Moron hillbilly's in bumfuck Virginia

[bobot]

The statement was not translated into English, and students were not asked to “translate it, recite it or otherwise adopt or pronounce it as a personal belief,”

“The communications have significantly increased in volume [Thursday], and based on concerns regarding the tone and content of those communications, Sheriff Fisher and Dr. Bond mutually decided schools and school offices will be closed,” the district said.

How pissed off were these redneck parents? Seems like a communication that resulted in the closing of the schools is a crime. Go ahead, call in something to a school that results in the school’s closing, without committing a crime. I dare ya’!

[Czarcasm]

@Freddy_the_Pig

Having students write out the profession of faith of a religion is not an appropriate exercise for a world religions course. The “moron hillbillies” were right to object.

Why the fuck not? Do you think that writing out the words will somehow cause them to be possessed or something? Should a “Comparative Religions” class come with a special “No Writing-No Homework” clause, just to make sure they don’t become influenced by those furrin religions?

[Lamia]

@Valgard

To clarify a little bit, it appears that this assignment was part of the class study on world religions, the assignment in question came out of a standard textbook and while it doesn’t have an English translation it does state quite clearly that it is the “Islamic statement of faith”.

I don’t find the content of this assignment to be objectionable, but it is surprising to me that this was a high school assignment when it seems like something more on the elementary school level:

Here is the shahadah, the Islamic statement of faith, written in Arabic. In the space below, try copying it by hand. This should give you an idea of the artistic complexity of calligraphy.

Since this wasn’t an art class they were presumably not being graded based on their ability to replicate the calligraphy. They apparently just had to make some reasonable attempt to draw what they saw in the designated box. Were I the parent of a child at this school it would bother me that my teenager was being given this kind of babyish busywork.

[Randolph]

Standing with the hillbilly(')s here in opposition, though not quite outrage - more head-shaking at the decision-making. Some people won’t even write out the word God on a message board, much less write out statements of faith.

[Czarcasm]

@Randolph

Standing with the hillbilly(')s here in opposition, though not quite outrage - more head-shaking at the decision-making. Some people won’t even write out the word God on a message board, much less write out statements of faith.

Was this Comparative Religion class mandatory or elective?

[The_Stainless_Steel_Rat]

@John_Mace

Let’s force the kids write “Christ is Lord” and see how the enlightened sophisticates on this board react.

@Czarcasm

If the assignment is to write out what each religion believes, then why not?

And even more if you have them do it in the original Latin (using Fraktur script, of course).

See, to my detractors, (and thank you, Drunky Smurf, that is the first time in decades I have been called a fucktard…), it’s a WORLD RELIGIONS COURSE (I capitalize it since some of you have apparently have trouble reading it). And the beliefs and professions of those religions will naturally be part of any course that claims to be teaching it with any sort of knowledge and skill.

NO ONE was asked to profess faith in any religion, they were asked to copy some calligraphy (I have a few examples on my wall from my time in the Middle East), nor do a dissertation on why Islam is the best religion.

As for what it says, well, it shouldn’t have come as any surprise to the students since it is the first basic tenet of Islam and they would have heard it in class anyway (remember, they are studying WORLD RELIGIONS–it will come up in class, I assure you).

I’d be more concerned that such upright and moral Christians, who have presumably been raising their kids in ‘the True Faith’ for years, feel that faith is so weak that a simple copy of Arabic script and teaching what other faiths believe would somehow turn those students away from their years of indoctrination in their Christian beliefs.

For those parents, I say: “Puny Faith.”

Now do you pre-pubesecent, snot-nosed, brain-hemmoraged, mentally-depressed, sons of a coastline, with the Idiot ball grafted to your asses, dummkopfes understand? Or did I use to many syllables?

[Fiveyearlurker]

@bobot

The statement was not translated into English, and students were not asked to “translate it, recite it or otherwise adopt or pronounce it as a personal belief,”

My opinion wouldn’t be different if they were asked to write out the Our Father in Sanskrit.

[bobot]

I agree, if this was done at an assembly, or as a group to begin the school day- but this was a freaking class about religions.

[Fiveyearlurker]

@bobot

I agree, if this was done at an assembly, or as a group to begin the school day- but this was a freaking class about religions.

The point of the lesson was:

“The students were presented with the statement to demonstrate the complex artistry of the written language used in the Middle East, and were asked to attempt to copy it in order to give the students an idea of the artistic complexity of the calligraphy,” a statement Bond gave the paper said."

There is no reason that a lesson on the complex artistry of the written language (which is itself an interesting lesson) has to be done with overt religious mantras of any kind. They could just as easily have picked any number of non-religious sentences and had exactly the same lesson. Not saying I’m outraged or that heads should roll, but this was a very avoidable mistake.

[QuickSilver]

I’m sure all this could have been resolved over a cup of coffee.

[Czarcasm]

@Fiveyearlurker

The point of the lesson was:

“The students were presented with the statement to demonstrate the complex artistry of the written language used in the Middle East, and were asked to attempt to copy it in order to give the students an idea of the artistic complexity of the calligraphy,” a statement Bond gave the paper said."

There is no reason that a lesson on the complex artistry of the written language (which is itself an interesting lesson) has to be done with overt religious mantras of any kind. They could just as easily have picked any number of non-religious sentences and had exactly the same lesson. Not saying I’m outraged or that heads should roll, but this was a very avoidable mistake.

It was a fucking class about fucking religion, you fucking fucktard, so of course the fucking calligraphy example would have something to do with fucking religion!

[VinylTurnip]

@Scumpup

Choosing that particular thing to write sounds almost like the teacher was trolling.

Tonight’s homework assignment: build a clock!

[Valgard]

@John_Mace

Let’s force the kids write “Christ is Lord” and see how the enlightened sophisticates on this board react.

While she doesn’t post here, my mom is a very liberal Jewish woman who taught English at Berkeley High School for years. Liberal and “sophisticated” enough? One of the classes that she really enjoyed teaching was “The Bible As Literature”, and I assure you that everyone had to write out plenty of stuff quoting God/Jesus/etc as part of that class. She also had students in that class who, like her, are not Christian.

The only student or parental complaints that she ever got were from some (not all) Christians who could not grasp the “…As Literature” part of the course and wanted to prosletyze, which was not an element of the class.

So let’s not jump to the conclusion that all “sophisticates” will get the vapors because their kids write out religious words as part of studying the cultural aspects of different faiths. I’m also pretty sure that if, say, some orthodox Jewish dad didn’t want their kid writing out the Lord’s Prayer they wouldn’t express their sentiments in such a threatening manner that the authorities would feel the need to close the whole school down.

[Czarcasm]

@John_Mace

Let’s force the kids write “Christ is Lord” and see how the enlightened sophisticates on this board react.

yes-Let’s take something totally out of context and see how a stawman reacts.

[Fiveyearlurker]

@Czarcasm

It was a fucking class about fucking religion, you fucking fucktard, so of course the fucking calligraphy example would have something to do with fucking religion!

It was a lesson about calligraphy. To think that a lesson about calligraphy can’t be taught with a non religious statement is odd to say the least. To so passionately dig in to such an obviously false argument even odder.

[Grrr]

This story is so full of WTF?

It’s a class about world religions but the teacher doesn’t bother to translate the script? Where the fuck is the educational value and that? Okay fine, so the kids learned how to draw a bunch of fancy letters. Wouldn’t that lesson be better taught in an art class?

And of all phrases to choose, what kind of retard do you have to be to NOT know this is going to piss some parents off? You can disagree with a parent’s way of upbringing their children, but you still have to respect their wishes. (As long as that upbringing doesn’t involve child abuse of course.)

If anyone needs to be pitted, it’s the teacher.
I’m Atheist BTW.

[Slash1972]

@Czarcasm

It was a fucking class about fucking religion, you fucking fucktard, so of course the fucking calligraphy example would have something to do with fucking religion!

What does the complex artistry of the written language used in the Middle East have to do with religion?

[Czarcasm]

@Grrr

If anyone needs to be pitted, it’s the teacher.

For teaching out of the very textbook the schoolboard had already approved?

[Valgard]

Hell, when we lived in England (I was 9) there was mandatory school prayer at a weekly assembly. I was uncomfortable (as a budding agnostic Jew) with having to sit there and recite the Lord’s Prayer but oddly enough, my parents had no problem with it.

There were also two brothers who were, IIRC, Muslim. Their parents objected to them having to participate in a Christian religious ceremony and you know what they did? They threatened to come down and slit every teacher’s throat so the administration surrounded the school with cops and cancelled classes.

Oh wait, that’s wrong. The parents told the school “We don’t want our sons to do this” so those two kids sat off to the side silently while the rest of us did our thing. I wondered if it was the school’s choice to actually move them away from the rest of us (that would have been jerkish, IMHO) or if the parents were not satisfied with “OK, how about they sit with their classmates and don’t say the prayer, just be respectfully silent for a minute”. Either way a better resolution than what some nimrods in that county felt was appropriate.

[Valgard]

@Slash1972

What does the complex artistry of the written language used in the Middle East have to do with religion?

If students in a predominantly Muslim country were learning about world religions as part of their world geography class, and there were generally unfamiliar with the English language, when it came time to appreciate the complex artistry of English (in the context of religion!), would it be more appropriate to have the students write out a psalm from the Bible or a paragraph from the owner’s manual of a 1974 Buick?