12yo Texan Girl Told to Write that God is Fake!

[Mavorpen]

It really isn't.

Okay.

You can keep repeating it doesn't belong all you want. It doesn't change that it's not what you're complaining that it is. You're not making a statement about God. You're making a statement about the CLAIM. If you can't differentiate between those two things, that's not a problem with the assignment, that's your problem and is at the heart of the assignment: critical thinking.

That you can't understand a claim about god, is talking about god, I can't help, I am done talking to you.

I mean, sure, you're "talking about God" in the most vaguest sense. Hell, even saying, "Christianity is monotheistic, and therefore it is characterized by the belief that there is one true supreme being (God), as opposed to polytheism, which asserts multiple deities," is "talking about God." That's not the claim. The claim you're insisting we accept is that they're making a statement, and therefore pushing a position, that God does or does not exist. That. Is. Not. What. Is. Happening. They're not debating the validity of the claim. They're teaching you how to categorize the claim and whether it best fits a fact, an opinion, or a common place assertion.

[Dyakovo]

In more depth, yes. Differently, no.

Yes differently, from the article
District officials [said] that the 12-year-old girl's story is not the same one that other students told officials. They also say that the other students claim this reading teacher did not say there was not a God during an assignment in class. The district said they interviewed eight of the 22 students who were in that same classroom.

A reading teacher passed out a critical thinking worksheet in class. Students were instructed to pick if something was fact, opinion or common assertion. One of the statements on the worksheet read, "There is a God."

And this doesn't support your position that "the lesson was about factsx common assumption, or falseness, and which catagory to pUT 'god is real' in."

[The Alma Mater]

It wasn't asking whether God was real. It was asking to categorize the claim.

Which is inappropriate for a public school classroom. By categorizing god, you are making a statement about god. Simply does not belong, I don't see what is so difficult to understand.

So how do you propose that topics like Latin are taught if one cannot call their gods myths ?

[Soldati Senza Confini]

Which is inappropriate for a public school classroom. By categorizing god, you are making a statement about god. Simply does not belong, I don't see what is so difficult to understand.

So how do you propose that topics like Latin are taught if one cannot call their gods myths ?

I never took Latin in high school but, isn't Latin class only supposed to teach about the language?

[Dyakovo]

Blatant falsehoods regarding the nature of atheism and macroevolution asides... the article states that the teacher in question is a Christian. From what I gather, she was attempting a critical thinking exercise. Nothing more, nothing less.

Forgive me if I don't share the OP's outrage.

You're forgiven.
*nods*

[Ethel mermania]

Yes differently, from the article
District officials [said] that the 12-year-old girl's story is not the same one that other students told officials. They also say that the other students claim this reading teacher did not say there was not a God during an assignment in class. The district said they interviewed eight of the 22 students who were in that same classroom.

A reading teacher passed out a critical thinking worksheet in class. Students were instructed to pick if something was fact, opinion or common assertion. One of the statements on the worksheet read, "There is a God."

And this doesn't support your position that "the lesson was about factsx common assumption, or falseness, and which catagory to pUT 'god is real' in."

I got falseness and opinion mixed up. Doesn't change the root premise. The line about god doesn't belong in a public school setting.

[The Alma Mater]

So how do you propose that topics like Latin are taught if one cannot call their gods myths ?

I never took Latin in high school but, isn't Latin class only supposed to teach about the language?

No, the culture and religion is quite present. If only because it is the main topic of many texts, like Ovids.

[Ethel mermania]

Which is inappropriate for a public school classroom. By categorizing god, you are making a statement about god. Simply does not belong, I don't see what is so difficult to understand.

So how do you propose that topics like Latin are taught if one cannot call their gods myths ?

Latin is a language, but if it were a roman history course. Teach it as. "The Romans believed their gods were real, and these are the stories they told about them".

[Fartsniffage]

And this doesn't support your position that "the lesson was about factsx common assumption, or falseness, and which catagory to pUT 'god is real' in."

I got falseness and opinion mixed up. Doesn't change the root premise. The line about god doesn't belong in a public school setting.

That's just nuts. Religion is a big part of society and just completely ignoring it in school is a bit like pretending the right wing of politics doesn't exist and will never have an impact on the kids lives.

[Prussia-Steinbach]

It wasn't asking whether God was real. It was asking to categorize the claim.

Which is inappropriate for a public school classroom. By categorizing god, you are making a statement about god. Simply does not belong, I don't see what is so difficult to understand.

And once again: We can't talk about religion in school anymore? That's going to leave a big fucking gap in the history curriculum.

[The Alma Mater]

So how do you propose that topics like Latin are taught if one cannot call their gods myths ?

Latin is a language, but if it were a roman history course. Teach it as. "The Romans believed their gods were real, and these are the stories they told about them".

So a complete overhaul of current classes then ? Same as with Greek ?

[Mavorpen]

I never took Latin in high school but, isn't Latin class only supposed to teach about the language?

No, the culture and religion is quite present. If only because it is the main topic of many texts, like Ovids.

Not really surprising considering that in every course I've taken for language (I've taken French, German, and Chinese), culture is a large focus because it's actually pretty important to understand the culture with respect to the language itself.

[Hladgos]

The teacher was trying to be progressive and introduce the kids to ideas they hadn't thought about before, but that kind of challenging activity is best left until mid life crisis'. The activity did seem a bit mature for kids their age, but it's always good to challenge one's beliefs in order to get them to find what the strengths and weaknesses are. It's just, people aren't always smart enough to understand that when a teacher criticizes one's opinion/fact/myth, it's often to get you to think about why you believe such a way, but it ends up with a knee-jerk blind reaction far too often as we see here.
And for fuck's sake, the teacher is Christian herself, says so in all the articles I've read.

As for the OP, you've got so many assumptions and bullshit in your argument that I won't even take the time to criticize.

Back to school.

[Neutraligon]

So how do you propose that topics like Latin are taught if one cannot call their gods myths ?

Latin is a language, but if it were a roman history course. Teach it as. "The Romans believed their gods were real, and these are the stories they told about them".

Ie the gods are opinion or myth/common assertion. Now, how is that different from God being opinion or myth/common assertion? Why can the gods or Rome be taught while the Gods of Christians not?

Would there have been an uproar had the comment been the Roman Gods are real?

[Ifreann]

Does that mean that, say, Pluto didn't exist before people discovered evidence of its existence?

No,

So then it was a fact that Pluto existed, even though no one had any evidence to

but before people discovered the evidence of its existence the people who would have said that Pluto exists as a fact would have met with skepticism about their fact because nobody else can see Pluto.

None of which means that it was not a fact that Pluto existed.

A fact depends solely on available knowledge at the time, because the distinction between a fact and an opinion is a human construct. It does not depend on whether or not someone randomly makes the claim. It rests solely on whether or not the person can prove their claim with a degree of verifiability.

A fact depends on being factual. This is fundamental to the concept of objective reality.

[Soldati Senza Confini]

No, the culture and religion is quite present. If only because it is the main topic of many texts, like Ovids.

Not really surprising considering that in every course I've taken for language (I've taken French, German, and Chinese), culture is a large focus because it's actually pretty important to understand the culture with respect to the language itself.

Huh, I took it that language classes would only teach you the language. Hence why I didn't really take Latin courses in high school.

[Neutraligon]

Not really surprising considering that in every course I've taken for language (I've taken French, German, and Chinese), culture is a large focus because it's actually pretty important to understand the culture with respect to the language itself.

Huh, I took it that language classes would only teach you the language. Hence why I didn't really take Latin courses in high school.

Most modern day language classes have a lot of culture included because culture affects the idioms and context of the spoken word.

[Ethel mermania]

Latin is a language, but if it were a roman history course. Teach it as. "The Romans believed their gods were real, and these are the stories they told about them".

So a complete overhaul of current classes then ? Same as with Greek ?

Not really, your just changing calling it a myth. Myth is a pejorative to a believer. there are any followers of Jupiter out there, your not making a claim as to the veracity of the stories.

Same with christianity. You can teach what christianity believes, without making the claim "jesus is lord".

[Mavorpen]

Not really surprising considering that in every course I've taken for language (I've taken French, German, and Chinese), culture is a large focus because it's actually pretty important to understand the culture with respect to the language itself.

Huh, I took it that language classes would only teach you the language. Hence why I didn't really take Latin courses in high school.

Culture is actually really important in these classes because they give you valuable context. It was especially important when I took some Chinese because certain words and phrases could appear harmless to us but turn out to be very insulting to native Chinese speakers.

[Soldati Senza Confini]

No,

So then it was a fact that Pluto existed, even though no one had any evidence to

but before people discovered the evidence of its existence the people who would have said that Pluto exists as a fact would have met with skepticism about their fact because nobody else can see Pluto.

None of which means that it was not a fact that Pluto existed.

A fact depends solely on available knowledge at the time, because the distinction between a fact and an opinion is a human construct. It does not depend on whether or not someone randomly makes the claim. It rests solely on whether or not the person can prove their claim with a degree of verifiability.

A fact depends on being factual. This is fundamental to the concept of objective reality.

Objective reality and statements of fact are two different things.

If it can be proved that Pluto is real then it is real. However, you could very well tell me that 50 years ago in September 25th of that year your dad was eating Nutella and that could be a fact in and of itself, even if I, or you, or your father have no way to verify the claim, based on your claim that a fact doesn't depend on verifiability but instead any claim can go uncontested as a fact as long as we do not have any way to verify it.

[Neutraligon]

So a complete overhaul of current classes then ? Same as with Greek ?

Not really, your just changing calling it a myth. Myth is a pejorative to a believer. there are any followers of Jupiter out there, your not making a claim as to the veracity of the stories.

Same with christianity. You can teach what christianity believes, without making the claim "jesus is lord".

There are indeed those who still believe in the Roman gods. Just as there are those who still believe in the ancient Egyptian gods (revival religions). Yet no one complains when we talk about the mythology of the Greek Gods. Again would you have an issue if for that assignment they were talking about the Greek or Roman Gods instead?

[Ethel mermania]

Latin is a language, but if it were a roman history course. Teach it as. "The Romans believed their gods were real, and these are the stories they told about them".

Ie the gods are opinion or myth/common assertion. Now, how is that different from God being opinion or myth/common assertion? Why can the gods or Rome be taught while the Gods of Christians not?

Would there have been an uproar had the comment been the Roman Gods are real?

Probably not, but there should be.

[JIMMYDAMAN]

As a Christian, I'm appalled by this. That teacher should have been fired for the reason you stated, among others.

As an atheist, I'm appalled by this.

[Old Tyrannia]

I'm going to skip all of the bullshit about "macroevolution" and the attack on the scientific community in the OP and just focus on the actual story. If true- and I have my doubts, considering the source and the fact that this supposedly took place in Texas of all places- then this is awful and clearly as much a violation of the US' secular constitution as any effort to promote Christianity in schools. The teacher in question should definitely be disciplined. However, the task itself doesn't seem too bad; it would be perfectly reasonable to ask a child to write an essay in which they discuss whether the existence of God is opinion, fact or myth and support their position with arguments. The essay should not be marked on the student's conclusion, however, but on how well the student constructs their arguments in support of the conclusion.

[Neutraligon]

Ie the gods are opinion or myth/common assertion. Now, how is that different from God being opinion or myth/common assertion? Why can the gods or Rome be taught while the Gods of Christians not?

Would there have been an uproar had the comment been the Roman Gods are real?

Probably not, but there should be.

So it seems to me that this is about special pleading for the Christian God. Myth is not being used in the pejorative, nor does it make any claim to whether the comment is actually fact. The same holds true for common assertion, it makes no claim as to whether the statement is actually factual, just that it is a commonly used phrase.