Reading Time: 5 minutes A West Virginia school district has finally paid up for decades of Christian indoctrination, putting an end to a five-year legal battle waged by a courageous student who faced considerable harassment over her “Bible in the Schools” class. All of this occurred in the Mercer County Schools, which offered “elective” Bible courses at the elementary […]
Education
Exploring the world of education from a secular, nonreligious perspective.
Posted inEducation
A school board member justified bigotry with Jesus. This mom wasn’t having it.
Reading Time: 5 minutes You have to hear the speech that a parent delivered at a recent school board meeting in response to one board member’s religious tirade against her daughter. To make sense of it, you have to understand that Colorado Springs has long been a hotbed for white evangelical Christianity. That brand of bigotry has now crept […]
Posted inPolitics
Disinviting bigoted campus speakers blocks bigotry not free speech
Reading Time: 6 minutes When American university and college students try to deny “free speech” platforms to arch-conservative opinion leaders they consider dangerous purveyors of bigotry, or just shout them down, right-wing complaints of suppression are swift and virulent. The constant trope is that American higher education institutions are controlled by “woke,” “liberal” academics and students who want to […]
Posted inEducation
A Christian school had kids write letters persuading a friend to stop being gay
Reading Time: 4 minutes The Christian Academy of Louisville in Kentucky told students to write letters urging a fictional gay friend to renounce homosexuality. The assignment, which was due on Thursday, came to light after a parent of one of the students shared screenshots of the rubric with a friend, who then posted them online. The assignment was apparently […]
Posted inRacial justice
Christian school promises ‘swift action’ after racist video goes viral
Reading Time: 3 minutes On Tuesday night, a racist video began making the rounds on Twitter, allegedly featuring members of the baseball team from Grace Christian Academy in Knoxville, Tennessee. It showed a student wearing a KKK hood, sitting on a chair with the “Grace” logo on it. Off-camera, someone shouts, “Who do we hate?” The boy in the […]
Posted inEducation
A teacher tore down a non-Christian verse on her classroom ‘prayer wall’
Reading Time: 3 minutes A Christian teacher at a public high school in Tulsa, Oklahoma is using her position to preach to students. There’s anecdotal evidence she’s doing this, it’s not the first time she’s been caught promoting her radical views to students, and she’s openly admitted suggesting that all teachers should follow her lead. Somehow, though, she’s faced […]
Posted inEducation
A Christian college punished a sexual assault victim for having premarital sex
Reading Time: 3 minutes Roughly five years ago, a teenager at a private Christian school became pregnant. Visibly pregnant. And that was the problem right there. The girl chose not to have an abortion because it violated her religious beliefs. Because she didn’t do that, though, the school punished her for having premarital sex: She wasn’t allowed to receive […]
Posted inRacial justice
Grove City College’s anti-‘woke’ report contradicts its stated Christian values
Reading Time: 14 minutes Grove City College is your typical conservative Christian college, but I’m not your typical alumna. Unlike my fellow students, I’m an atheist, and I formed this identity inside Grove City’s faith-based Pennsylvania bubble. Since graduating in May of 2018, I’ve done my best to distance myself from the school, breaking my silence only when the […]
Posted inEducation
Why is teacher burnout so bad this semester?
Reading Time: 5 minutes I’m struggling to finish the semester. So are my colleagues. So are my students. So what gives? I have been struggling to put this feeling into words for a while, which is surprising for a pretty wordsy person. I’m mostly functional on a daily basis, but I’ve been getting really bad decision fatigue. And emotional […]
Posted inCritical thinking
Scooby-Doo, where are you? Our kids need you more than ever
Reading Time: 3 minutes As a child of the late 80s and early 90s, Saturday morning was a sacred time. Looney Tunes, Tom & Jerry, and Scooby-Doo dominated my morning. I filled my mind with useless jokes and colorful fun as Captain Crunch destroyed the roof of my mouth. My father called it the “boob tube,” and was utterly […]