Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Swap God for a janitor? Rot in a jar of dog paws...

Why can't the religious kooks leave God out of our public school system? If you want to teach your kid about school, pay the money, and send them to a private school. If you can't afford a private school, teach your kids at home. You can teach them whatever you want, that way. Just keep your God away from the rest of the children, before somebody gets hurt.

Here's the quote of the month, from the web page of Colorado State Senator Dave Schultheis:

Quote of the Month: "Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom." -- John Adams (Defense of the Constitution, 1787)

Sounds like a decent, stand-up guy, huh? Actually, this guy stands for the exact opposite of freedom, and he wants to inject religion into public schools with a "Public School Religious Bill of Rights". He lists some petty claims to rights, some of which are already afforded, but also treads on some dangerous territory. One right he claims for religious teachers:

Teachers may:
(VII) NOT BE REQUIRED TO TEACH A TOPIC THAT VIOLATES HIS OR HER RELIGIOUS BELIEFS AND NOT BE DISCIPLINED FOR REFUSING TO TEACH THE TOPIC;


Almost sounds harmless, but it's really not at all. Shouldn't public school teachers be required to teach their respective subjects without bias towards religion? If you want to teach religion, why can't you teach at a private school? Not enough positions? I'm sure your place of worship would allow you to volunteer and enlighten young congregationists... oh, but that's not enough for you, is it? You want my kids, too?

PZ Myers over at Pharyngula has some very good commentary.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Author gatemansnametag.blogspot.com !
You have hit the mark. In it something is also to me it seems it is good idea. I agree with you.

Anonymous said...

Why does 15% of the population try to control what the majority wants? God in school!! If you take a minute of silent time and are allowed to pray, why do atheist feels so threatened???

Shap said...

Hi Anonymous,

Thanks for your comment!

I don't think atheists feel threatened by allowing prayer in school. In fact, prayer IS allowed in school, even today!

The key distinction is that 'allowed' is different than 'required', and once we start to 'require' prayer or religious observance in our schools, we are infringing on our children's rights to practice (or not practice) their religion freely.

I'm interested to hear where you got your statistics about the 15% of the population trying to control things. Which 15%? Also, do you have data that supports your assertion that the 'majority' wants God in school?

Thanks,
Shap