An Idaho English teacher is in trouble for ripping up a Bible in class.
At first I thought this was going to be a crazy college teacher who was got so upset at not being able to disprove a Christian in her classes, she decided to tear the bible up to make a point.
Burley High's Karen Christenson said she was trying to illustrate a point about censorship, as her sophomore students read Ray Bradbury's novel "Fahrenheit 451," which is set in a future society that commands all literature be burned.
Principal Jeff Harrah said Christenson isn't a Bible hater. He said she tore up the Bible in an effort to get her students to think about how it feels to have something they consider sacred destroyed.
He added the idea behind the controversial lesson was a good one, but with a bad result.
Christenson was disciplined but officials would not say what action was being taken against her.
Harrah called Christenson a "great teacher."
What if this teacher had torn up the Koran? I bet she would have been fired.
Of course, where is the censorship here? Was it in the lesson or was it in the response that the school had? I bet the response from the school was based on the response from the parents of the kids or from the kids their selves. It was probably some kid who was not paying attention and just caught the ripping and not the explanation before and after.
interesting though.
cube
Tuesday, September 14, 2004
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1 comment:
Seems to me that the teacher did a great job and taught an effective lesson.
As a side note to your comment about the Koran, if she had torn up the Koran she probably should have been fired. It is hard to imagine that tearing up the Koran would have been anything but a display of intollerance and bigotry while tearing up a Bible makes sense as an object lesson of destroying something the students consider sacred. Not many in Idaho would consider the Koran sacred.
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