Confessions of a Recovering Pharisee

[Taunton Gazette]

A Taunton father is outraged after his 8-year-old son was sent home from school and required to undergo a psychological evaluation after drawing a stick-figure picture of Jesus Christ on the cross.

The father said he got a call earlier this month from Maxham Elementary School informing him that his son, a second-grade student, had created a violent drawing. The image in question depicted a crucified Jesus with Xs covering his eyes to signify that he had died on the cross. The boy wrote his name above the cross.

“As far as I’m concerned, they’re violating his religion,” the incredulous father said.
He requested that his name and his son’s name be withheld from publication to protect the boy.

The student drew the picture shortly after taking a family trip to see the Christmas display at the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette, a Christian retreat site in Attleboro. He made the drawing in class after his teacher asked the children to sketch something that reminded them of Christmas, the father said.

“I think what happened is that because he put Xs in the eyes of Jesus, the teacher was alarmed and they told the parents they thought it was violent,” said Toni Saunders, an educational consultant with the Associated Advocacy Center.

Read more here.

[WGME]

The family of a 7th-grade Muslim student says she was forbidden to pray inside Lewiston Middle School by school officials. Ismail Warsame says his niece had been praying on her free time ever since school started in September. But he said school administrators told her last week that praying wasn’t allowed in school, and that her mother would have to take her outside the building to pray. Warsame says the family contacted the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington D.C., and that his niece was briefly allowed to pray after the organization contacted the school…but that a teacher once again kept her from praying the next day.

Superintendent Leon Levesque says the incident is the result of a miscommunication. According to the 2003 guidelines set by the No Child Left Behind Act, no student can be forbidden from praying at school during non-instructional time, as long as it doesn’t disrupt others. The law states that school officials can’t encourage or discourage prayer, or participate in such activities. Levesque says no Lewiston student has even been kept from praying on school property. He says this student had requested that a room be made available for praying. Levesque says Lewiston schools strive to be neutral and don’t provide prayer rooms so as not to appear to promote religious practices.

Read more here.

[From me]

I have no problem with this child praying even though it is not to my God. What is it hurting to allow a child to pray?

What do you think?

[AJC]

That controversial “cash for grades” fund raiser at a North Carolina middle school didn’t last too long.

After the scheme to award extra points on tests for $20 appeared in the Raleigh News & Observer, Wayne County district officials today killed the Rosewood Middle School fund raiser.

Struggling with ways to raise cash for technology, the school came upon the idea of selling extra points. A $20 donation earned a student 20 test points – 10 extra points on two tests of the student’s choosing. A $30 donation bought the test points and admission to a 5th-period dance; a $60 donation purchased students test points, the dance invitation, and a “special 30-minute lunch period with pizza, drink and the choice to invite one friend to join them.”

Rebecca Garland, the chief academic officer for the state Department of Public Instruction, said she fears the program sends the wrong lesson about buying grades.

Read more here and here.

[From me]

I love the quote: “we fear it sends the wrong message.” Ya think? Come on. Colleges go on NCAA probation for buying grades. Man, for only $20 I would have bought as many as I could!

What do you think?

[Houston Chronicle]

Texas schoolchildren should know how God and religion greatly influenced the country’s Founding Fathers more than 230 years ago, say some of the experts reviewing the state’s social studies curriculum. It is a viewpoint that troubles others who worry that a controlling majority of conservatives on the State Board of Education may go too far in pushing Christianity in public schools. To characterize the origins of this country as a Christian nation would be wrong, said Steven Schafersman, who routinely attends SBOE meetings as president of Texans Citizens For Science.

“It is absolutely false,” Schafersman said. “That kind of belief is dangerous.”

He is among several who argue that many of the Founding Fathers actually were deists — they believed in God as creator, who permits the universe to operate according to natural laws rather than continued intervention. As such, they did not believe the Bible or Jesus were divine. Finding common agreement on the religious angle could be tricky as state leaders develop new curriculum standards for social studies, including history, geography and economics.

Read more here.

[From me]

I do think it is interesting that our Founding Fathers talked about our Creator and not how we evolved. Does this man deny that people came to this country for religious freedom? Does he deny that most of the schools and colleges were founded by churches? Sounds like this will be an interesting debate.

What do you think?

[Tampa Bay.com]

In the world of literary criticism, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is considered a modern masterpiece, its best-selling Japanese author Haruki Murakami worthy of the Nobel Prize.

That’s why his books have earned a place in the curriculum of the rigorous, college-level International Baccalaureate program that top high school students around the world compete to enter.

But at Gulf High School in Pasco County, those same complex writings that challenge keen minds have created a different type of challenge.

Within his themes of self-identity and post-war Japan, Murakami uses imagery such as phone sex and masturbation so graphic it offended junior Marí Mercado. She refused to read the book, even though it is a key requirement in her IB English course.

The 16-year-old student, who has heard from MIT and Yale said the book conflicts with her morals. Her parents, Rafael and Mindy, support her decision and have asked for an alternative text.

“I’m not saying the book doesn’t have its merits,” said Mindy Mercado. “We did not say the book needs to be burned or banned.”

Read more here.

[From me]

Why can’t the school offer her another book? She isn’t trying to cause trouble for other students, she just doesn’t want to read it herself. There should be no reason she shouldn’t be allowed to have an alternative book. I don’t want my kids reading that trash.

What do you think?