Far-Right Religious Extremists in Tennessee Attacking Public Education

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Oh . . . wait a minute. No, I’m sorry — that’s what the headline would be if Think Progress wrote this story. Let me try again:

Teacher Tells Ten-Year-Old Memphis Girl
She Can’t Write About God for Assignment

Memphis mother Erica Shead said she was angry after her 10-year-old daughter Erin, told her Wednesday, she wasn’t allowed to write about God for a school assignment.
“It was so cute and innocent. She talked about how God created the earth and how she’s doing the best she can,” said Shead.
Erin is a student at Lucy Elementary.
Shead said Erin was told she can’t use God as an idol for the assignment.

It’s Shelby County, Tennessee, so maybe you’re thinking Erica Shead and her daughter Erin are just typical hillbilly Bible-thumpers.

Doesn’t quite fit the Think Progress narrative. I mean, First Amendment freedom of religion — not like that’s a civil right or anything, eh?

After 10-year-old Erin’s writing about God was rejected, she tried again with Michael Jackson. That was OK. Jeff Dunetz blows a gasket:

Just to summarize for a moment; the teacher said that the creator of the universe, Lord, God himself could not be used as an idol but an accused pedophile who died of a drug overdose was a good choice? Please someone tell me what I am missing?

It’s about attitudes, Jeff. Public school is no longer about teaching facts. It’s not about teaching skills. It’s about teaching attitudes.

Hostility toward religion — rejection of the Bible and of divine authority — is essential to the project of modern public education.

Lesson One: There is no God.

Lesson Two: Your parents are stupid.

Lesson Three: Being gay is awesome.

Whatever comes after that is optional, but it’s important that these fundamental principles be taught in elementary school, or otherwise children might grow up to vote Republican.

And that would be a tragedy . . .

 


94 comments

  1. This was a boneheaded move by the teacher.

    Still, I’ve got to ask. What if it hadn’t been the Christian God that the little girl wanted to write about?

  2. Right. Imagine if a Tennessee school teacher had told a Muslim girl she couldn’t write about Allah or Mohammed. Think Progress would have been all over that story.

  5. The mother needs to fight this, and if she doesn’t get any satisfaction, she should get her daughter out of there. The teacher should be reprimanded, and if she does it again, suspended.

  7. WAIT A MINUTE! Has anyone asked the teacher what the assignment was? If it was, “Write about a person whom you admire,” I can see her point about not allowing God/Allah/Vishnu. If the child had chosen Jesus/Mohammad/the Buddha, I would fight that teacher to my last breath.
    I am devout Christian, but I’m a teacher who will fall on her sword for my students’ First Amendment right to fulfill my assignments with whatever viewpoint they want, but they do have to follow the directions of the topic.

  9. When I was studying for my Masters, one of my required classes was discussing “inclusiveness” wherein we were instructed to avoid the “single story,” meaning to always give fair consideration to the other side(s) even if we disagree with it/them. There’s an element of truth to that, so okay, fine.

    The funny thing is, this same course had a textbook with a chapter on world religions (I forget why). Christianity was given one small, woefully inadequate paragraph…Islam maybe 3/4 of a page…Buddhism got THREE WHOLE DETAIL RICH, WARMLY PHRASED PAGES.

    I brought this up discrepancy in class to see if anyone else noticed the contradiction. And guess what?

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