Circumstances? I cannot believe there could be any circumstance that would make me think that he did the right thing. Considering that parents actively encourage their children to believe in Santa, he told a classroom full of children that Santa isn’t real. There’s not a single circumstance that would make me forgive this man for telling my imaginary child that. He had no right or business.
I don’t agree that most children find out when they’re six. I don’t think most children find out at age six, and this like most things needs to be taken on a case-by-case basis. Some children are ready to hear it, some aren’t. What should the teacher have done if a child asked him where babies come from? I’d be after his ass if he explained the facts of life to my six year old without seeking and recieving parental permission.
The second part of your statement - what should he have said in response to a direct question - is that he shouldn’t have said anything. He should have steered the topic of conversation towards safer grounds. He could easily have avoided the question and gotten on with the business of teaching - you know, the job he was there to do. If a grown man can’t influence a group of children to talk about a different subject, then he doesn’t belong in the classroom.
Any child in that class who believed in Santa was actively encouraged to do so by their parents, yet their teacher felt that he needed to shatter the illusion that the parents had created, without their permission, consent or blessing instead of doing the job he was paid to do - teach. There are a lot of things kids need to know before they know that Santa doesn’t exist.
Have you ever read a story to a child who keeps asking “But what happens in the end?” - most people I know smile and tell them to “wait and see”. I’ve never seen an adult flip to the back of the book and say “looks like they all live happily ever after”. If you’re reading to your child, and he asks what happens in the end, how’re you going to react to the man sitting next to you when he turns and blurts out the ending? There’s a reason why they call this sort of thing a “spoiler”. I think Santa Claus is a fairy-story we tell our children, and we try to make it seem real to them so it’s more fun. At the end of childhood lies the answer that Santa isn’t real, but even then many children will pretend they still believe in Santa to prolong the magic as long as possible. I did it - I didn’t tell my mother that I didn’t believe in Santa anymore. It’s a very personal thing to - different households have Santas that do different things. It is totally up to the parent to decide what their child should be told and when, and some jackass substitute teacher had no right to walk in and spoil the game for everyone involved.
How many employers expect their employees to be brutally honest about every detail of everything in the world, related to the job or not? You’d better be damn sure you don’t have any white supremists/anti-abortionists/pro-abortionists/holocaust-deniers/conspiracy-theorists/enviromentalists/etc on staff if you’re running a business like that. It’s not a lie to say nothing, especially when it’s not your job to say anything.
You call it lying, I see it as innocent fantasy. That’s fine and dandy, different opinions, different points of view.
What is not okay is when an outside party decides what is best for other people’s children and takes it upon themself to “educate” as to the reality of the Santa tale. I don’t give a shit what you tell or don’t tell your kid about Santa, it was not this teacher’s place to decide what these kids should know - period.
I think perhaps Santa Claus is a rather good way for children to learn that something can be “true” in ways other than the strictly literal. I am reminded of the opening line of my favorite Christmas song, the Kinks “Father Christmas”:
When I was young I believed in Santa Claus
Though I knew it was my Dad…
I remember discovering that Father Christmas wasn’t real at quite an early and innocent age, in fact I was so naive that I thought my parents still believed it, so I played along, not wanting to spoil it for them.
This all reminds me of Fry and Laurie’s Bank Loan (stick with it; you’ll see what I mean eventually)
Santa neutral household here – my kid didn’t believe in Santa from very young. Like about 2. But I still don’t think it was the relief teacher’s job to explode a myth. I’d possibly be less irked if it were a teacher who had a relationship with the children but for a relief teacher who was reading to kids in the library to volunteer the information (according to the Sunday paper here) is not right.
No, your 11 year old nephew does not still believe, but wants you to think so. Don’t be daft.**
I’m not being daft. :rolleyes: For a while we were under the impression that he was playing his parents, but there was something he said last night that made us think he still believed. He was concerned because they didn’t have a tree this year and said he should let Santa know where to put the gifts.
However, he is an intelligent child and if he’s on to the lie, then my husband and I think he’s an evil genius, especially since he asked for a new computer this year–you know how parents don’t want Santa to disappoint.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to come off so snarky.
What I mean to say is that a teacher’s job is to deliver factual answers to children’s questions. I honestlt feel it’s no big deal either way, tell the truth or change the subject- confirming the lie would lower the child’s expectations from teachers.
Surely parents are the best people to judge if their children should be lied to or not? It’s not a teacher’s job to criticize parenting skills, and Santa Claus, religion and other such things are all best left uninterfered with. A parent should have the right to bring their child up the way they want to in regards to mythology and family tradition, and they should be able to trust a teacher to respect their rights.
People are overlooking the serious practical reasons behind maintaining a belief in Santa Claus. Telling the kid that Christmas presents come from someone else takes a load off the parents. I think that’s the whole point behind the Santa Claus myth.
See, the kid sees a lot of advertising for toys, even more when Christmas comes closer. She wants everything. If she tells me that she wants something (that we may or may not be able to afford for her) I ask her why she’s telling me, she needs to write a letter to Santa (this also encourages her to improve her reading and writing skills). When she doesn’t get everything she wanted, the blame’s off us - we just tell her that Santa can’t bring everything on the list. When the kid misbehaves I threaten to report her to Santa, and go get the phone, she’ll plead not to snitch on her and she’ll usually behave for the rest of the night.
I’d be pissed if someone told her Santa wasn’t real, and not because out of nostalgia or the joy of adding something fanciful to the child’s life - it would just make things a lot harder for her mom and me.
I always looked at it as a right of passage. The day you realize that there is no Santa is the day you are no longer a little kid. This may not be the same for all kids, but it certainly was for me. I look back on my childhood Christmas’ as happy times. I couldn’t wait to see what Santa had brought me Christmas morning. As the years went by, I realized Santa’s handwriting was the same as Mom’s. This did no fuck me up, it didn’t cause me distrust my parents and I did not crawl on the top of a water tower and pick off random civilians with a high powered rifle.
You’ve gotta be kidding me. Confirming the lie would lower the child’s expectations from teachers? If a child knows that Santa doesn’t exist then it’s quite likely that the child would understand why the teacher would not shatter the Santa belief. I also somehow doubt that a kid would even think twice about it either way. Too busy bitching about math homework.
Unless in the next 28 days someone tops flying airplanes into buildings and killing some 5000+ people “The Official Jerk of the Year Award” is pretty much a lock.
But I’d have to agree that the decision to tell a classroom full of 6 year olds that Santa does not exsist was probably not one of this teachers most shining moments.
For religous reasons my children have always been told that Santa was a fun part of Christmas but not a real person.
Since my kids were old enough to understand we have made it very clear that it was not their place to educate their friends on the particulars of Santa’s exsistance.
I feel very strongly that a childs’ belief or non-belief in Santa is a decision to be made only by that childs’ parents.
This teacher made and error in judgement and over stepped his bounds. Now he understandably is having to deal with the backlash from angry parents and from the school as well.
Yeah, I figure killing thousands of people and destroying skyscrapers overqualifies you for “Jerk of the Year”, and puts you in a whole other league.
Ruining Christmas fantasies for small children is a jerky thing to do. Killing thousands in an effort to plunge the world into war with the aim of destroying America is more in the league of “Complete and Utter Asshole of the Century”.
