If the school asked the kids what their family tradition was on our national holiday (which is straight comedy in and of itself) that celebrates the birth of Christ for the subject to not include the bible, well they're dumb as a bag of hammers and that is the epitome of hypocrisy if you ask me.

I'll go on another rant about it as a matter of fact. You want separation of church and state, then repeal the holiday as nationally recognized. Just wipe that off the calendars and make it just another day. No holiday pay, just work as usual because we can't be having this religious holiday (and those of you who want to dispute that can do it, but would be purely argumentative considering what the holiday was founded on and recognized for) and public institutions can't be taking hiatus from business as usual because of this blatant broach of church and state. Government offices and officials all need to report for work as usual.

 

But that won't happen because we won't separate our government from such a commercialized economic boon because it's vitally important for the prosperity of many business entities. So, if you want to separate them, by God, do it up right. Wipe the holiday off the books and erase the hypocrisy altogether.

I will give the teacher a complete break, by policy she did the right thing.

 

Here is what gets me (and many others) how about all the bible thumpers thump their bibles at home and in church and leave the public schools out of it. Why do people like this feel entitled to shove it down other people's throat.

 

I'm assuming that you've seen enough of my posts to know that I'm far from being a bible thumper, so I'm guessing that you weren't including me in that category. When it comes to "thumpers" I'm right there with you.

 

With that said, I still think it's a little nutty to have a Christmas assignment such as the one mentioned here and not allow for the little girl to do her thing. Where was the foresight ahead of the game from the teacher when it's pretty obvious that someone might cover what the kid covered when addressing Christmas? If she didn't anticipate that then she's nuts, and if she didn't want those things discussed she shouldn't have had the assignment.

 

Humanity's celebration of Christmas would not even exist if not for the original reason Christmas is celebrated in the first place.

 

Christmas might now mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people and that's cool, but anyone celebrating it for reasons other than the original reason have essentially made up a different holiday that perhaps should just be called Festivus or something. The Christmas holiday has the name "Christ" in it, hence the name. Sorta like you would expect that beer would be served at a BeerFest.

 

Personally, I'm not even a big proponent for religion, but I'm not terribly against it either as I'm cool with people having the freedom to believe whatever they want to. I'm not too keen on people emphatically forcing it on others while not having the sense to know that they're being subjective. That's pretty annoying.

 

In this particular situation with this little girl, it's just stupid all over the place with the only one not being stupid being the little girl. It's about as dumb as when nuns used to hit people's hands with rulers to force them to write with their right hand. My mother had her left hand tied up years ago by nuns to force her to write with her right hand. This stuff truly used to happen and is not a made up myth.

 

We've come a long way as a society ... or have we?

I will give the teacher a complete break' date=' by policy she did the right thing. Here is what gets me (and many others) how about all the bible thumpers thump their bibles at home and in church and leave the public schools out of it. Why do people like this feel entitled to shove it down other people's throat.[/quote']

 

No one was shoving anything down anyone's throat here. She was asked a question about CHRISTMAS...right? She just answered a question.

I'll go on another rant about it as a matter of fact. You want separation of church and state, then repeal the holiday as nationally recognized. Just wipe that off the calendars and make it just another day. No holiday pay, just work as usual because we can't be having this religious holiday (and those of you who want to dispute that can do it, but would be purely argumentative considering what the holiday was founded on and recognized for) and public institutions can't be taking hiatus from business as usual because of this blatant broach of church and state. Government offices and officials all need to report for work as usual.

 

But that won't happen because we won't separate our government from such a commercialized economic boon because it's vitally important for the prosperity of many business entities. So, if you want to separate them, by God, do it up right. Wipe the holiday off the books and erase the hypocrisy altogether.

 

 

I've fostered a similar argument but I could put up a rebuttal saying it's not a conflict because regardless of what the origin was we as a society celebrate the "holiday" aspect of it moreso than the Christian aspect of it.

While I don't think the girl's answer constitutes "shoving it down the throat" I DO think Guru's sentiments are shared by a lot of people including Christians and is exactly why you can't have a public school endorsing a religion. Again, I don't see any endorsement in this example. I speak generally.

I will give the teacher a complete break, by policy she did the right thing.

 

Here is what gets me (and many others) how about all the bible thumpers thump their bibles at home and in church and leave the public schools out of it. Why do people like this feel entitled to shove it down other people's throat.

 

Who's shoving anything down anyone's throat in this situation? Teacher gave an assignment about Christmas and a 1st grader gave her response. Don't ask a question about a religious holiday without expecting a religious answer. Our society is really screwed up!!

Who's shoving anything down anyone's throat in this situation? Teacher gave an assignment about Christmas and a 1st grader gave her response. Don't ask a question about a religious holiday without expecting a religious answer. Our society is really screwed up!!

 

Exactly. You give an assignment about a Christian holiday and your student gives you a relevant answer....and you're surprised?

As long as the student engages in the discussion isnt it OK, as long as it isnt teacher led and one sided.

 

A little 6yr girl may suffer problems after this ordeal. Make her question her parents and church belief now, just what our society wants I guess.

I've fostered a similar argument but I could put up a rebuttal saying it's not a conflict because regardless of what the origin was we as a society celebrate the "holiday" aspect of it moreso than the Christian aspect of it.

I'd argue that it wasn't made a national holiday because of Santa Claus, which brings my argument back to "don't ask the question then limit the answer".

Typically with controversial topics I try to be as objective as possible when presenting my case.

 

With this one, as seen in my other posts on the matter, that although I tried to be as concrete as possible, I could only muster within my final assessment a tone that could probably much be received as "subjective" when finalizing it with a judgement of "downright stupid"

 

I realize that this doesn't sound too scientific or objective, but with the topic itself being in the arena of (pardon again the subjective tone) "downright stupid", I truly can't see where I could pay it any other serious analysis than just "downright stupid".

 

Sure that would suggest that it opens holes that don't hold water, but just as the recent topic of "Is Santa White?" was ridiculous, in many ways so is this, lending itself to not much more than subjectivity in assessing it.

 

Sometimes in life you just have to have the sight to understand when rules just don't apply, and leave it be and move on. It's sorta like a 100 year old man who can't hold his bladder and has relieved himself in an emergency situation to have an officer come up an arrest him for pubic indecency. Get over it and let it be.

 

I once witnessed at a high school game an old guy who had just had surgery fudge certain facility rules by avoiding steps to leave the premises only to have a young twenty something "rent-a-pig" get in his grill and scream like crazy at him saying, "Are you questioning my authority?" Yes kid, he was because your authority was just downright misguided and stupid.

I hope they ask her what her family traditions are for Easter, then they can nix her speech because she doesn't give a diatribe about a rabbit and eggs and jellybeans.

I've fostered a similar argument but I could put up a rebuttal saying it's not a conflict because regardless of what the origin was we as a society celebrate the "holiday" aspect of it moreso than the Christian aspect of it.

You may be correct but 78% of Americans identify themselves as Christians, less than 5% follow another religion and around 4% are atheist/agnostic. 12% identify with nothing in particular and the rest are unaffiliated or don't know. So while some may only celebrate the holiday I would surmise many more do celebrate Christian aspect of it.

While I don't think the girl's answer constitutes "shoving it down the throat" I DO think Guru's sentiments are shared by a lot of people including Christians and is exactly why you can't have a public school endorsing a religion. Again, I don't see any endorsement in this example. I speak generally.

Agreed, especially the bolded.

I will give the teacher a complete break, by policy she did the right thing.

 

Here is what gets me (and many others) how about all the bible thumpers thump their bibles at home and in church and leave the public schools out of it. Why do people like this feel entitled to shove it down other people's throat.

 

Bible Thumpers drive me crazy too, but when an assignment is given to discuss a family Christmas tradition, how is someone mentioning something religious "shoving it down other people's throat"?

 

You don't really believe that, do you? You're surely just trying to generate discussion, right?