Thursday, May 07, 2009
Every now and then...
Every now and then a Federal court does something more or less right. In this case a Fed district court ruled against a public school teacher who was treating Christianity and creationism with disdain.
Full story here.
I said "more or less right" because ideally schools shouldn't be universal and mandatory. In an open school system, the religious opinions of a teacher would be naturally rewarded or punished by the parents. A school that caters to atheist students would hire an obnoxious atheist like Corbett, and a school that caters to normal Christian Americans would hire normal Christian teachers. But since we do have mandatory conscription-style schools, it's imperative to keep the teachers neutral. Most Federal decisions explicitly favor atheist idiots like Corbett, so given the overall context, a pro-neutrality decision is worth a little celebration.
A federal judge has ruled that a California public high school teacher who made denigrating remarks about religion and Christianity violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment when he called creationism "superstitious nonsense."
James Corbett, an Advanced Placement European history teacher at Capistrano Valley High School, also said "when you put on your Jesus glasses, you can't see the truth." He compared prayers for divine intervention to hopes that the "spaghetti monster" will "help you get what you want." Corbett, who has taught for 20 years, also said "Conservatives don't want women to avoid pregnancies — that's interfering with God's work."
However, U.S. District Judge James Selna ruled that only Corbett's comment calling creationism "religious, superstitious nonsense" violated the constitutional rights of former student Chad Farnan.
Full story here.
I said "more or less right" because ideally schools shouldn't be universal and mandatory. In an open school system, the religious opinions of a teacher would be naturally rewarded or punished by the parents. A school that caters to atheist students would hire an obnoxious atheist like Corbett, and a school that caters to normal Christian Americans would hire normal Christian teachers. But since we do have mandatory conscription-style schools, it's imperative to keep the teachers neutral. Most Federal decisions explicitly favor atheist idiots like Corbett, so given the overall context, a pro-neutrality decision is worth a little celebration.
Labels: Experiential education
¶ 7:28 PM
