Comments on: Author Curious About Atheism in K-12 Education

By: muggle

muggle — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:04:39 +0000

Must write her. There were conflicts large and small the whole time my daughter was growing up from religious spelling lists on up. Every year I had to protest something.

But the incident that comes first and foremost promptly to mind was in middle school. I protested when a teacher told the kids the story of David and Goliath so loudly that it made the teacher cry. (Apparently it never even occured to him that some parent might find this objectionable.)

But that’s not the end of it, when her history class covered the Scopes Monkey trial, they stuck her out in the hall. I yelled even louder how dare they? I said I protest religion taught in school and you respond by segregating her from a crucial point in our history? In what turned out to be a large victory for nonbelievers? They apologized but the damage was already done. I’d have sued if I wasn’t worried about reprecussions from my “good” Christian neighbors. I did not want to worry about bricks through windows or needing a gun at the ready. Obviously, I took the opportunity to teach her about it myself but, at that point, I wasn’t home-schooling.

Hugh, you’re from Albany, NY? We’re neighbors! And, yeah, I had a Jewish friend harrassed in middle school. I’ve always thought December must be a tough time of year to be Jewish in America.

By: unique.smile.within

unique.smile.within — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:25:23 +0000

In Grade Five a Christian group came to my school and everyone got a Bible. In grade eight my teacher taught against abortions and using medicine. And of course Xmas songs for the Xmas play. That’s the extent of official Christian views in my school experience. In grade three one kid stole my swing in the name of Jesus. At the time it hurt, but now I laugh at it. I mean, really, why would Jesus want my swing? LOL

By: Hugh Kramer

Hugh Kramer — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:07:35 +0000

Does it still count if I wasn’t an atheist yet when this occured? It’s a story about how the teaching of Xmas carols at school affected a Jewish family: mine.

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-8947-LA-Atheism-Examiner~y2009m11d30-A-Jewish-childs-view-of-Christmas

By: Kaluthir

Kaluthir — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:06:14 +0000

I didn’t become an atheist until my senior year in high school but even in the short time I did go against the norm (did I mention I went to a public school in Texas?) I had teachers and students consistently proselytize me.
That being said, I had enough good friends and was popular enough that I was able to escape the brunt of the religious discrimination (the sports team I was on prayed before competing in meets but nobody gave me a hard time for standing upright and not closing my eyes). I had friends that weren’t so lucky and were constantly harassed for their lack of religion.

By: Q-Squared

Q-Squared — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 04:29:49 +0000

Sorry, most of my stories are from when I was wishy-washy-not-really-having-a-position-christian-who-loves-god. They revolved around the teachers and students hating me for being weird and daring to ask about a few (still stupid in my eyes) rules designed to “prevent Satan from creeping into our souls” through children’s games.

Actually, I should send the teacher who made those rules a thank you note- that teacher sort of helped me on my way to atheism by developing my bullshit detection system.

By: Scott

Scott — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 02:56:32 +0000

Beyond the occasional invocations at ceremonies, the biggest thing that stands out in my mind is athletics. I bounced from sport to sport in school because I wasn’t really good at any of them, and one thing that was universal was that before any competitive event, we always circled up and said a prayer. This was usually for the safety and success of everyone, but I remember one incident in particular. The football team I was on was top in our division and we knew that a team we were preparing to play was going to be a pushover. In fact they were; I even got to play one down at the end of the game. Anyway, before the game, we all circled up and listened to the quarterback pray for our safety and success. Then he said “Dear Lord, please let us beat this team by at least fifty points. Amen.”

I kind of looked around at that point to see if anyone else noticed, and in fact the coach was looking right at me. I guess he noticed I never close my eyes during the prayer.

Anyway, that’s pretty tame, and I must say that throughout my education in many of the southern states, I didn’t experience much religious talk in school.

p.s. I finally did find a sport I was good at, but it wasn’t football.

By: Zoo

Zoo — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 02:35:20 +0000

@Hazor: A public school biology teacher (at least in my part of the country), might not learn enough about biology to get to that point. It’s extremely sad. Besides that, yes, yes, yes, people really can keep their minds that closed.

By: MG

MG — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 01:37:48 +0000

I would contribute if I could, but my story contains nothing more than random insults from random people at random times.

Good luck Katherine!

By: Hazor

Hazor — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 01:08:21 +0000

@Tim D.
How does someone gain enough knowledge of biology to teach it without realizing that evolution has some semblance of logic and evidence behind it? Can people really keep their minds so closed?

By: Veggiecrocker

Veggiecrocker — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 23:01:53 +0000

I think it’s great that you are doing this. It’s something that desperately needs addressing. We have not been targeted specifically, but my son gets weird looks because we don’t have a Christmas tree or believe in Santa.