7th-grader says teacher FORCED students to deny God is real or get a FAILING GRADE

[Jefferson]

I'll bet this teacher first made sure there were no Muslim students in the class.

 

[Jose Fly]

Here's the response from the school....

"Yesterday, October 26, at the end of the school day, two West Memorial Junior High parents contacted the school's principal to share their concern over a classroom activity that they felt questioned students' religious beliefs. The school principal immediately responded to the parents by informing them that she would investigate and meet with the teacher the following morning. At the conclusion of the investigation today, the principal determined that the classroom activity included an item that was unnecessary for achieving the instructional standard. The activity, which was intended to encourage critical thinking skills and dialogue by engaging students in an exercise wherein they identified statements as fact, opinion, or common assertion was not intended to question or challenge any student's religious beliefs as reported by some media outlets.

The teacher is distraught by this incident, as some commentary has gone as far as to vilify her without knowing her, her Christian faith, or the context of the classroom activity. Still, this does not excuse the fact that this ungraded activity was ill-conceived and because of that, its intent had been misconstrued. As a result, the activity will no longer be used by the school, and appropriate personnel action will be taken. The school regrets any misconceptions that may have resulted from this teacher-developed classroom activity and assures its school community that the religious beliefs of all students and staff are welcomed and valued at Memorial Junior High."

Problem identified and fixed. :up:

 

[Jefferson]

Problem identified and fixed. :up:

In other words, that little girl just gave that school an attitude adjustment.

 

[Quetzal]

In other words, that little girl just gave that school an attitude adjustment.

Pretty much.

 

[Angel4Truth]

This is on the schools webpage now:

West Memorial Junior High

FAQs Regarding 7th grade Classroom Activity

West Memorial Junior High administration understands the public's interest in a matter concerning a seventh grade activity that has received media attention. Below is information regarding that incident, along with FAQs that were developed as a result of the campus investigation.

On October 26, at the end of the school day, two West Memorial Junior High parents contacted the school's principal to share their concern over a classroom activity that they felt questioned students' religious beliefs. The school principal immediately responded to the parents by informing them that she would investigate and meet with the teacher the following morning. At the conclusion of the investigation on October 27, the principal determined that the classroom activity included an item that was unnecessary for achieving the instructional standard. The activity, which was designed to encourage critical thinking skills and dialogue by engaging students in an exercise wherein they identified statements as fact, opinion, or commonplace assertion was not intended to question or challenge any student's religious beliefs as reported by some media outlets.

The teacher is distraught by this incident, as some commentary has gone as far as to vilify her without knowing her, her Christian faith, or the context of the classroom activity. Still, this does not excuse the fact that this ungraded activity was ill-conceived and because of that, its intent had been misconstrued.As a result, the activity will no longer be used by the school, and appropriate personnel action will be taken. The school regrets any misconceptions that may have resulted from this teacher-developed classroom activity and assures its school community that the religious beliefs of all students and staff are welcomed and valued at West Memorial Junior High.

 

[Jose Fly]

So we all agree what the teacher did was inappropriate, correct?

 

[musterion]

A real Christian teacher might have taken the devil's advocate position on this, just for the sake of teaching critical thinking and argumentation (if not to demonstrate...stealthily, perhaps...the kind of opposition Christians have always faced from unbelievers). But if I took that route, I'd have prefaced it by telling the students I do 100% believe the God of the Bible and His Christ so they'd understand exactly what my devil's advocate position is intended to accomplish. That still probably wouldn't have removed all risk of this very situation happening but could have reduced the likelihood. If the district's PR flak is to be believed, that sounds like what the teacher intended, but was too clumsy and sloppy to pull off.

 

[musterion]

I'll bet this teacher first made sure there were no Muslim students in the class.

That would have made for an interesting wrench in the case. The God Who Is, is supposed to be Allah and vice versa. But if it's a Christian who is offended, an investigation takes place to find out if there's any substance to the allegations. If a Muslim were offended because she'd said Allah does not exist - supposedly the same deity! - the teacher no doubt would have been quietly suspended if not fired. Cognitive dissonance abounds.

 

[Traditio]

The girl's discourse in the video is just as cringeworthy as the classroom exercise and the conduct of the teacher. It all gives us grave cause for deep despair in democracy and the intellectual capacities of the common populus.

"Is the proposition 'God exists' myth, fact or opinion?" "It's a fact." "False, it's a myth!" "But, but, the Bible!" :doh:

The classroom exercise, of course, is symptomatic of the common trend in American education and American society in general:

Natural science and the social sciences give us facts. What are facts are what are empirically verifiable.
Everything else, especially appertaining to morality, are opinions.
Popular opinions, especially appertaining to religion, and most especially those with a longstanding historical basis, are myths.

Of course, this is wrong. It involves a fundmental confusion of ontology (what is) and epistemology (what we know). Not all facts are known. It is possible to have an opinion, or even be ignorant, of a fact. It is a fact that some given individual or individuals currently alive currently have the largest nose or noses on the planet (among those human beings who are currently alive). Who are they? Don't know.

Furthermore, it excludes a priori the possibility of our coming to an awareness of facts other than by means of empirical observation.

Is it a fact that all facts are empirically verified?

But hey, it's good for social liberalism and it's good for atheism (never mind that social liberals and atheists have their own set of "facts" which are not empirically verified, their own quasi-religious dogmas).

 

[Nazaroo]

Bullying children is what schoolteachers are all about.

 

[aikido7]

I went to a high school in Utah, smack dab in the den of satanic powers=Among the Mormons.

My track coach has us all run the 100-year-dash or whatever, and give A's to those who finished first, C's to those who just finished and F's to those who struggled in last.

Authoritarian and obedience-based teachers rule their classes with patriarchal verve and decide their own rules. And like abused children, the students do what he says. Or else.

 

[aikido7]

Bullying children is what schoolteachers are all about.

I agree. Or parents, either.

 

[aikido7]

I'll bet this teacher first made sure there were no Muslim students in the class.

Tyrannical nations and tyrannical people are bound by their dictatorial fascism to get rid of any diversity present in their little kingdoms.

Like the Nazis who burned books, they are dead set on doing away with any different ideas.

 

[musterion]

The girl's discourse in the video is just as cringeworthy as the classroom exercise and the conduct of the teacher. It all gives us grave cause for deep despair in democracy and the intellectual capacities of the common populus.

"Is the proposition 'God exists' myth, fact or opinion?" "It's a fact." "False, it's a myth!" "But, but, the Bible!" :doh:

You sound Catholic.

 

[Traditio]

You sound Catholic.

It's just bad reasoning, man. "Can you prove that God is other than a myth?" "Well, sure, it says so in this apparent book of myths and stories." To which the answer is:

I say "apparent" because that's what the Bible looks like to nonbelievers. In order to believe that the Bible is anything other than a book of myths and stories, you already have to have faith (incidentally, a devastating consideration against sola scriptura). If I don't have faith, and even more so if I don't believe in God at all, I am going to hold the Bible as having about the same authority and credibility as Mother Goose or the stories collected by the Brothers Grimm.

Using the Bible as an argument for anything is simply out of place in secular discourse.

 

[Nick M]

I'll bet this teacher first made sure there were no Muslim students in the class.

What a pickle for the heathen to be in. They want jihadists to win so bad against liberty, they don't realize they will get their head cut off with a dull knife too.

 

[musterion]

It's just bad reasoning, man.

Not according to God's Word, it isn't.

 

[Traditio]

Not according to God's Word, it isn't.

If the Bible says that you should believe in God's existence because the Bible says so, then the Bible is not God's word. It's right up there with Mother Goose and the fables of the Brothers Grimm.

Thankfully, the Bible says no such thing. When the existence of God is called into question, the books of the Bible (the Bible, after all, is not a single book or a single thing) point, not to themselves, but to the created order as a sign of God's creative power. Consider Romans 1:20.

Again, when the morality of the Bible is called into question, it does not appeal to its own authority, but tells us to gaze inwards into our own consciences and consider the precepts of the Natural Law. Consider Romans 2:14-15.

Protestant fideism is, ironically enough, contrary to the teachings of the scriptures.

The Bible is not fideistic. It exhorts us to philosophy.

 

[musterion]

If the Bible says that you should believe in God's existence because the Bible says so, then the Bible is not God's word. It's right up there with Mother Goose and the fables of the Brothers Grimm. Thankfully, the Bible says no such thing.

Spoken like a true Catholic: disparage God's Word while pretending to uphold it with horrendously bad logic.

Q. How do we know that the dual witness of creation and conscience are witnesses to the God of the Bible?

A. Only because the Bible tells us they are.

So yes, the written Word of God DOES say we should believe in God's existence because IT tells us that both the implanted Word of God and the creation from the Word of God tell us we should.

Genesis 1:1. Isaiah 8:20. Acts 17:11 are posted to trump the human philosophy you extol down below.

When the existence of God is called into question, the books of the Bible point, not to themselves, but to the created order as a sign of God's creative power. Consider Romans 1:20.

Again, we know WHICH God did all this only because His Word tells us why we know what we know from creation and conscience.

Again, when the morality of the Bible is called into question, it does not appeal to its own authority, but tells us to gaze inwards into our own consciences and consider the precepts of the Natural Law. Consider Romans 2:14-15.

Not natural law; atheists lay claim all the time to some vague "natural law" that just somehow accidentally happened. The law in the heart is the Law of God, or if you prefer, the Law of nature's God.

Protestant fideism is, ironically enough, contrary to the teachings of the scriptures.

Too bad you won't get a chance to tell Him that someday. Your mouth will be shut.

The Bible is not fideistic. It exhorts us to philosophy.

When push comes to shove for a Catholic (and for many prots, evangelicals, etc), philosophy trumps the Bible every time. Your response here is proof.

 

[Angel4Truth]

Update to this:

Texas School District Partially Backs Teacher in Controversy Over ‘God’ Question

KATY, Texas — Following an investigation over student complaints, a school district in Texas is partially backing a reading teacher whose controversial assignment asked students to mark the existence of God as only a “commonplace assertion,” rather than a fact.

As previously reported, Jordan Wooley, a seventh grade student at West Memorial Junior High School in Katy, told her school board last Monday that the assignment forced students to essentially state that there is no proof that God is real.

“Today I was given an assignment in school that questioned my faith and told me that God was not real,” she said. “Our teacher had started off saying that the assignment had been giving problems all day. We were asked to take a poll to say whether God is fact, opinion or a myth and she told anyone who said fact or opinion was wrong and God was only a myth.”

The assignment provided several statements about various subjects, and asked students to classify them as either a factual claim, a commonplace assertion or an opinion. The statement at issue simply said, “There is a God.”

Students were told that the correct answer is “commonplace assertion,” which is a “statement many people assume to be true but which may or may not be true.”

“When I tried to argue [in favor of God’s existence], she told me to prove it,” Wooley said.

Wooley explained that one of her friends, who went home crying, wrote on her paper that God was fact, but her answer was marked as being incorrect.

“She turned in her paper, and she had still put that God was a fact and to be true, and my teacher crossed the answer out several times to tell her it was completely wrong,” she said.

The Katy Independent School District investigated the matter, and soon released a statement declaring that the particular statement at issue was “unnecessary for achieving the instructional standard.” However, it asserted that the teacher herself is a Christian, and that the assignment has been misunderstood.

“The teacher is distraught by this incident, as some commentary has gone as far as to vilify her without knowing her, her Christian faith, or the context of the classroom activity,” it wrote. “Still, this does not excuse the fact that this ungraded activity was ill-conceived and because of that, its intent had been misconstrued.”

On Wednesday, Superintendent Alton Frailey held a press conference, during which time he repeated the district’s findings that the statement was unnecessary to the lesson and praised Wooley’s courage, but in part defended the teacher.

“I believe the response [from the teacher] was, ‘Prove your point. Well, I think this. Well, you think that,’” he said, stating that the discussion was about how people have different beliefs about the existence of God. “It was not a hostile thing, I don’t believe.”

“Nothing that the principal has found supports the assertions that the teacher deliberately threatened [students], or tried to force them to deny God,” Frailey stated. “In the investigation those assertions were not corroborated by the other students. Was the activity graded? It was not graded. Was it 40 percent of their grade? Were the students told they had to deny God? No one corroborated that at all.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says that he supports Wooley and has invited her to the governor’s mansion.

“I’m proud of this 7th grader’s unyielding commitment to God. She’s Texas tough. #IStandWithJordan,” he Tweeted on Tuesday.

“Jordan’s faith is continually being tested. She feels like she’s being made to be a liar when all that she did was tell the truth,” Wooley’s mother Chantal wrote on Facebook Thursday. “She was harassed at school, she was flipped off in the hallway, she was cursed at and blamed for this situation that her teacher and administration has created.

But, Wooley said, “She has chosen to forgive them and pray for them.”