Anyone have experience facing anti-Christian public school bias?

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Lrning

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My local high school district community has been in an uproar for months now. It’s getting tiring. Just recently, a teacher showed a sophomore class this anti-religious video:

youtube.com/watch?v=o4xIi-TwY-Y

(Warning: the video is 40+ minutes long and is very offensive to people of faith.)

The teacher thinks it was okay to show because the “context” was a discussion on bias. This video was used as a means of illustrating bias. Well, yeah! It’s biased allright. Atheist Richard Dawkins paints religion as evil and dangerous, followers are void of all reason, and parents that pass their faith to their children are guilty of CHILD ABUSE! What 15 year old needs to see this, regardless of context.

It just seems like lately, its always something. This teacher introduces a book that is offensive, and one could argue contains extensive passages bordering on pornography. That teacher shows an R-rated movie to 14 year olds. And on and on.

Concerned parents speak up at School Board meetings, and teachers and students get up and paint those parents as a small minority that wants to impose their views on the majority. (The local newspaper jumps right in on the bandwagon.) Admittedly, there is a small, radical group of parents that have joined forces and do come off kind of half baked. But they don’t speak for all of us!

Has anyone found an effective means of dealing with similar situations before? Please share your experience. It seems that taking each instance and addressing it specifically just doesn’t get anywhere. The teacher/division head/superintendent always has an excuse/rationale/“context” whatever. It goes on and on. Other than sending my kids to private school (not a $ option) what can be done???
 
Yes the most effective thing that i have found is pulling them out of the school and sending them to another.

Showing movies to 14y/o is not appropriate and not legal.
I would sit in my kids class unannounced to the school so they had no time to prepare for my visit…and then take notes and pictures of everything “morally wrong” that I see Take that to the next BOE meeting and see if things do not get better…also perhaps contacting your local paper and get them involved
 
Is it possible to notify the school, and tell them that you want to preview EVERY movie that will be shown to the students. As far as showing “R” rated movies----kids have to be at least 17 to see it without a parent, right? I would definitely bring that point up. You have a legal right to know exactly what the curriculum is for your child. I’m sure you will have resistance, but it is your right, as a parent, to know what your child is learning at school. I agree with Karin. I’m not sure I would go “unannounced”, but I would set up a time to come in and observe classes. Perhaps do it on a regular basis.

With re: to the anti-Christian movie. Bring up “separation of Church and state”. Atheism is considered a “religion” of sorts. Can you imagine the uproar if there was a movie shown by a priest or minister? It’s along the same lines to me. Contact the Thomas More Law Center in Ann Arbor Michigan. They take on these types of situations quite a bit. It really sounds as if you may need to get legal counsel, and if you’re brave enough, let the school know that you are doing so.

If you just don’t want to continue the fight, you may need to consider homeschooling for the rest of the year if you can’t afford private schooling.
 
If you show up announced that gives them time to change the curiculum for the day you will be there…shoe up announced and you are more likely to catch them doing something that they shouldnt
 
🙂 I think I can honestly say I don’t know any high school students that would appreciate their parent showing up to observe a class, announced or unannounced. As tempting as the thought is…I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. In this crazy, mixed up world, children with faith and moral conviction are such a minority to begin with…and I do want my children to have friends!

Has no one had firsthand experience with how to handle a school that consistently introduces the children to things that are morally repugnant? I was hoping to learn from the experiences of others. High school is such a difficult time for children, I was hoping not to blunder my way through this.
 
Lrning said:
🙂
Has no one had firsthand experience with how to handle a school that consistently introduces the children to things that are morally repugnant? I was hoping to learn from the experiences of others. High school is such a difficult time for children, I was hoping not to blunder my way through this.
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Yes I have experience with this …what did I do…PULLED MY KID OUT OF PUBLIC SCHOOL AND SENT THEM TO A CATHOLIC SCHOOL!
It was a sacrfice but worth every single cent!!!
 
Homeschooling works for us!

Seriously, however, I’d like to make two points: 1. Is it more important that your children have friends or that they spend their eternity in Heaven?
  1. You will not always hear it, but as a homeschooling mother, I have: kids think involved parents are great. I remember this from high school, and I see it with children we know in school. If you show up anannounced, your children may well express anger, but they’ll get over it when they hear how cool you are not only from kids they know but kids they don’t know.
OTOH, if your school system is as bad as all that, they probably won’t let you in. They will tell you that it is disruptive to have parents coming in and out whenever. I forget who it was that used to have a lot of information about how school bamboozled parents, try Phyllis Schlafley or a creationism group, but there is info out there on how schools will tell each parent who complains that they are the only ones, etc, etc, etc. Disgusting. Which is, in part, why we homeschool.
 
I just got out of high school, and there was a teacher who was obviously buddhist/islamic/new age. His views were constantly pushed on the class even though he constantly said he didn’t want to. He was an English teacher, and if you tried to find a good Christian reference, it would be shot down “Well…maybe but the author was really going for " or "No, I think that’s actually” or whatever (unless it was a negative image, that was allowed).

I got tired of it and switched classes but there is a solution here that nobody has mentioned. Let your kids deal with it. That’s what we did (there were a few Christians in that class).

A lot of adults don’t think kids get as angry as they do about things like this. Let me tell you, it really ticks us off. Those were our most sacred beliefs. We were angry, it upset us. So we wrote letters in our school paper. We spoke to the principal. We wrote pro-Christian papers anyway and took a lower grade. And yeah, we had our parents call in.

Kids can get just as up in arms as an adult, especially if we think an adult is pushing a contrary view on us. We were very clearly taught our rights in Civics class. 😛

Ask your kids how they feel about it. Build them up in their Faith and encourage them to take action (maybe to the school board even. Nothing shows those students on the school board that no, the parents aren’t a minority than when their fellow students are just as ticked). If your children are too embarassed or nervous then don’t get them invovled but chances are, they don’t like it either.
 
Lrning said:
🙂 I think I can honestly say I don’t know any high school students that would appreciate their parent showing up to observe a class, announced or unannounced. As tempting as the thought is…I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. In this crazy, mixed up world, children with faith and moral conviction are such a minority to begin with…and I do want my children to have friends!

Has no one had firsthand experience with how to handle a school that consistently introduces the children to things that are morally repugnant? I was hoping to learn from the experiences of others. High school is such a difficult time for children, I was hoping not to blunder my way through this.
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I guess I didn’t make it clear in my original thread!! I have recently had some first hand experience with dealing with issues at my kid’s school. I did just as I suggested above. I asked to preview certain materials. I did come up against some mild resistance, but I did get my way. I simply did not give up. I continued to email, then met in person, called the people that I needed to call. I hooked up with a couple of other like-minded parents and we all stood firm. The key is to know what your LEGAL rights are as a parent and exercise them to the full extent of the law. It may behoove you to get very knowledgeable about what you can legally do. I have family members who are teachers. They always tell me that I can do what I want with MY kid. If I want to pull him from a class or make sure that I am privvy to every single movie or assembly that will be shown, then so be it. You may be labled a “weirdo, conservative, religious nut” type parent, but who cares? This is your child.

As far as observing classes…I understand what you mean. My kid would not have too much trouble with it. However, other kids would. I wouldn’t do it if my kid would get all embarrassed and upset. I know many would have a different view of that, but I think a parent needs to respect his child’s feelings. I had a friend who observed a questionable teacher’s class, but just not her son’s class. She was able to see how the teacher ran the classroom without embarrassing her son.

I hope I was more hopeful this time around!
 
Thank you everyone for the ideas. And Rawb, good for you for speaking up as a student!!! I really do think that is the best way to get things to change. Unfortunately my children, and many, many others, are too afraid of retribution to speak up. A few students do speak up. A few have even presented at School Board Meetings. But the majority of students that have spoken up have been of the opinion, “shut up parents, we’re not babies, we see this stuff in the real world anyway, so why not in school too.” (There have been reports that some teachers have actually given extra credit to those students that would defend their rights to have smut/pornographic books on the required reading list.)

Sigh* It’s a long, involved story. I guess I was hoping for some wonder fix. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve spoken up. I handle each offense as it occurs. And nothing ever seems to improve with this method. Perhaps I really do need to be more pro-active and require to see the list of books and movies BEFORE they are shown.

Thanks everyone.
 
As a child who went to both public and Catholic schools, I learned the best thing is to talk with my parents about what I learned or what appeared to be controversial. I had the opposite problem, finding that I was having to defend my faith in my own religion class in Catholic schools, and therefore, my parents sent me to public high school because they didn’t want to waste their money. (They homeschool my youngest siblings)

However, I came across a lot of liberal teachers in public high who gave their opinions (anti-Catholic, anti-conservative) very decidedly and presented them as fact. If your child is well-developed in his faith and/or is open to discussing these things with you, that’s the best approach. As a teenager, who’s parents got involved in another problem when I was a teen, I didn’t appreciate it too much and it caused a rift in our relationship (although I’m thankful now). I always brought these things to my parents and they gave me the truth, and if they didn’t have the answer, they found out. It really helped and prepared me for the continuous obstacles that each person faces in the world later in life. I hope this helps! God bless!
 
I’m a public school teacher (who is becoming a Catholic through RCIA right now.) Your child does, of course, have the right to his or her own opinions and religious beliefs, but he or she will always, always be exposed to other beliefs, not just in school, but in life. I really think that teaching your child how to make good choices in the face of another’s opinion/belief/action is the best route, because one day, you are not going to be there to put him or her in a situation with completely like-minded people. When I was in college, I went to a Southern Baptist school where parents sent their kids to be very isolated in the Baptist tradition, and I think they were the poorer for it due to only knowing people just like themselves. If you take away situations where children might have to make a choice between right and wrong, then they may not develop the ability to make those choices when it counts. As a teacher, I will honestly tell you that lack of critical thinking skills is one of the main problems our children have today–they just don’t know how to think morally/critically when faced with hard decisions most of the time.
I’m sorry if this sounds like a soapbox spiel, but I feel like I had some experience with some of this, and wanted to offer my opinion to you. I’d also be happy to talk with any parents on this thread about what’s going on specifically with the teachers you’re talking about.
 
HollyRose said:
I’m a public school teacher (who is becoming a Catholic through RCIA right now.) Your child does, of course, have the right to his or her own opinions and religious beliefs, but he or she will always, always be exposed to other beliefs, not just in school, but in life. I really think that teaching your child how to make good choices in the face of another’s opinion/belief/action is the best route, because one day, you are not going to be there to put him or her in a situation with completely like-minded people. When I was in college, I went to a Southern Baptist school where parents sent their kids to be very isolated in the Baptist tradition, and I think they were the poorer for it due to only knowing people just like themselves. If you take away situations where children might have to make a choice between right and wrong, then they may not develop the ability to make those choices when it counts. As a teacher, I will honestly tell you that lack of critical thinking skills is one of the main problems our children have today–they just don’t know how to think morally/critically when faced with hard decisions most of the time.
I’m sorry if this sounds like a soapbox spiel, but I feel like I had some experience with some of this, and wanted to offer my opinion to you. I’d also be happy to talk with any parents on this thread about what’s going on specifically with the teachers you’re talking about.
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While I’m not a teacher yet (I have one more year of schooling to go~yeah!), I agree w/ you 100% .
 
Alos having worked as a teacher in public and private school settings, I agree with HollyRose as well. The education you are giving your child at home is far more influential than any nonsense that goes on in the classroom.

Also, Rawb is correct that students can get pretty outspoken if their feathers are ruffled when it comes to what they believe. They will challenge teachers like this–sometimes to make a point, sometimes just to get a rise out of them and take up class time. I remember seeing such things happen when I was in high school, and also when I was in training to be a teacher.

Teach your child to be strong in what he believes, and to stand up for himself. If he doesn’t encounter anti-christian and anti-catholic biases in school, he’ll get them any time he turns on the television, as well as many other situations.

And, unless I’m mistaken, teachers are supposed to send permission slips home and offer pre-screening opportunities if they plan to show r-rated movies to younger high schoolers. One of the reasons I prefer to avoid them in my classroom. If I can teach the same lesson with tamer material, it’s usually worthwhile to leave the R-rated films out of it. 🙂
 
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