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Saturday, February 9, 2013

From the Top, Down

My daughter's not herself today. Very strange. I took her aside and inquired. Here's what I learned.

She has a teacher at the high school that teaches her science. Science, mind you, but frequently, it turns into a religion class. Not just any religion class. It turns into bash Mormonism class. Interesting! What does that have to do with science?

There is quite a large LDS community that attends my kids' high school. I wonder how many others are in his classes and have heard him say similar things as he's said to my daughter.

I shared with my daughter the litmus test given in the scriptures: "By their works ye shall know them" and asked her about a few people we know. Are their works good, or are their works evil? She shared that they were good. I asked about this teacher and she, with as much venom as she could muster, tears streaming down her face, said that she couldn't stand him. I asked her who she wanted to spend her time and effort on. Whom did she want to follow?

So, let's look a bit at discrimination, shall we? Let me venture to say that we, many of us, who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, are not strangers to it. It happens to us, and we endure it. We attempt to turn the other cheek, but what makes this any more okay than what happens to other groups? Why is bullying from the top, down okay?

5 comments:

Debra/Mom said...

Julie, This is one of those times I would be the mother bear and make some complaints. I didn't complain a lot when my children were in school (generally didn't need to), but when I did, they remembered me.
Do you need back up? I will totally back you up!
Hugs to you! You are an awesome mom and I'm glad that she shared that with you.

Julia Shinkle said...

Poor sweetie! I'm so glad she talked to you about it. What on earth! I would complain for sure.
That just stinks! I'm so sad that he is making her feel that way....

Unknown said...

If this is the teacher I'm thinking of, he's been warned previously several times by school authorities to stop slandering Mormons. It sounds like it's time to alert said authorities that he's gone off the rails again.

John said...

Very well handled. Are you going to talk to the principle?

vaxhacker said...

Of course, there's no excuse for him to stand there as a representative of the school/county/state and slander any group, especially when his own students are the targets. That's abusive of his position of power over them, as well as spreading hate or at least disdain toward the target group in the eyes of the other students.

Having said that, however, stepping back from that a moment, there shouldn't really even be any reason for him, as a science teacher, to target Mormons. Mormonism is pretty pro-science as Christian religious groups go. (It's worth noting that the church remains neutral on most matters of science, making it a point to stick to spiritual matters and leave science to science. Whereas many other groups I've encountered actively fight against science or blindly hold to a particular interpretation of scripture, insisting that any evidence to the contrary (of their interpretation, that is) must be false without even asking if they misinterpreted scripture or overextended what it was saying. Mormonism doesn't do this (although some Mormons do personally).

So... both from a fairness/professionalism level as well as a factual one... he seems out of touch or just harboring a grudge.

I'd be interested to know what he has a problem with.

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