Reading Time: 2 minutes In 2006, Matthew LaClair was a student in the Kearny High School history classroom of David Paszkiewicz. Matthew heard his teacher making some very unusual statements about Christianity: From Sept. 13-15, the class was told that all the biblical prophecies have come true, dinosaurs were on Noah’s ark and all nonChristians belong in hell. He […]
Education
Exploring the world of education from a secular, nonreligious perspective.
Posted inEducation, General
District Court Rules on a Graduation Speech About Jesus
Reading Time: 3 minutes In 2006, Erica Corder was named valedictorian at Lewis-Palmer High School near Colorado Springs, CO. She was one of 15 valedictorians (which I say defeats the whole purpose of the title). Because of the number of top-ranked students, it was decided that all of them would give a 30-second speech at graduation. The principal would […]
Posted inEducation, Parenting & Family, Raising Freethinkers
Easy ethics and hard
Reading Time: 3 minutes “They shot him…he was running. It was during their exercise period. They said he just broke into a blind raving charge at the fence and started to climb. Right in front of them….We had such a good chance. I told him what I thought, but I couldn’t in truth say that we had more than […]
Posted inEducation, General
Atheist Teacher vs. Christian Student
Reading Time: 2 minutes Last week, California teacher Jim Corbett lost his case against student Chad Farnan. Farnan had accused his history teacher of make anti-Christian comments during class and the court agreed. Based on the lawsuit and the comments I’d read Corbett had made, I wasn’t siding with the teacher (though I agreed with what he said). I […]
Posted inEducation, General
Christian Attends Girlfriend's Prom; Gets Suspended
Reading Time: 2 minutes I mentioned a few days ago that 17-year-old Tyler Frost would be suspended if he attended his girlfriend’s high school prom… because Frost attends a fundamentalist Christian school that forbids dancing. Turns out he went to the dance, anyway. And the school has suspended him. Frost didn’t go to school Monday. Instead, he and his […]
Posted inEducation, General
Teacher Who Called Creationism "Superstitious Nonsense" Loses Case
Reading Time: < 1 minute There have been a lot of stories this week about James Corbett, a history teacher at a public high school in California. A Christian student of his, Chad Farnan, had claimed Corbett was being hostile to religion in class. Corbett had spoken about his “unequivocal belief that creationism is superstitious nonsense” — of course, that […]
Posted inEducation, General
Christian School Punishes Student for Wanting to Go to Prom
Reading Time: 2 minutes Last night was Prom for my high school students. I never sign up to chaperone the dances… partly because I have no desire to see any of my students skanking it up on the dance floor. That was the least of Tyler Frost‘s problems. He’s a senior at Heritage Christian School in Ohio, a fundamentalist […]
Posted inEducation, General
I pledge-a yada yada
Reading Time: < 1 minute Just back from a family week in D.C. We imposed on the hospitality of very good friends, both of them deeply impressive and humane people employed by admirable non-profits influencing public policy and making a difference in the world. The kind of people who make me feel (through no fault of their own) like I’m […]
Posted inEducation, General, LGBTQ News
Conservative Christians Organize Day of Silence Walkout
Reading Time: 4 minutes This is just a perfect example of how the Religious Right distorts the facts to suit their own needs. On April 17th, students who choose to will participate in the Day of Silence: The Day of Silence… is a student-led day of action when concerned students, from middle school to college, take some form of […]
Posted inEducation, General
A High School English Paper on Atheism
Reading Time: < 1 minute From a high school reader from a small town in North Dakota: In my English class, we’re supposed to write a persuasive paper. I’ve decided to “persuade” my religious teacher, religious classmates, and religious school that God is a theory… I know my paper is going to cause quite a commotion,so I want it to […]