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?

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I was reading a magazine earlier today and came across a small ad for Green Hour.  As a new mother with a technologically addicted lifestyle I’ve often wondered how I will keep my son from becoming a net potato.  I think this site has some wonderful things to offer.  It was created by the National Wildlife Federation which is a fantastic group.  I didn’t realize it as a child but they produced my absolute favorite reading early reading materials, Ranger Rick and Your Big Backyard.  I see they also now have a magazine called Animal Baby.  I will definitely be buying these for my son as he gets older.  Before I go any further I suppose I should tell you, you can check out Green Hour here.

Back to the Green Hour website.  They talk about how it has become increasingly difficult to unplug our kids even though most of us had unplugged childhoods.  This resonated with me right away. 

The Discovery Journal & Activities page is nothing short of amazing!  It includes a little story about the current activity along with book recommendations, how to make or perform the activity, safety information,  a parent’s guide and several other nice resources.  The activities are updated roughly once a week.

Green Hour Blog is written by different people and is updated randomly but it has some great ideas and information for parents.

Community Corner There is a place to meet and chat with like minded individuals.

I really love that there is a website out there that can help me bring my child and myself back in tune with nature.  What did you think about this site?  Are there other Green sites that you particularly like??

I’ve said before that I wish there were national standards and that the education system in America was more streamlined and universal.  Well it looks like we might be taking the first baby steps in that direction.  This article talk about a possible new national mandate that would require specific graduation tracking processes.  This would primarily affect graduation statistics, however, once the states are able to compare themselves to one another more accurately I think they will want to be able to compare apples to apples.  Right now we are comparing apples to oranges and bananas and kiwi and grapes and mangos and who knows how many other kinds of fruit.  I really hope this process of comparing graduation statistics is the first step in making our country more competitive educationally.

What do you think about this proposal?  Do you agree with me that each state should have similar standards?  Do you think the government should get out of the education business altogether?

This video is a song that Pink sings for President Bush but I really think it is applicable to all political leaders.  It even talks about No Child Left Behind, although not strictly in terms of education. 

Even though I know that as the leader of a country (any country not just America) you must make difficult decision and it must be impossible to please all of the people all of the time.  BUT I swear it seems like politicians (and again I’m pointing my finger at politicians in general and not just President Bush) have no common sense.  I sometimes wonder if to be a politician you have to be disassociated from reality.  I’ve heard the politicians from this country talking about sympathizing with the average American when their lifestyles clearly indicate know little to nothing of what life is like for the majority of Americans. 

I got all ranty and a bit off topic so I’ll stop and save my I’m disappointed in the government speech for later. 

Tell me if you liked the video and if you did or didn’t why!  I think it is a beautiful song with a lot of great points, and I hope you enjoyed it.

I just wanted to let everyone know that next week I will be changing the direction of the blog a bit to focus a bit more on education and stimulating those brain cells and a little less on emotional and mental health.  The direction I see the blog going is as follows:

• Weekly trivia podcast with nifty history, science, literature, and other educational topics.
• Brain teasers, always fun in my opinion.
• Mental Acuity and stimulation news
• I’ve become somewhat addicted to the personality tests so I’m going to keep them, but they will probably become a bit more serious :o)
• Random reviews of sites that will teach you new things.  One of the best ways to keep your mind stimulated is to keep learning.

I’m really looking forward to this new path but if you loved the old path, don’t worry!  I’ll still throw in some of the emotional and mental health information and an occasional mediation video :) 

What do you think about my plan?  Is there anything you would like to see added or something from the old style you really want me to keep?