Friday, June 20, 2008 - 9:26 pm
Read all about it in the Columbus Dispatch.
Saturday, June 21, 2008 - 1:10 pm
"MOUNT VERNON, Ohio -- Supporters of John Freshwater stood in a parking lot yesterday asking God to inspire the school board to make the right decision.
Three hours later, the board announced that it intends to fire Freshwater, an eighth-grade science teacher."
I guess God was busy doing something else at the moment.
Broadway and Herb should invite him to Oregon to apply for a job teaching at the Followers Of Christ school. He'd be perfect, unless the burned-in cross gets infected.
Saturday, June 21, 2008 - 1:43 pm
Well, he's not a science teacher. It's really that simple.
He should be canned.
Saturday, June 21, 2008 - 1:58 pm
quote:"Do you think there are other teachers in the public classroom that are trying to drive their opinions in the classroom?" Daubenmire asked. "I don't care who you are. You cannot separate your value system from your teaching."
Oh yes you can. This is a huge issue for me. I'm actually pretty nasty about it too.
The body of scientific understanding is derived from the few core truths we possess. Lots of it is not known absolutely true, but it is all consistent. Those bits, not yet integrated with the accepted and known body of understanding are peer reviewed as needed to get that done.
All of that shares nothing with matters of faith.
This nut-bag was trying to leverage his position of authority to influence kids and that's an abuse of them of the highest order.
I would beat the guy silly for that, if I got hold of him. Just losing his job should be considered a bonus.
It's not anti-faith, but failure to respect our freedom as living, sentient people to make our own intellectual choices in this life. This is no different than the kid sports coach forming sexual relationships with kids, for example.
In both cases, the implied trust that comes with a younger person looking up to an older one is violated and the child perverted for somebody's own self-serving needs.
Those needs might be affirmation, which is true in this case, gratification, which would be true in the coach case, and other abuses of power cases between kids and trusted adults.
Having been through some of that as a kid, and taking a LONG time in my 20's to sort it out, I simply cannot express what a foul crime this is.
And again, that's not a slam on God, or faith in general. It's a direct statement as to the quality of asshole, dominionist, Nut-Bag this clown is.
We have Sunday School for this, youth outreach, parents, and other people and places where spiritual things can be explored. They should be explored and everybody should make their choices, secure in the knowledge that:
1. they are completely free to make them as they see fit,
2. said choices are informed ones, entered into eyes wide open,
3. they will not be discriminated against for said choices.
This asshole branded kids!
Know what that is! It's not only mental abuse, but physical abuse and the real warped element is that when that child begins to sort all of that out, all they have to do for the rest of their life is look down at their arm to be reminded of the whole thing.
His excuse?
"well others are doing it, so what's the big deal?"
Asshole.
Really, nobody should be doing it, and it's on every one of us to push back hard, really hard, when we see it happen.
Our kids are our future. We will have to live in the world they realize when we are old, reaping what we sow.
Saturday, June 21, 2008 - 9:59 pm
>>I guess God was busy doing something else at the moment
Believe me God knows about this very misguided teacher that has a message of truth but his delivery system stinks. It's almost impossible to get an intellegent design creationist message in the public school system anymore. He should have gone underground or flown under the radar...been more stealth about his message/agenda and then maybe accepted more.
Saturday, June 21, 2008 - 10:06 pm
God is made up. Just like Santa Clause.
And the Easter Bunny.
And Global Warming.
Saturday, June 21, 2008 - 10:14 pm
>>God is made up
just like the earth, moon, planets, and stars in the universe...along with you as a human being.
Saturday, June 21, 2008 - 10:22 pm
I'm sorry, but we don't need that message in the public schools.
That's what church and family are for.
Anybody scarring kids, and that's literally in this case, does not carry a message of truth. That's just a hosed up person that really needs some serious attention, ideally behind bars, or in the back alley, if that's what it takes.
I do support one exception and that is religious studies class, where many different religions, their structure, key messages, people and history are compared and contrasted for the students consideration. IMHO, this would be robust education that would go a long way toward giving young people the tools they need to self-identify and understand one another.
Going stealth and having a religious agenda in the classroom is an abuse of the taxpayer dollars and of that position of trusted authority.
What I don't get is why parents don't get more upset about that. Truth is, if we want our kids to have religious values, it is our job as parents to cultivate those.
Of course, they could reject them, but that's their choice.
Having the public schools perform this task is not in our best interests. There are a lot of religions and a lot of values. Do we really want others doing that with our kids?
I sure don't. That's my job.
You do know there are multiple theories of Intelligent Design, don't you?
Here's an interesting and perhaps sobering data point: This bounty remains unclaimed!
http://www.boingboing.net/2005/08/19/boing-boings-250000-.html
Can you prove Jesus is not the son of the Spagetti Monster? You do have the truth right?
Well, what are you waiting for! There is a quarter million waiting to be collected.
Just think of all the good work that could be done with that money.
Then there is this too:
http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/textbookdisclaimers/wackononsense.pdf
My point here is that we don't know that clown had a message of truth. We don't know that for anybody trying this crap in the classroom.
That's why we don't do it. We go to church for that, and we tell each other stories.
Sunday, June 22, 2008 - 2:39 pm
"God is made up. Just like Santa Clause.
And the Easter Bunny.
And Global Warming."
THE EASTER BUNNY!!! ?? Ah man my day in ruined.
