be taken literally, and if it was, I believe there is a lot of room for error, for just as there are people both good and bad fudging facts today that will be read in the future, I am sure that fudging to get the desired result existed then, as well. I also believe that there is a possibility I am wrong about all of that.
SO! Now you know where I am coming from.
One kid complained which really conjures up an image of a witch hunt to me. I don’t think it is the teacher’s place to preach his beliefs in class. But I DO 100% believe that he has every right to have his Bible on his desk. A Bible is a personal and important thing to people and its presence is important and certainly acceptable. If the presence of the Bible instigates a question from a student, then it is the teacher’s obligation, right, and privelage to answer as the Christian he is. Just as if a student asked about any other less controversial matter.
It is hard to believe this guy was really BRANDING his students if one kid complained and the rest of the student body and their families is supporting him. In Biology class our teachers poked us with needles and made us bleed on slides. I don’t see much difference between that and the scientific tool as I understood it. Even if it was a cross… big deal. It is a common symbol. Should he have tried drawing a star or a heart, for goodness sake?
So! In summary. He should not set out to preach but if something legitimately comes up on the topic of religion, he should be free to give “his opinion”. He should absolutely have a Bible on his desk if he chooses. And maybe if he is planning on doing an experiment that involves singeing his student’s skin he should send home a waiver to be signed and returned.
The rest I would categorize as hysteria.
To answer the questions. This man, If he was fired for the simple act of Branding, the Ohio school board was well with it’s rights to do exactly as it did. Only if it was because of branding a cross would you enter the murky area of Separation of Church and state. To make a judgement on that I would need ALL the facts. As in what were the particular complaints that were dealt with over that 11 year period spoken about in the first article.
The actual separation of church and state only really came to pass, in the sense of keeping prayer and religion out of the classroom, in 1962 in the case Engel Vs. Vitale that said it was unconstitutional to have prayer in school. before that it was something dealt with more on a federal level. The first case to deal with anything close to this on a state level was in 1947, and that had to do with busing school kids from a catholic school, if i remember correctly, on school buses owned by the state.
I personally don’t think there should be any use of any beliefs system in school, but there has been a slow eroding of the rights and liberties of the individual for a great many years. It would not surprise me if they managed to get it there using a free speech, first amendment argument.
I would add more, but I’ve already written over 250 words here.
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To me it sounds like both of you think that religious beliefs should be left out of the classroom and I agree. I am all kinds of behind the first amendment and think that people should have the freedom to express their beliefs fully no matter what those beliefs are but I suppose what this news article made me question was the liklihood that a nonChristian view point would have been handled very differently in the media.