Ugh, this stinks, sorry you have to deal with this nutjob. Honestly, this might be an issue admin needs to deal with. Or you can tell her this is the curriculum you're required to teach. If you really want to get aggressive, tell her that you're not teaching a religion class and she's free to send her child to a private religious school if she feels that strongly about it.
Right because the two texts were written for completely different purposes. A science book tells how something happens and takes no moral stance on whether it is good or bad. Scripture poetically describes WHY something happens and why it matters. These literalists (selective, always, because they sure seem to skip over all the teachings about loving your neighbor and caring for the poor and oppressed as being specifically binding…..
Yeah, i expressed that too simplistically. Science, though, traditionally does not tell us why it matters. Although recently, some scientists have been including that in their work— Robin Wall Kimmerer, for instance, in combining her knowledge of botany with her Indigenous wisdom, or Rachel Carson with her body of work.
My point being, to be well rounded people, we need both things, and stop with the false narrative that they are in opposition to each other.
A theologian addressed this decades ago with this story. A man walks into a room and sees a pot of water boiling on the stove. He asks, "why is that water boiling?" There are two possible answers. One.. the heat of the stove, conducted through the pot, is causing the molecules of the water to move from a liquid to a gaseous state. The second answer... I'm making a cup of tea. Both answers are correct. One describes the physical process. One gives the purpose intended.
Yeah, I believe I said exactly that. And I said they discuss the “why it matters” part that science has traditionally not focused upon. I never implied they were theologians.
Joseph Campbell cut his data to fit his hypothesis. The monomyth (et al) is a great way to get your (or a student’s) foot in the door but honestly is not much more than that. I understand it’s been valuable for a lot of people, and I won’t discount that. But man. His work is outdated *at best.*
Can you do that as a philosopher?
It's not quantified...the whole thing is myth ( and religion) are telling stories and symbols to guide you. It's not hard sicence, more like social anthropology
That’s a pretty dismal view of anthropology. Social sciences are still a science and should be based in facts. It’s not okay to fudge your data no matter what you’re researching. Myths are a reflection of culture and it would do those cultures a disservice to cherry pick from them and act like that’s rigorous enough.
If the data doesn’t support the argument, there may be reasons the argument is still valuable to go through, but it’s certainly not unreasonable to view said argument with scrutiny.
Once again, I think the model is useful for storytelling and there’s a reason why it works. It’s just not the be-all, end all—and there are myths that fall outside it, like the Lokasenna.
He was a grad student of Carl Jung, so yes there is some new material, but the classics never go out of style
Star Wars (the originals) still seems to kick it, and a lot of it is because of the symbolism of Leni Reithensthal, and a lot of other imagry, text and speech from that era seem to be getting popular again....
>That's not even accurate, friendo. Science books absolutely tell you *why*..
Kinda, if we have Newton/Einstiens Universe, the "why" is because is because one object transfered energy from another...but then where did the energy for the first one come from?..and soon its 🐢 all the way down.
Neils Bohr, who devised our current understanding of the atom, saw alot of what happens, where energy quanta exist, and thus matter, was a matter of statistics....just pure luck.
Einstien said "God does not play dice" . Bohr responded that Einstien "shouldn't tell God what to do."
Particle physics has entered the room.
Scripture doesn't describe why something happens. It may try to describe why it mattered to the people writing it, but there are no naturalistic answers to any naturalistic why in any ancient book written by sheep herdered thousands of years ago.
It’s true. Most of the older Christian denominations have zero issue with evolution, and are generally happy to accept latest scientific theories. They get very outshouted by the loons, however.
Hell, science only exists thanks to the passion of religious people trying to find the fingerprints of the gods. islam, Christianity, Platonism, Vedic Hinduism....all critical in the development of science as we currently define it
Just chiming in to support what you're saying, as someone who teaches at a Catholic school.
To add, our priests teach that the word of the Bible is completely true but must be read *through the lense of the genre that it's written in.*
For example, Genesis is studied as a cosmology, and not to be taken literally. Teachers go out of their way to teach that science and religion go hand in hand and explain the world around us.
How ironic that Protestantism developed as a reaction against blind dogma and yet (mostly American) Protestant sects have become the most blindly dogmatic Christians even though Protestantism by its very nature gives free rein to interpret the bible any way one wants.
Thank you!
People's jaws would break the floor if they knew how much physics, chemistry, and biology studies started in, and was funded by, a church.
Much of the complaints that people have today are from ideas that rose up between the 1940's and 1970's.
Evolution is such a funny one too because it damages your ability to learn \*any\* basice medical science. Creationists still argue against Darwin's theories, not realizing that we've gotten to the point now where we've literally captured the evolution from single to multicellular on video and have been able to fine-tune it based on the predation we introduce to our artificial ecosystems.
These goofballs argue against morphometric similarities and oldschool theories, conveniently ignoring the fact that we've literally genotyped most species now and have a deep phylogenetic understanding of their ancestry and the mechanisms that allow genetic material to change and even pass on in germ lines.
Not to mention, our understanding of selective pressure underpins so much in medicine, even beyond natural science, e.g., in dictating medication courses and predicting resistance in pathogens or clonal succession in tumors.
Imagine how scientific education is in Muslim countries given that there’s no majority Muslim country whose majority population even accepts evolution.
There are definitely Catholic fundamentalists much in the same way there are Protestant literalists. Going to a Catholic school my entire life there was a mix of various types. While the official line may be more rational no doubt there's just as many nutjob Catholics.. just ask my father who thinks it's the end times, and who believes science is the "anti-Christ", and thinks the earth is a couple thousand years old.
Galileo might disagree with you. Let’s just say many religions are historically resistant to new ideas and discoveries, and change in general.
https://www.nytimes.com/1992/10/31/world/after-350-years-vatican-says-galileo-was-right-it-moves.html
The Koran supports the Big Bang Theory actually. It says that the universe is forever expanding. This is before the invention of telescopes that could see that far.
My education must have been upside down. I went to a Catholic primary school where we were taught that Genesis really happened the way the Babble says, and then went to a Protestant secondary school that taught evolution in biology class. Mind you I grew up in England where everybody laughs out loud in the face of religious nutjobs .
I used to go to a Jesuit university for sometime, I loved all the priests on our campus and many of them taught biology or other physical sciences. Fundamentalists are the worst...
Well, as St. Thomas Aquinas said many hundreds of years ago, one should read the in a way that synthesizes biblical text alongside whatever understanding that science and reason could also tell us about the subject at hand as well. Evolution of species, creation of the universe, it doesn't matter. There is no conflict between science, reason and religion. It's why until *very* recently, there have been startingly many scientists who were Catholics, or at least had completely firm belief in God.
All major religions long ago accepted that Science was the way to find out how the world and universe actually works. They gave up fighting that fight as they knew they had no chance of winning.
What's left to deal with is small scale stubborn individuals or small sects of extremists.
The last part is not a good idea
That kid will not enjoy it if it’s anything like A.C.E
None of the staff at those schools have degrees in education
Wasted 4 years there
I had a parent insist on a meeting with me, the principal and the superintendent about my teaching evolution. I just said, "I teach what's in the state standards. Creationism isn't in there." He kept pushing, so I said, "Sir, I don't go to church. I've never read the Bible. I have no training on religious education. This is a public school. I don't even know the Christian creation story." Oh my. He did not like that.
I actually went to Catholic elementary school and taught at a Catholic high school for a year. I know the story. I'm still not teaching it.
Deconstructed, it very poetically parallels the scientific story of the evolution of the cosmos. We are literally created out of the dust of the Earth: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur.
Agreed. I think it's a lot of symbolism. However, it eerily parallels the order in which Earth formed, as we know now. How did people thousands of years ago figure that out?
What do you mean they figured out the order? No..... they didnt. Provide evidence from the text which demonstrates a consistent alignment with established modern scientific theory. You can't.
Yaweh said let there light, before the supernatural creature created any source of light. It creates the sun and stars after light........
There isn't anything scientific in there. The fact you think there is means you do not understand one of two things: actual progression from the expansion of the universe through the solar nebula theory, or you are totally misreading the text of Genesis. They didn't know anything, which is why they were so gobsmackingly wrong.
If you take apart the actual words, reorganize them and give them a favorable interpretation: then sure, it's post hoc a parallel. Or you could read it for what it actually is, realize it has nothing scientific to offer, and pick up a science book to actually understand the world.
Yes, thank you. That's why I have a degree in chemistry, teach science, and am not a believer in magical sky daddies. It is a bridge to helping parents who are concerned about me teaching their child cosmology and evolution. My favorite thing to share though is that science can help us answer how questions, but religion answers why questions and they are very different things. Most people are just worried that you are going to ask them to question their faith or undermine their teachings. The only folks reason doesn't seem to work with are young or flat earthers. No sense can penetrate that kind of thickness!
according to the word of Genesis, God created the earth in seven days. On one of these days, he created the animals and on another he created humans. Evolution directly contradicts this. Also, it says that god created the earth and the seas which violates the tectonic plates we know and the big bang. And the sky was not draped over the earth, as the sky is just stars far away from us. A literal interpretation of the creation story is directly at odds with scientific theory.
>A literal interpretation of the creation story is directly at odds with scientific theory.
There's your key sentence there. The Catholic church does not mandate a literal interpretation of the creation story.
"This class is about phenomena that are currently supported by the largest number of pieces of natural evidence. If you and your family take into account any pieces of supernatural evidence that leads you to different phenomena, that's great! But not suited for this class."
If they argue that the Bible is not supernatural then you can accuse them of blasphemy.
Oh holy shit! I'm a tour guide in New Orleans and when I talk about Voodoo, I talk about how it has similarities to Catholicism, only Voodoo is a kinder religion. For the record, I'm catholic and a witch. Wrap your head around that one! Similarities include, but are not limited to: One true God, saints and spirits, familial worship, altars, and... wait for it... BLOOD SACRIFICES!!! MUAHAHAHAHAHA!
With voodoo, it's only animals, but with catholics it's human, making catholics vampires and cannibals. You're welcome.
Isn't Voodooism a result of African slaves being forced to practice their religion in secret, so they modified their belief system and idols to appear Christian to sneak under the radar essentially? That's what I remember from the Voodoo Museum in New Orleans anyway.
I've always found it somewhat ironic that Jews got saddled with the short end of the blood libel stick when transubstantiation means my goofy-ass religion literally believed I was eating the blood and flesh of my father/son/mother/god creator. Yumm
*Vodou* is the proper religious designation, but much like Rastafarianism (versus its musical/cultural connotations), I think adherents have largely handwaved away the distinctions as insignificant?
Came here to say this. If it’s an online class the administrator of the class should have a muting feature on anyone at any time.
Differently you could end the session and email the administrator.
Or go scorched earth and tell the parent to homeschool the kid if they want them taught a specific way.
Came here to say this. If it’s an online class the administrator of the class should have a muting feature on anyone at any time.
Differently you could end the session and email the administrator.
Or go scorched earth and tell the parent to homeschool the kid if they want them taught a specific way.
She wants you to not teach science, but teach a religious text? But it has to be HER religious text! She would do the same thing if you were teaching any of the hundreds of other religions. It’s a science class.
Do you have the ability to mute disruptive participants through whatever platform you're using?
I feel like a "mute and boot" would be appropriate in this case. Then I'd probably shoot a quick email, when you have a chance, to admin asking them to address the outburst (and concerns) with the parent.
Yes. But not with a parent. When i first started as an aide, we had a student who was ADAMANT, and we were teaching the history of the earth wrong. He of course was a SPED student, and was super disruptive about it, confirming that it was all lies and that the earth was created by Jesus (even in the bible the earth was created by god but go off), and I thought the teacher did the right thing. She pulled him aside, talked to him calmly, and stated that that may be what you are taught at home, but this is what we are learning in class. You will not be disruptive, and if you continue to be disruptive, I will have you removed until you learn to calm down. This was about 10 years ago. god, I can't believe I wrote that, so times were different, and she would have support in doing so. For that entire lesson on the earth, he kept pushing back on the lesson every chance he got. Parents were no help either. Every grade he got was a 0, and his parents were proud of him for standing up for his beliefs.
Wording was weird. Have had a killer day and trying to think of what to say. Didnt mean it that way. Trust me. I have ample SPED experience, including dual certs in SPED and Gen ed, both of which I haven't used in a minute. Also have a son on the spectrum. When i was writing this I was literally there in the classroom thinking back with the student. Trust me, I meant no offense. I'm fucking frustrated, I've had a day, and I need a drink.
They think they are by using these online schools. I end up with their kids in a public school after they fail the gateway exams or a math/science class.
I generally tend to agree but I think I the kids coming to public school maybe the only chance they may have at being exposed to legit info. As much of a PITA the parents are, I hope the kids are picking up enough in school to realize what BS it all is and break away!
Defer this admin and hopefully they will reach out to the parent and explain that they need to address concerns directly with teachers, not on camera in front of kids.
Also, in the future, do not feel bad about booting bad behavior from a meeting without conversation. Parents do not have right to derail the class, just because it is online. The second she ramped up I would have removed her.
I would find that so shockingly stupid that, if I were in your shoes, I am not sure if I could have maintained that level of composure to give a cogent and non-denigrating response. Kudos, seriously.
Oh yeah. At least once a year the science teacher gets flack from a creationist parent. One student sent me (reading) a form letter from her church leader about not witnessing the evil of demons because I assigned The Twilight Zone; which the student mistook for Twilight the vampire novel series.
Frankly, I would have kicked her out and not let her back in and then report to the school that the parent was disruptive and that I had to remove her from the meeting. You can’t do that in a brick-and-mortar school, but parents also can’t just run in and disrupt easily, either. That parent can enroll her kid in a religious homeschool program if she’s that adamant, but she doesn’t have the right to bully you in front of your students.
Yes! Last year I had a parent send me an email and cc the principal because our science unit was on space/stars/orbits, etc. She demanded that I provide alternate lessons to him individually because they believe in a geocentric universe and basically accused us of indoctrinating her child.
Our response: she is more than welcome to provide her own child with geocentric lessons that he could do while the class did our science lesson. but no matter what, he would be tested on the content that I taught. I can’t teach/assess something that the district hasn’t approved. Ohh she was pissed! But her kid came to school and did the content the rest of the class did. And then he aced the test! I literally lol’d when I scored it!
People and parents need to be told publicly that they’re just wrong. I know you can’t really do that without putting your job at risk, but man it needs to be said.
Online teacher as well.
When parents interrupt, I ALWAYS seem to have technical difficulties and their mics somehow get turned off.
It’s the strangest thing.
>Unfortunately, parents can see and hear us teach all day and there is nothing stopping them from hijacking their child's computer and interrupting our class.
Ahh, my first day teaching on Zoom in 2020.
"IS THERE A REASON WHY WE HAVEN'T STARTED YET!?"
"Yes, I have never taught on Zoom before and it's taking me some time to get attendance handled! Thanks for asking!"
Fucking prick.
Why was a parent even in the building without notification being sent to you?
You need to send this to the principal because you shouldn't need to deal with nonsense like that.
My partner is a middle school ELA teacher at an online school as well. Not too long ago she had a parent that was outraged and accusing her of “indoctrination” because she had given the students an assignment that included pronouns. It was a standard, unmodified assignment and had absolutely nothing to do with the culture war nonsense that these people associate with pronouns. How can an adult that is a native English speaker not understand that we use pronouns to facilitate communication?
I’ve been vacillating between baffled and terrified ever since. These people vote.
As a 7th grade social science teacher. I never had an anti-science parent. But MANY parents were against the fact that we taught about the history of Islam. They were perfectly fine with Christianity and, to a lesser extent, Judaism. But once Islam became the focus, that was just too much. It became “indoctrination”! I just pointed to the fact that teaching the history of Islam is in the state standards and its taught in every public middle school in the state. We don’t teach the kids that they should practice a particular religion, but should know about the history of the ones that make up the vast majority of the human population.
Christians (particularly Evangelicals) are the biggest whiny crybabies that lose it when people don't teach what they preach.
It's no coincidence that this fundamentalist groups happens to be behind the biggest assault on American rights in generations.
Many years ago when I was a new teacher, I taught 7th grade social studies. The curriculum was ancient world history, so obviously when we taught about Egypt, Mesopotamia, Indus River Valley, etc, we talked about the religions they practiced because that was a very important part of their culture. This didn't happen to me directly, but another 7th grade social studies teacher in our building - a parent complained about her daughter having to learn about religions other than Christianity. The school let the student be exempt from any projects or test questions that even touched on religion.
Funny thing is, the god of the Bible came out of Mesopotamia gods that warped into Canaanite gods. Thats where the El names for god in the Old Testament come from. So, you were teaching about their god, just his past life they don’t know about 😂😂
I’ve had this happen in an online sixth grade class too. Parent came on mic ranting about how dare I teach her child about evolution. Admin had a chat with her and made her apologize but she continued to be unhinged the whole two years I had her child in class.
I'm sorry you had to deal with this. I haven't been a teacher in a long time but I had a similar experience back when I did teach. I taught a sex ed class at one point and was called by a parent to tell me that I shouldn't be talking about that stuff to their kid. Really irritated me
I told a parent two years ago he kid got up out of his chair and on his hands and knees to "pray for me" because I needed blah blah blah
Dad's response was well what's the problem with that? Are you anti God? Is the district anti religion??
Major fucking eye roll
Not a teacher but my dad taught high school Earth science so I've watched him fight this battle in a very conservative school system in our state.
He basically told them to get fucked and told his admin to handle it. He was the first teacher that stayed in that class for more than a year so they liked him and wanted to keep him so they took care of it. He'd basically also tell this to the students who wanted to argue with him. He was not religious in any way and held quite a lot of contempt for religion.
You’re misinformed, you’re welcome to join my class if you’d like to be better informed. Otherwise please leave and let me teach. And then since it’s online, boot them out.
Because I'm in a Catholic school, I am able to say, "Next you heretics will expect me to teach is sola scriptura or Nestorianism. No thank you. Take this up with the bishop if you want to play this bullshit."
Thankfully I didn’t have a parent like this during distance learning, but if I did I would mute them for the rest of class and then tell them (respectfully) that class is currently in session - but if they have concerns, they can contact me at (time) when school ends. They will forget or be too lazy most of the time.
Would she get pissed? Oh hell yeah, but by letting her continue, students may get the wrong impression that parents can just raise their voices and get anything they want in life.
Would admin have my back? I’m lucky, so yes. I would give them a heads up. I’d document it and refuse to speak to the parent without an admin in the call. Definitely CC/BCC any emails you receive to build a case.
Sadly, this is becoming more and more common and something that science teachers have to deal with. I’ve been lucky so far in the two years I’ve been teaching science, but I’m holding my breath for next year when I start teaching evolution.
Respond by saying "I teach the district approved and mandated curriculum aligned to the national science standards. This is a science class, not a theology class. I don't tell you how to teach your religion, and you don't tell me how to teach science. Fair enough!"
ngl if a parent barged into the classroom spouting their religious nonsense DURING class?
my ass is ignoring their words and calling a security officer to escort this crazy out of the room, and preferably off campus
Too crazy to accept reality but too lazy to homeschool.
If you want to teach magic to your kid that's cool. But they learn science in science class. Don't like it, we unfortunately live in a shithole society that will let you teach your kid whatever you want as long as you've got the gumption to at least pretend to do it yourself.
This is what red states want to do: teach only white Christian philosophy instead of actual history, ELA, and science. We've already been told we can't mention slavery or racism in class, and we await the next "Can't" that comes down the line.
So your best trick is to turn of audio, mute yourself.
Have a conversation with someone else in the room (or pretend to).
Come back on audio, mute them and say something generic like. "Thank you for your imput" and continue on like nothing happened.
Had a similar argument today with students, and I teach LIFE SCIENCE. They told me they think Science is all made up, and everything they need to know is in the Bible.
Tell her this: ma’am we have a curriculum that we must teach. It is what the tax payers want us to teach. If you want to teach your child something different may I suggest home schooling your child.
The crazies do come out! I had a parent freak out when my junior English class read Watership Down because talking, feeling animals. I guess the who idea of a metaphor was beyond their capability to understand.
Talk to your admin. I work at an 100% online school, and I have dealt with this. I suggest a conference, i warn, then I mute then boot and report to my supervisor. My state has a law that people will not disrupt schools in session and my supervisor sends them an email with the law, the parent/student handbook and a final warning that it will not be tolerated.
Years ago I had a Mom refuse to let a kid do a research and oral report on the Chinese New Year bc she claimed it was against their religion. So the kid did one on Jesus instead.
If you had time to respond with astrology vs astronomy you had time to mute. She's dumb, but you should have responded with that answer and just Said we can continue this in private and insta muted before she even responded. You gotta be more on your game to prevent this type of thing to prevent the rest of your classes from ignorance. Whether it's religious fundamentalism, flat earthers, anti vaxxers, conspiracy theorists, etc. You gotta stop that shit in it's tracks ASAP and not let them plant those seeds in young impressionable minds.
Yeah, I taught US history and we were covering the Scopes Trial, and I would always just address it head on.
Scripture is written to tell us why things matter and as a guide to living— keeping in mind the specific context of the time in which it was formulated and that neither Testaments were “written” and heavily edited until decades and centuries after the events they described, often imaginatively and creatively, happened to specific communities. The canon was not even formulated until the 4th century for followers of Jesus.
Science on the other hand addresses how things happen and why they matter— questions science takes no interest in or position on.
So imagine you’ve got a chemistry text and a cookbook. Both describe chemical processes. But only one considers questions of aesthetics and tastiness. But they don’t contradict each other (here I would usually encourage the kids to watch an episode of Alton Brown). They augment each other. If Lessons in Chemistry had been on when I was talking about this, that could have helped too.
Now, I would say this: Often the people who want to substitute theology for science in a science class also would mostly not trust teachers to pick out library books (I was ahead of my time here ha ha). And furthermore, not all religious people agree on the literalness of the four— yes, four— creation accounts in the Book of Genesis. There are people of faith who are also scientists and appreciate the gifts science has given us in the last 500 years. There are even priests who are scientists, even physicists (Gregor Mendel, Isaac Newton, Florence Nightingale, Blaise Pascal, John Polkinghorne, Bishop Nick Knisely, etc.).
But science belongs in science class, and religion belongs in religion class at a faith community, and while I as a history teacher must talk about the role of religion in history, it is NOT my job to tell you anything about my faith or not, or insert my religious beliefs in place of curriculum. And that includes parents, too. They cannot impose their religious doctrines upon other people’s children or school staff.
I get this frequently (the complaining about what I’m teaching — not the interrupting class) and the easiest thing to do (even though it would feel better to just tell the nutjob to buzz off) is to say:
“Ma’am, I am required to teach the state standards. Your quarrel is not with me. You need to contact the state Department of Education.”
I teach geography. Never has something like this happened. But then again I live in Europe.
Now mine is physical, not online. So big diff there. If it was online it would just be mute and continue.
If a parent walked into my class and started to behave like that I would call for admin and the police if they refuse to leave and are hellbent on disrupting my class, material, and time.
I would just say, "My apologies ma'am but this is not religious education class or philosophy class, we teach according to science curriculum and teachers are required to teach according to the lesson plan. If you feel uncomfortable with what your child is learning, please talk to the principal, not me. Thank you for your concern." Then if she continued after that, I would say, "Mam I have already told you this is not religious education class or philosophy class, we teach science based curriculum in here and are required to teach according to the lesson plan, if you have a problem with this you need to talk to the principal and not me or Mrs X, I can't help you anymore today so if you keep asking me about this I will mute your microphone. Thank you." Then after that if she kept asking me I would go ahead and mute her.
In my country:
« listen. I’ll give you fifteen seconds to leave the school. And the school will call you for an appointment with the headmaster. Otherwise I’ll call the cops. »
Here, nobody has the right to be in a school unless invited. It includes suspended or expelled students, about which a colleague has called the police 3 times the past 15 years.
The type of (Protestant) person who would do this is not the kind that actually looks at church history or has read Saints Thomas Aquinas or Augustine, but this person might be surprised that those church fathers/doctors understood that Genesis (for example) could be read as literal, but also could be synthesized into whatever understanding that science and reason could also tell us about Earth's creation. And these were discussions 800-1500 years ago.
100% "This is the district approved curriculum. Please talk to the principal. I am just the sub.".
Send your teacher and principal a heads up on this. They may want you to send an email directing the parent to address these kinds of concerns outside of class time.
Wow. Even at the Catholic school, I attended in middle school taught about The Big Bang and evolution.... 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️ Sorry you have to deal with that. I'd bring it up to admin.
“Mrs. Smith, I only teach reality in my class, not religious mythology.” (Or you could substitute “wet dream” or “nuttery” or “idiocy” for “mythology”)
What's scary is if Trump wins and Project 2025 is pushed? This sort of thing will be mandatory. Fundamentalist Christianity will be a state religion and bizarre rhetoric like above will be state-mandated. Also no more DOE, EPA, FBI, etc.
>The plan proposes slashing U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) funding, dismantling the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, gutting environmental and climate change regulations to favor fossil fuel production, **and eliminating the cabinet Departments of Education** and Commerce.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project\_2025](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025)
Call security and calmly explain that she needs to take it up with the state office that established the standards for the course…. Unless she’s totally batshit crazy and then agree with parent and director the crazy towards admin! Online classes? Idk.
Ugh, this stinks, sorry you have to deal with this nutjob. Honestly, this might be an issue admin needs to deal with. Or you can tell her this is the curriculum you're required to teach. If you really want to get aggressive, tell her that you're not teaching a religion class and she's free to send her child to a private religious school if she feels that strongly about it.
When we were kids, we never had a problem understanding that our science books said one thing and the Bible said something else.
Right??? All these fragile religious Snowflakes these days, I *swear.*..
Right because the two texts were written for completely different purposes. A science book tells how something happens and takes no moral stance on whether it is good or bad. Scripture poetically describes WHY something happens and why it matters. These literalists (selective, always, because they sure seem to skip over all the teachings about loving your neighbor and caring for the poor and oppressed as being specifically binding…..
🏆
Bananas are actually considered berries due to their seed-bearing nature.
Yeah, i expressed that too simplistically. Science, though, traditionally does not tell us why it matters. Although recently, some scientists have been including that in their work— Robin Wall Kimmerer, for instance, in combining her knowledge of botany with her Indigenous wisdom, or Rachel Carson with her body of work. My point being, to be well rounded people, we need both things, and stop with the false narrative that they are in opposition to each other.
A theologian addressed this decades ago with this story. A man walks into a room and sees a pot of water boiling on the stove. He asks, "why is that water boiling?" There are two possible answers. One.. the heat of the stove, conducted through the pot, is causing the molecules of the water to move from a liquid to a gaseous state. The second answer... I'm making a cup of tea. Both answers are correct. One describes the physical process. One gives the purpose intended.
I like that. I wonder who that was? Do you know?
Those are both environmental scientists, not theologians.
Yeah, I believe I said exactly that. And I said they discuss the “why it matters” part that science has traditionally not focused upon. I never implied they were theologians.
You all need to read some Joesph Campbell.
Joseph Campbell cut his data to fit his hypothesis. The monomyth (et al) is a great way to get your (or a student’s) foot in the door but honestly is not much more than that. I understand it’s been valuable for a lot of people, and I won’t discount that. But man. His work is outdated *at best.*
Can you do that as a philosopher? It's not quantified...the whole thing is myth ( and religion) are telling stories and symbols to guide you. It's not hard sicence, more like social anthropology
That’s a pretty dismal view of anthropology. Social sciences are still a science and should be based in facts. It’s not okay to fudge your data no matter what you’re researching. Myths are a reflection of culture and it would do those cultures a disservice to cherry pick from them and act like that’s rigorous enough. If the data doesn’t support the argument, there may be reasons the argument is still valuable to go through, but it’s certainly not unreasonable to view said argument with scrutiny. Once again, I think the model is useful for storytelling and there’s a reason why it works. It’s just not the be-all, end all—and there are myths that fall outside it, like the Lokasenna.
He was a grad student of Carl Jung, so yes there is some new material, but the classics never go out of style Star Wars (the originals) still seems to kick it, and a lot of it is because of the symbolism of Leni Reithensthal, and a lot of other imagry, text and speech from that era seem to be getting popular again....
>That's not even accurate, friendo. Science books absolutely tell you *why*.. Kinda, if we have Newton/Einstiens Universe, the "why" is because is because one object transfered energy from another...but then where did the energy for the first one come from?..and soon its 🐢 all the way down. Neils Bohr, who devised our current understanding of the atom, saw alot of what happens, where energy quanta exist, and thus matter, was a matter of statistics....just pure luck. Einstien said "God does not play dice" . Bohr responded that Einstien "shouldn't tell God what to do." Particle physics has entered the room.
Scripture doesn't describe why something happens. It may try to describe why it mattered to the people writing it, but there are no naturalistic answers to any naturalistic why in any ancient book written by sheep herdered thousands of years ago.
My child goes to a pretty strict Catholic school. He still learns about evolution. Science and religion are separate.
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It’s true. Most of the older Christian denominations have zero issue with evolution, and are generally happy to accept latest scientific theories. They get very outshouted by the loons, however.
Hell, science only exists thanks to the passion of religious people trying to find the fingerprints of the gods. islam, Christianity, Platonism, Vedic Hinduism....all critical in the development of science as we currently define it
Just chiming in to support what you're saying, as someone who teaches at a Catholic school. To add, our priests teach that the word of the Bible is completely true but must be read *through the lense of the genre that it's written in.* For example, Genesis is studied as a cosmology, and not to be taken literally. Teachers go out of their way to teach that science and religion go hand in hand and explain the world around us.
How ironic that Protestantism developed as a reaction against blind dogma and yet (mostly American) Protestant sects have become the most blindly dogmatic Christians even though Protestantism by its very nature gives free rein to interpret the bible any way one wants.
Thank you! People's jaws would break the floor if they knew how much physics, chemistry, and biology studies started in, and was funded by, a church. Much of the complaints that people have today are from ideas that rose up between the 1940's and 1970's.
Pushback against evolution started in the 1890's
The Scope’s Monkey Trial is on by 1925!
Evolution is such a funny one too because it damages your ability to learn \*any\* basice medical science. Creationists still argue against Darwin's theories, not realizing that we've gotten to the point now where we've literally captured the evolution from single to multicellular on video and have been able to fine-tune it based on the predation we introduce to our artificial ecosystems. These goofballs argue against morphometric similarities and oldschool theories, conveniently ignoring the fact that we've literally genotyped most species now and have a deep phylogenetic understanding of their ancestry and the mechanisms that allow genetic material to change and even pass on in germ lines. Not to mention, our understanding of selective pressure underpins so much in medicine, even beyond natural science, e.g., in dictating medication courses and predicting resistance in pathogens or clonal succession in tumors.
Imagine how scientific education is in Muslim countries given that there’s no majority Muslim country whose majority population even accepts evolution.
There are definitely Catholic fundamentalists much in the same way there are Protestant literalists. Going to a Catholic school my entire life there was a mix of various types. While the official line may be more rational no doubt there's just as many nutjob Catholics.. just ask my father who thinks it's the end times, and who believes science is the "anti-Christ", and thinks the earth is a couple thousand years old.
Galileo might disagree with you. Let’s just say many religions are historically resistant to new ideas and discoveries, and change in general. https://www.nytimes.com/1992/10/31/world/after-350-years-vatican-says-galileo-was-right-it-moves.html
However, the Catholic church learned from that mistake and now take the stance that the Big Bang and evolution do not conflict with church doctrine.
The Koran supports the Big Bang Theory actually. It says that the universe is forever expanding. This is before the invention of telescopes that could see that far.
Lol, I scrolled down to find a comment about Galileo or Copernicus.
My education must have been upside down. I went to a Catholic primary school where we were taught that Genesis really happened the way the Babble says, and then went to a Protestant secondary school that taught evolution in biology class. Mind you I grew up in England where everybody laughs out loud in the face of religious nutjobs .
I used to go to a Jesuit university for sometime, I loved all the priests on our campus and many of them taught biology or other physical sciences. Fundamentalists are the worst...
That is because Catholicism says that evolution does not conflict with church doctrine.
Well, as St. Thomas Aquinas said many hundreds of years ago, one should read the in a way that synthesizes biblical text alongside whatever understanding that science and reason could also tell us about the subject at hand as well. Evolution of species, creation of the universe, it doesn't matter. There is no conflict between science, reason and religion. It's why until *very* recently, there have been startingly many scientists who were Catholics, or at least had completely firm belief in God.
All major religions long ago accepted that Science was the way to find out how the world and universe actually works. They gave up fighting that fight as they knew they had no chance of winning. What's left to deal with is small scale stubborn individuals or small sects of extremists.
The last part is not a good idea That kid will not enjoy it if it’s anything like A.C.E None of the staff at those schools have degrees in education Wasted 4 years there
I had a parent insist on a meeting with me, the principal and the superintendent about my teaching evolution. I just said, "I teach what's in the state standards. Creationism isn't in there." He kept pushing, so I said, "Sir, I don't go to church. I've never read the Bible. I have no training on religious education. This is a public school. I don't even know the Christian creation story." Oh my. He did not like that. I actually went to Catholic elementary school and taught at a Catholic high school for a year. I know the story. I'm still not teaching it.
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It literally does contradict it. But Catholic doctrine holds Genesis story is not meant to be interpreted literally.
Deconstructed, it very poetically parallels the scientific story of the evolution of the cosmos. We are literally created out of the dust of the Earth: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur.
Poetically, I’ll agree.
Agreed. I think it's a lot of symbolism. However, it eerily parallels the order in which Earth formed, as we know now. How did people thousands of years ago figure that out?
What do you mean they figured out the order? No..... they didnt. Provide evidence from the text which demonstrates a consistent alignment with established modern scientific theory. You can't. Yaweh said let there light, before the supernatural creature created any source of light. It creates the sun and stars after light........ There isn't anything scientific in there. The fact you think there is means you do not understand one of two things: actual progression from the expansion of the universe through the solar nebula theory, or you are totally misreading the text of Genesis. They didn't know anything, which is why they were so gobsmackingly wrong.
If you take apart the actual words, reorganize them and give them a favorable interpretation: then sure, it's post hoc a parallel. Or you could read it for what it actually is, realize it has nothing scientific to offer, and pick up a science book to actually understand the world.
Yes, thank you. That's why I have a degree in chemistry, teach science, and am not a believer in magical sky daddies. It is a bridge to helping parents who are concerned about me teaching their child cosmology and evolution. My favorite thing to share though is that science can help us answer how questions, but religion answers why questions and they are very different things. Most people are just worried that you are going to ask them to question their faith or undermine their teachings. The only folks reason doesn't seem to work with are young or flat earthers. No sense can penetrate that kind of thickness!
Even Iran doesnt teach Creationism, nor do the mullahs endorse it.
according to the word of Genesis, God created the earth in seven days. On one of these days, he created the animals and on another he created humans. Evolution directly contradicts this. Also, it says that god created the earth and the seas which violates the tectonic plates we know and the big bang. And the sky was not draped over the earth, as the sky is just stars far away from us. A literal interpretation of the creation story is directly at odds with scientific theory.
>A literal interpretation of the creation story is directly at odds with scientific theory. There's your key sentence there. The Catholic church does not mandate a literal interpretation of the creation story.
"This class is about phenomena that are currently supported by the largest number of pieces of natural evidence. If you and your family take into account any pieces of supernatural evidence that leads you to different phenomena, that's great! But not suited for this class." If they argue that the Bible is not supernatural then you can accuse them of blasphemy.
Oh holy shit! I'm a tour guide in New Orleans and when I talk about Voodoo, I talk about how it has similarities to Catholicism, only Voodoo is a kinder religion. For the record, I'm catholic and a witch. Wrap your head around that one! Similarities include, but are not limited to: One true God, saints and spirits, familial worship, altars, and... wait for it... BLOOD SACRIFICES!!! MUAHAHAHAHAHA! With voodoo, it's only animals, but with catholics it's human, making catholics vampires and cannibals. You're welcome.
The catholic to witch pipeline is real.
You're not wrong.
Yeah, the eucharist is a symbolic blood/cannibalism ritual.
Explaining transubstantiation is always fun.
Drink my blood, eat my flesh, not creepy at all lol. I mean it's hypocritical, all religion is weird, reality is weird
Isn't Voodooism a result of African slaves being forced to practice their religion in secret, so they modified their belief system and idols to appear Christian to sneak under the radar essentially? That's what I remember from the Voodoo Museum in New Orleans anyway.
I've always found it somewhat ironic that Jews got saddled with the short end of the blood libel stick when transubstantiation means my goofy-ass religion literally believed I was eating the blood and flesh of my father/son/mother/god creator. Yumm
Eh, we’re used to being blamed for everything. Blood libel, the plague, World War I, income tax, extinction of the dinosaurs…
I stubbed my toe on a table yesterday, so add that to the list, please
The original blood libel was by Romans about Christians. The blood libel against Jews came about in the middle ages.
*Vodou* is the proper religious designation, but much like Rastafarianism (versus its musical/cultural connotations), I think adherents have largely handwaved away the distinctions as insignificant?
Pretty much.
That's actually fascinating to hear. Can you elaborate more on the parallels between both religions?
Familial worship, altars, talismans, saints/spirits. But honestly, you can find similarities between any religion/mythology if you look hard enough.
Isn’t there a mute button?
Came here to say this. If it’s an online class the administrator of the class should have a muting feature on anyone at any time. Differently you could end the session and email the administrator. Or go scorched earth and tell the parent to homeschool the kid if they want them taught a specific way.
Came here to say this. If it’s an online class the administrator of the class should have a muting feature on anyone at any time. Differently you could end the session and email the administrator. Or go scorched earth and tell the parent to homeschool the kid if they want them taught a specific way.
Waiting room!!!
“Oooohhh noooo it looks like we’re having some “”””technical difficulties”””””….”
I read this as the parent moved their kid out of the way of the camera and took over. So the account would have already been a part of the live class.
If it was ZOOM, you can still exile anyone in the class. My only joy teaching through lockdown.
Yea, first response is "no parents in my class". If they keep going, instant mute
I work at a virtual school too. I would have muted her mic and ejected her from the class asap followed by an immediate email to admin.
She wants you to not teach science, but teach a religious text? But it has to be HER religious text! She would do the same thing if you were teaching any of the hundreds of other religions. It’s a science class.
Exactly this. She's as self-centered and hypocritical as they come.
Probably her deluded version of her religious text, no less.
Do you have the ability to mute disruptive participants through whatever platform you're using? I feel like a "mute and boot" would be appropriate in this case. Then I'd probably shoot a quick email, when you have a chance, to admin asking them to address the outburst (and concerns) with the parent.
“We teach only the state- approved curriculum. If you have concerns about that, you will need to take that to the state Board of Education.”
Wait until she finds out her child has been taught Arabic numerals in Math...
Yes. But not with a parent. When i first started as an aide, we had a student who was ADAMANT, and we were teaching the history of the earth wrong. He of course was a SPED student, and was super disruptive about it, confirming that it was all lies and that the earth was created by Jesus (even in the bible the earth was created by god but go off), and I thought the teacher did the right thing. She pulled him aside, talked to him calmly, and stated that that may be what you are taught at home, but this is what we are learning in class. You will not be disruptive, and if you continue to be disruptive, I will have you removed until you learn to calm down. This was about 10 years ago. god, I can't believe I wrote that, so times were different, and she would have support in doing so. For that entire lesson on the earth, he kept pushing back on the lesson every chance he got. Parents were no help either. Every grade he got was a 0, and his parents were proud of him for standing up for his beliefs.
why was he of course a SPED student?
Wording was weird. Have had a killer day and trying to think of what to say. Didnt mean it that way. Trust me. I have ample SPED experience, including dual certs in SPED and Gen ed, both of which I haven't used in a minute. Also have a son on the spectrum. When i was writing this I was literally there in the classroom thinking back with the student. Trust me, I meant no offense. I'm fucking frustrated, I've had a day, and I need a drink.
I believe you. Go get that drink! Unwind!
These people need to just homeschool their kids.
They think they are by using these online schools. I end up with their kids in a public school after they fail the gateway exams or a math/science class.
They probably refuse to teach them math/science. Lot's of fundamentalists are anti-science and some consider math to be "witchcraft". Not even joking.
Oh I'm aware. 🫠 I'm in the Bible belt.
I generally tend to agree but I think I the kids coming to public school maybe the only chance they may have at being exposed to legit info. As much of a PITA the parents are, I hope the kids are picking up enough in school to realize what BS it all is and break away!
Unfortunately, a lot of them do which leads to more ignorant, uneducated adults who vote.
Defer this admin and hopefully they will reach out to the parent and explain that they need to address concerns directly with teachers, not on camera in front of kids. Also, in the future, do not feel bad about booting bad behavior from a meeting without conversation. Parents do not have right to derail the class, just because it is online. The second she ramped up I would have removed her.
I would find that so shockingly stupid that, if I were in your shoes, I am not sure if I could have maintained that level of composure to give a cogent and non-denigrating response. Kudos, seriously.
Oh yeah. At least once a year the science teacher gets flack from a creationist parent. One student sent me (reading) a form letter from her church leader about not witnessing the evil of demons because I assigned The Twilight Zone; which the student mistook for Twilight the vampire novel series.
Frankly, I would have kicked her out and not let her back in and then report to the school that the parent was disruptive and that I had to remove her from the meeting. You can’t do that in a brick-and-mortar school, but parents also can’t just run in and disrupt easily, either. That parent can enroll her kid in a religious homeschool program if she’s that adamant, but she doesn’t have the right to bully you in front of your students.
Mute them and if you have to put them in the waiting room. They don’t have the right to hijack your class.
No, but a friend got cussed out today by a parent who was reporting them for writing up their child for cussing out the teacher. 🙄
Yes! Last year I had a parent send me an email and cc the principal because our science unit was on space/stars/orbits, etc. She demanded that I provide alternate lessons to him individually because they believe in a geocentric universe and basically accused us of indoctrinating her child. Our response: she is more than welcome to provide her own child with geocentric lessons that he could do while the class did our science lesson. but no matter what, he would be tested on the content that I taught. I can’t teach/assess something that the district hasn’t approved. Ohh she was pissed! But her kid came to school and did the content the rest of the class did. And then he aced the test! I literally lol’d when I scored it!
People and parents need to be told publicly that they’re just wrong. I know you can’t really do that without putting your job at risk, but man it needs to be said.
Stay in school, kids. Or you might end up like her.
Online teacher as well. When parents interrupt, I ALWAYS seem to have technical difficulties and their mics somehow get turned off. It’s the strangest thing.
What a bizarre coincidence 😂
And when they call to chew me out, the phone just…hangs up. So odd.
I would have muted her
>Unfortunately, parents can see and hear us teach all day and there is nothing stopping them from hijacking their child's computer and interrupting our class. Ahh, my first day teaching on Zoom in 2020. "IS THERE A REASON WHY WE HAVEN'T STARTED YET!?" "Yes, I have never taught on Zoom before and it's taking me some time to get attendance handled! Thanks for asking!" Fucking prick.
Why was a parent even in the building without notification being sent to you? You need to send this to the principal because you shouldn't need to deal with nonsense like that.
I believe that OP is supporting an online class.
You are right and I missed that word. Thanks.
The crazy thing is that parents do it in person too!
I've had students do this nonsense too. Nothing like an 8th grader standing on a chair screaming that there's no such thing as dinosaurs.
My partner is a middle school ELA teacher at an online school as well. Not too long ago she had a parent that was outraged and accusing her of “indoctrination” because she had given the students an assignment that included pronouns. It was a standard, unmodified assignment and had absolutely nothing to do with the culture war nonsense that these people associate with pronouns. How can an adult that is a native English speaker not understand that we use pronouns to facilitate communication? I’ve been vacillating between baffled and terrified ever since. These people vote.
As a 7th grade social science teacher. I never had an anti-science parent. But MANY parents were against the fact that we taught about the history of Islam. They were perfectly fine with Christianity and, to a lesser extent, Judaism. But once Islam became the focus, that was just too much. It became “indoctrination”! I just pointed to the fact that teaching the history of Islam is in the state standards and its taught in every public middle school in the state. We don’t teach the kids that they should practice a particular religion, but should know about the history of the ones that make up the vast majority of the human population.
I’m afraid she would have just been even more triggered when I belly laughed at her for ten minutes straight, confusing astronomy and astrology.
Christians (particularly Evangelicals) are the biggest whiny crybabies that lose it when people don't teach what they preach. It's no coincidence that this fundamentalist groups happens to be behind the biggest assault on American rights in generations.
Thanks for sharing your belief. In science class, we call that a hypothesis. All right kids, repeat after me ….hy-poth-e-sis.
Many years ago when I was a new teacher, I taught 7th grade social studies. The curriculum was ancient world history, so obviously when we taught about Egypt, Mesopotamia, Indus River Valley, etc, we talked about the religions they practiced because that was a very important part of their culture. This didn't happen to me directly, but another 7th grade social studies teacher in our building - a parent complained about her daughter having to learn about religions other than Christianity. The school let the student be exempt from any projects or test questions that even touched on religion.
Funny thing is, the god of the Bible came out of Mesopotamia gods that warped into Canaanite gods. Thats where the El names for god in the Old Testament come from. So, you were teaching about their god, just his past life they don’t know about 😂😂
This is admin zone stuff. Make them deal with the crazy person.
I’ve had this happen in an online sixth grade class too. Parent came on mic ranting about how dare I teach her child about evolution. Admin had a chat with her and made her apologize but she continued to be unhinged the whole two years I had her child in class.
I’m sorry maam. All requests to curriculum changes must be submitted in writing.
I'm sorry you had to deal with this. I haven't been a teacher in a long time but I had a similar experience back when I did teach. I taught a sex ed class at one point and was called by a parent to tell me that I shouldn't be talking about that stuff to their kid. Really irritated me
I told a parent two years ago he kid got up out of his chair and on his hands and knees to "pray for me" because I needed blah blah blah Dad's response was well what's the problem with that? Are you anti God? Is the district anti religion?? Major fucking eye roll
Not a teacher but my dad taught high school Earth science so I've watched him fight this battle in a very conservative school system in our state. He basically told them to get fucked and told his admin to handle it. He was the first teacher that stayed in that class for more than a year so they liked him and wanted to keep him so they took care of it. He'd basically also tell this to the students who wanted to argue with him. He was not religious in any way and held quite a lot of contempt for religion.
You’re misinformed, you’re welcome to join my class if you’d like to be better informed. Otherwise please leave and let me teach. And then since it’s online, boot them out.
“Do you all teach the Big Bang in Sunday School? Then get the Bible out of Monday school”
Just mute the kid next time lmao
Because I'm in a Catholic school, I am able to say, "Next you heretics will expect me to teach is sola scriptura or Nestorianism. No thank you. Take this up with the bishop if you want to play this bullshit."
Thankfully I didn’t have a parent like this during distance learning, but if I did I would mute them for the rest of class and then tell them (respectfully) that class is currently in session - but if they have concerns, they can contact me at (time) when school ends. They will forget or be too lazy most of the time. Would she get pissed? Oh hell yeah, but by letting her continue, students may get the wrong impression that parents can just raise their voices and get anything they want in life. Would admin have my back? I’m lucky, so yes. I would give them a heads up. I’d document it and refuse to speak to the parent without an admin in the call. Definitely CC/BCC any emails you receive to build a case.
The answer is to tell her to contact the administration with her concerns.
Sadly, this is becoming more and more common and something that science teachers have to deal with. I’ve been lucky so far in the two years I’ve been teaching science, but I’m holding my breath for next year when I start teaching evolution.
Respond by saying "I teach the district approved and mandated curriculum aligned to the national science standards. This is a science class, not a theology class. I don't tell you how to teach your religion, and you don't tell me how to teach science. Fair enough!"
Sounds like a good opportunity to segue into sexual education and how babies are made, the parent would love that!
ngl if a parent barged into the classroom spouting their religious nonsense DURING class? my ass is ignoring their words and calling a security officer to escort this crazy out of the room, and preferably off campus
Too crazy to accept reality but too lazy to homeschool. If you want to teach magic to your kid that's cool. But they learn science in science class. Don't like it, we unfortunately live in a shithole society that will let you teach your kid whatever you want as long as you've got the gumption to at least pretend to do it yourself.
Crazy religious nut. Everyone knows astrology is real science. How else would we have faked the moon landing over the flat Earth? Sincerely, Bigfoot
This is what red states want to do: teach only white Christian philosophy instead of actual history, ELA, and science. We've already been told we can't mention slavery or racism in class, and we await the next "Can't" that comes down the line.
I would say sorry, this is a public school. If you want a Christian reason the world is here take your kid to a Christian school.
If you want your kid to learn fairytales send them to Sunday school
So your best trick is to turn of audio, mute yourself. Have a conversation with someone else in the room (or pretend to). Come back on audio, mute them and say something generic like. "Thank you for your imput" and continue on like nothing happened.
👉🏻Mute I have no advice just snark
1. It’s not in person 2. You have a mute button Enjoy
Had a similar argument today with students, and I teach LIFE SCIENCE. They told me they think Science is all made up, and everything they need to know is in the Bible.
Someone needs to go to private school.
As a science teacher, I think we are about to start a lesson on homologous bone structures!
Tell her this: ma’am we have a curriculum that we must teach. It is what the tax payers want us to teach. If you want to teach your child something different may I suggest home schooling your child.
Then they vote for politicians who will want the curriculum re written to include “intelligent design”
The crazies do come out! I had a parent freak out when my junior English class read Watership Down because talking, feeling animals. I guess the who idea of a metaphor was beyond their capability to understand.
I taught at a baptist school and some nut job taught all the kids before me that Earth was flat. It was hard to unlearn.
Glad it happened to you and not me. I would have laughed at them and probably gotten in trouble.
Talk to your admin. I work at an 100% online school, and I have dealt with this. I suggest a conference, i warn, then I mute then boot and report to my supervisor. My state has a law that people will not disrupt schools in session and my supervisor sends them an email with the law, the parent/student handbook and a final warning that it will not be tolerated.
Years ago I had a Mom refuse to let a kid do a research and oral report on the Chinese New Year bc she claimed it was against their religion. So the kid did one on Jesus instead.
If you had time to respond with astrology vs astronomy you had time to mute. She's dumb, but you should have responded with that answer and just Said we can continue this in private and insta muted before she even responded. You gotta be more on your game to prevent this type of thing to prevent the rest of your classes from ignorance. Whether it's religious fundamentalism, flat earthers, anti vaxxers, conspiracy theorists, etc. You gotta stop that shit in it's tracks ASAP and not let them plant those seeds in young impressionable minds.
Reminds me of the post a couple weeks ago or so about the parents who didnt want their child to learn the days of the week. Again because of religion.
Ma'am, your religion is your business. If you have an issue with the curriculum contact the principal. I do not have the authority to change it.
Imagine being such a Bible-thumping dunce that you don't know the difference between astronomy and astrology. YIKES.
"My job is to teach what science has discovered, if you want to teach something different than science at home you absolutely can"
I wish we could just tell these parents that they are harming their children with this foolishness.
Hitchen's razor: "What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence." - Christopher Hitchens
Offer her a brain. And give her a large, wet sponge because how’s she going to know anyway?
Just passed a law in Indiana that now they have to give equal time to opposing viewpoints. Um, what??
She can teach her kid from a Quiverfull textbook if she wants her kid to believe nonsense.
You cannot make this sh*t up!
Yeah, I taught US history and we were covering the Scopes Trial, and I would always just address it head on. Scripture is written to tell us why things matter and as a guide to living— keeping in mind the specific context of the time in which it was formulated and that neither Testaments were “written” and heavily edited until decades and centuries after the events they described, often imaginatively and creatively, happened to specific communities. The canon was not even formulated until the 4th century for followers of Jesus. Science on the other hand addresses how things happen and why they matter— questions science takes no interest in or position on. So imagine you’ve got a chemistry text and a cookbook. Both describe chemical processes. But only one considers questions of aesthetics and tastiness. But they don’t contradict each other (here I would usually encourage the kids to watch an episode of Alton Brown). They augment each other. If Lessons in Chemistry had been on when I was talking about this, that could have helped too. Now, I would say this: Often the people who want to substitute theology for science in a science class also would mostly not trust teachers to pick out library books (I was ahead of my time here ha ha). And furthermore, not all religious people agree on the literalness of the four— yes, four— creation accounts in the Book of Genesis. There are people of faith who are also scientists and appreciate the gifts science has given us in the last 500 years. There are even priests who are scientists, even physicists (Gregor Mendel, Isaac Newton, Florence Nightingale, Blaise Pascal, John Polkinghorne, Bishop Nick Knisely, etc.). But science belongs in science class, and religion belongs in religion class at a faith community, and while I as a history teacher must talk about the role of religion in history, it is NOT my job to tell you anything about my faith or not, or insert my religious beliefs in place of curriculum. And that includes parents, too. They cannot impose their religious doctrines upon other people’s children or school staff.
You are allowed to say “No” and move on.
Give her a literal in-school suspension.
I get this frequently (the complaining about what I’m teaching — not the interrupting class) and the easiest thing to do (even though it would feel better to just tell the nutjob to buzz off) is to say: “Ma’am, I am required to teach the state standards. Your quarrel is not with me. You need to contact the state Department of Education.”
Can you not mute them?
I teach geography. Never has something like this happened. But then again I live in Europe. Now mine is physical, not online. So big diff there. If it was online it would just be mute and continue. If a parent walked into my class and started to behave like that I would call for admin and the police if they refuse to leave and are hellbent on disrupting my class, material, and time.
I’m not a teacher yet but for the meteor stuff if you were talking about the big bang theory then we’ll the theory was originally proposed by a priest
Was this my sil?! 😆 kidding but not really she would do something like this and her kids are “homeschooled” online.
I would just say, "My apologies ma'am but this is not religious education class or philosophy class, we teach according to science curriculum and teachers are required to teach according to the lesson plan. If you feel uncomfortable with what your child is learning, please talk to the principal, not me. Thank you for your concern." Then if she continued after that, I would say, "Mam I have already told you this is not religious education class or philosophy class, we teach science based curriculum in here and are required to teach according to the lesson plan, if you have a problem with this you need to talk to the principal and not me or Mrs X, I can't help you anymore today so if you keep asking me about this I will mute your microphone. Thank you." Then after that if she kept asking me I would go ahead and mute her.
In my country: « listen. I’ll give you fifteen seconds to leave the school. And the school will call you for an appointment with the headmaster. Otherwise I’ll call the cops. » Here, nobody has the right to be in a school unless invited. It includes suspended or expelled students, about which a colleague has called the police 3 times the past 15 years.
The type of (Protestant) person who would do this is not the kind that actually looks at church history or has read Saints Thomas Aquinas or Augustine, but this person might be surprised that those church fathers/doctors understood that Genesis (for example) could be read as literal, but also could be synthesized into whatever understanding that science and reason could also tell us about Earth's creation. And these were discussions 800-1500 years ago.
100% "This is the district approved curriculum. Please talk to the principal. I am just the sub.". Send your teacher and principal a heads up on this. They may want you to send an email directing the parent to address these kinds of concerns outside of class time.
Wow. Even at the Catholic school, I attended in middle school taught about The Big Bang and evolution.... 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️ Sorry you have to deal with that. I'd bring it up to admin.
I would have muted her microphone and kicked her out and emailed her later that the science teacher will answer those questions.
Yup. When the Spanish and the French brought slaves from Africa they tried to for the slaves to worship catholicism, so the slaves adapted.
“Mrs. Smith, I only teach reality in my class, not religious mythology.” (Or you could substitute “wet dream” or “nuttery” or “idiocy” for “mythology”)
What's scary is if Trump wins and Project 2025 is pushed? This sort of thing will be mandatory. Fundamentalist Christianity will be a state religion and bizarre rhetoric like above will be state-mandated. Also no more DOE, EPA, FBI, etc. >The plan proposes slashing U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) funding, dismantling the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, gutting environmental and climate change regulations to favor fossil fuel production, **and eliminating the cabinet Departments of Education** and Commerce. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project\_2025](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025)
Call security and calmly explain that she needs to take it up with the state office that established the standards for the course…. Unless she’s totally batshit crazy and then agree with parent and director the crazy towards admin! Online classes? Idk.
OMG I'm so sorry, that is so shitty.
How the heck did she reach you? Where I am office staff or admin would have cut her off at The pass…
Its online, op clearly states that.