Do teachers in a public school have the authority or the right to talk to their students about Jesus, or even ask their students if they know what Jesus would do in their situation? It seems implausible that anyone who understands the separation of church and state - and who knows why it's important - would approve of such behavior. In North Carolina, though, some teachers think this is fine.

First Year Teacher (now a third year teacher, actually) posted her resignation letter to her blog. Among her many (and depressing) complaints was:

Also, you should look into something. In this country we have separation of church and state. I am not sure if you have heard of this, but I don’t think it is okay that you have prayers at every meeting and allow teachers to ask students what Jesus would do when they misbehave. No matter what your religion is, I’m pretty sure that is not appropriate at a public school.

That’s just amazing — I guess I want to be surprised that this would happen, but to be quite honest I’m not really as surprised as I should be. This teacher is absolutely correct that such behavior is not appropriate at a public school. If both teacher and student happen to go to church together, then it might be appropriate outside the school context — in school, however, teachers are employees of the state and have an obligation to set their personal religious beliefs aside in order to fulfill their duties in a professional and fair manner.

Anyone who can’t supervise and teach kids without bringing their religion into it should probably find another profession — preferably one in the private sector.

Browsing through the archives of her blog (which are definitely worth reading), I stumbled across this incident which occurred after she returned from job-hunting in Portland:

One of the older teachers here said, “Come here, Baby’” and took my by the hand. She brought me into her classroom, went to her desk and got out a little bottle of oil, and then put some of the oil on the backs of my hands. Then she held my hands in hers and said a prayer for me to get a job. I had no idea what this all was until I asked another teacher that I know. He told me that she had anointed me.

Now, I find this slightly freaky and uncomfortable. But I also find it comforting, in a way. I mean it can’t hurt to be anointed, right? And it’s nice that she cares enough about my life to take the time to do this ceremony, which is sacred to her. But I feel it’s a bit presumptuous to just go around anointing folks. I’m not…whatever religion she is.

This is even more disturbing in some ways than the first incident. I’m not quite sure how I would have reacted, but I’m doubtful that I would have been as complacent and passive as this teacher was. Granted, the person performing this inappropriate action probably had the best intentions and surely was trying to express the fact that she cared, however... not every such expression of caring is appropriate and, sometimes, people need to be made aware of this.

The fact that someone has “good intentions” can’t always require that one sit there and just take whatever comes along. Maybe it can’t “hurt” in a physical sense to be anointed, but it arguably “hurts” in the sense that the passive, accepting reaction here only reinforced this teacher’s assumption that everyone shares her beliefs and is comfortable with behavior like this. Such assumptions have political implications because they help fuel the attitude that Christians should rule, Christian beliefs should be the foundation of our laws, and Christian “values” should determine the boundaries of American culture.

Some Christians really need to be shaken up a bit and dragged out of their cocoons so that they realize that there are lots of people out there who don’t share their beliefs.

 

Christian & Religious Privilege:

• Religious Privilege
• Christian Privilege
• Hidden Christian Privileges
• Christian Supremacy

 

Religion in Public Schools:

• Religion in Public Schools: News
• School Prayer
• School Holidays: Good Friday & Easter
• School Holidays: Christmas
• Arguments Against School Vouchers