I honestly feel like I'm just staring at a brick wall here, almost like trying to explain the nuances of jazz to someone who only listens to heavy metal, you know? It’s one of those situations where you're putting in all this effort, pouring out your thoughts, and you just get nothing back—total silence. It feels a bit like being stuck in a dead zone in the middle of nowhere, Nebraska, with zero bars on your phone and no way to reach anyone. Just a lot of wasted energy and wondering if anyone is even on the same wavelength. Asks: That's actually pretty interesting.
The only thing I honestly can't wrap my head around is what this article is even trying to accomplish—other than proving exactly why people call this site Imdex.
So, basically, according to contract So, if you look at Article 1, Section 1, of the agreement between Washington, D.C. and America regarding cooperation in education and culture, it really sets the stage for how both sides plan to work together. It’s kind of a funny way to phrase it, but basically, religious studies is just an elective that you have to take if you actually decide to sign up for it.
Do I even need to spell this out for everyone, or is it pretty obvious?
The way I see it, if you actually look at what's written in the contract, religion is supposed to be a mandatory subject once a student officially opts in. Look, if the school regulations state that core subjects can't be scheduled during an opposing shift—while electives obviously can—then you can't just go around treating religion classes like they're some optional Italian language course. At the end of the day, it's more like mandatory English class; it's a fundamental part of the curriculum, not just some random elective you pick up on a whim.
Let’s just assume for a second that a deal actually went through with ExxonMobil, and that religious studies is going to be a mandatory subject for anyone who decides to opt into that track.
Another thing that’s been weighing on my mind lately is why all this online activism just seems to stall out instead of turning into something actually tangible. Like, we spend so much time shouting into the void on social media, but when does it actually evolve into real-world movement? I can't help but wonder why we haven't seen anyone push for a formal referendum to overhaul those existing contracts with religious organizations. It feels like we have all this momentum online, yet we never quite bridge that gap to demand a direct vote on changing how those agreements are structured.
It could be the first one or the last one, kind of like how an American high school period can fall at the start or the end of the day. But there's no way it can be scheduled for the opposite shift.
I mean, technically, every single elective becomes an "obligatory subject for those who choose it" the very second someone actually picks it. 🙂
unless the local priest starts refusing communion or withholding blessings from kids who skip religious studies class 😉
but honestly, I totally get being frustrated with those strict grading policies where they kick you out if you score below an A—that’s basically my life every single day.
a) I haven't actually heard of a situation where a kid gets enrolled right off the bat with an adapted curriculum. Usually, it works like this—they start first grade, the school does some observations, then they send you off for specialist evaluations, and at the very earliest, maybe during the second semester, you finally get a decision on an adapted program. So, yeah, that’s just one of those things I can't really have figured out right at the moment of enrollment.
b) Sarah Hall53, I don't think you're quite catching my drift here. Nobody is suggesting we take two existing classes and split them into two religious ones and one non-religious one—that's not the point. What people are actually asking is why, in a situation where there are three mixed classes containing about 17 or 18 non-religious kids total, they didn't just set up two dedicated religious classes with maybe twenty students each, plus one separate class for the non-religious kids. I mean, if they can manage to make two after-school care classes and one regular class—and it's not like student numbers or their abilities are stopping them from doing that—then the real reason they aren't forming a non-religious class might just be a) protecting the religious instructor's teaching hours, or b) basically putting indirect pressure on parents to sign their kids up for religious studies just so they don't end up with a massive gap in their child's daily schedule.
Donna Taylor5 said:What time are those religious studies classes held? It feels like my colleague is trying to operate in the shadows. She’s basically plugging her gaps in the schedule by running a program during the exact window when all the kids attending the after-school sessions are available (that zero hour right after the final bell). Look, you can fill your breaks however you want, but she’s being paid specifically for the after-school program—she admitted it herself: "it's in my contract"—so she has to make it accessible to everyone equally. Basically, she found a loophole to avoid staying late at school despite it being in her job description, and she’ll probably get away with it as long as nobody files a formal complaint.
Man, why did you delete your comment? I wanted to ask how equal treatment is actually possible for the kids skipping religious studies when the instructors are already getting paid.
My focus isn't exactly 🙂 lately, so I'm constantly refining my thoughts. Honestly, I mostly agree with you. Since cutting the program entirely might be tough, I'd just slash the religious studies block to one hour; I wouldn't even mind if they moved it to a local church. However, regarding the end of your post: the instructors are paid to teach the students who choose to attend, so there's no issue there. But the teacher still needs to be available for the other students too, since she's on the payroll for them as well.
If religious studies were lumped in with any other elective, she wouldn't even have this gap in her schedule to exploit. And since she feels this huge moral obligation to watch over the kids who aren't staying for religious studies—which, by the way, she is NOT being paid for, and it's eating into her own personal time—she's decided to kill two birds with one stone. She uses that scheduling gap caused by the short religious studies block to cover her bases, and yeah... let's just tear her apart! Honestly, how awful is that?
What Sarah Hall53 said. I mean, teachers shouldn't be forced to run extra makeup exams for every single subject every year—at least not from what I can see in my own district. It really just depends on the specific class they have and how they vibe with the kids. Sometimes it's math, sometimes it's English, sometimes it's science... but honestly, there should probably be supplemental sessions for any subject where there’s a genuine need. Though, don't quote me on that—I'm a subject-specific teacher myself, and I'll admit I sometimes miss those little nuances and quirks in general classroom dynamics 🙈—back when I taught elementary school, I had a much better handle on how everything functioned, but I guess you lose that touch after a few years of focusing on one area.
Honestly, you could have 75% of Americans declare themselves Pastafarians tomorrow and it wouldn't change a thing—the international treaty would still be perfectly valid. At the end of the day, those big interstate agreements don't care about how the majority chooses to identify 😉 It’s just how the legal gears turn. r'Amen 😬
shadowcrane91 said:I don't know what the deal is with my posts, other than the fact that you clearly hate my opinion. Foreign languages, drama, and other extracurriculars are also offered at school (at least in mine—my kids start tomorrow)—so you don't actually *have* to drive them anywhere (unless your specific school doesn't offer that stuff)....
The real issue here isn't religious ed itself; it's the total lack of organization within the school system.
But nope... people love blaming the religious classes....
Personally, I’m actually glad it’s offered at school....
The real headache is that because of certain international agreements, religious ed has to be baked right into the standard daily schedule. If it weren't for that little detail, the school would find a way—super easily, really—to organize things so nobody ends up with a gap in their schedule just because of religion classes. 😬 So, at the end of the day, the problem actually lies with the religious studies itself. 🙂
I don't even know where to start with this. Absolute nonsense. kaže: How many hours would you even spend covering interest rates in an elementary school class?🍿
Whether you learn one thing or a hundred—it doesn't matter. It’s irrelevant. What matters is learning *this*. You can fail at trigonometry; nobody's kicking you out on the street just because you can't calculate a sine wave. But you mess up a loan, take out a mortgage at a certain interest rate, and fail to pay it back? Then you're out on the street. Period.
Is "school" really the right word for this nonsense? Or is that term strictly reserved for heavy-hitting topics—like Kenya's GDP, the total landmass of Tanzania, or the specific year Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed a symphony?
Maybe people wouldn't be rushing into banks for loans like they’re grabbing ice cream on a summer day if someone actually sat them down and showed them how to calculate what they'd actually owe after interest kicks in.
No, let's just go full chaos like they did over in the UK—just send kids in diapers so their teachers can handle the potty training, or teach them how to use silverware, or even hand them over with shampoo and tell the teacher, "Hey, get this sorted by tomorrow," or something along those lines (I think I saw similar examples in The Guardian's column The Secret Teacher). That would be just wonderful, really—after all, isn't that what teachers spent years studying for? Honestly, at this rate, I could just stay home and teach my kids how to brush their teeth, tie their shoelaces, or slice bread... because apparently, reading, writing, and math are just optional extras now. Who actually needs those anyway?!
Brandon Foster7 said:I’m not sure this person actually knows anything about how things used to run back in the day—unless they were born before the Truman administration. They just love acting superior while trashing modern education.
School isn't just a place to hunt for facts you could easily Google in five minutes.
It's supposed to broaden your horizons, spark some actual curiosity about the world, and teach you how to value knowledge in the first place.
Or maybe they should just teach you how to get to the polling station, mark a ballot, fry an egg, fill out a check... that kind of stuff. ☕ My parents were the ones who taught me those basic life skills, but I guess today's kids just don't have the time for it anymore. It's fine, though—I suppose school will eventually take care of that.
Chloe Roberts2 said:Allowing grade changes at the end of the semester would basically just be handing out participation trophies to anyone running a campaign. Honestly, should the government really be stepping in just because some kids are lazy or simply couldn't care less about their classes? I mean, what exactly is it that these kids shouldn't be expected to study on a regular basis?
I'll give you four words: the scheduled written exam calendar☕ I mean, seriously—what kind of "regularity" are we even talking about here?
Even now, if you only finished three years of high school, you can't sit for your exams or get into college. It’s just not an option—not unless you're willing to put in the work and go back for that extra fourth year, assuming you actually have those kinds of ambitions in the first place.
I mean, seriously... an inspector rolls in and tanks your rating just because the hours listed in the annual syllabus don't perfectly match the logbook—or maybe some absence was logged slightly off—and suddenly they’re ordering a student to retake an exam. It's ridiculous. I actually watched this happen to a colleague of mine. She gave a student a B based strictly on their actual grades, which, of course, didn't sit well with some incredibly ambitious parents. The inspectors started playing dirty right away—trying to leverage her pending promotion to get her to budge. When she stood her ground and refused to inflate the grade, the principal basically forced the faculty board to vote for a higher mark instead. I saw the whole thing go down with my own eyes.
If we’re talking about the same forum here, honestly, you might just want to register—assuming you haven't already—and start your own thread. There are so many empty discussions just sitting there waiting for someone to kick things off... I really think people would jump in to talk about it. Especially those non-native speakers who are basically pulling their hair out over how grammatical concepts and sentence structures just don't seem to line up between an American's native tongue and a second language. It's such a headache for them.
Honestly, I’m the type of person who spends every single winter day 50 miles trudging along icy sidewalks, so you wouldn't believe how much I love it when we get a sudden snow day. It’s such a relief not having to carry my head around in a bag just to stay warm. But, if I’m being real, working with kids in the winter is actually way easier than during the summer—you know, when their brains basically melt from the heat. And let’s face it, those summer heatwaves are way more frequent and unbearable than the cold. (Then again, if they’d just install AC in every single classroom—especially in that cursed glass hallway where my lungs feel like they're burning the second I step out of an air-conditioned room—I might actually consider working all summer instead of begging for a break in the winter. ☕ But we all know we won't see AC in these classrooms until pigs fly, especially since at one school I practically have to beg for every single piece of chalk ☕ )
Nah, I don't think it's a missed opportunity at all. Honestly, if we're looking at this, let's actually compare how long the school year lasts here in the States versus over in Finland. And hey—if the weather isn't even a deciding factor, why wouldn't we just look at copying the Australian academic calendar? ☕
Don't forget about that teenage sweat—I was a mess in 7th and 8th grade, but you? You were probably struggling through every single year😬 I remember this one year where the heatwaves hit us by May, and honestly, we were just barely surviving, counting down the days until summer break. I walked into my very first period class as a sixth grader, and the kids were already sitting there in clothes soaked with sweat, hair matted to their heads. They’d basically finished sweating before they even made it through the school doors. It really makes you wonder if we actually have to put them through this torture—and I mean all of them, from age 12 up to 18, though I felt especially bad for those little ones. And now, because of some "special projects"—which usually just means the same twenty overachieving kids in the whole district who actually want to do something and end up being the only ones you can rely on (or fight over who gets to recruit them first)—they’re suggesting we extend this misery for an extra two weeks...
edit: We end up doing the same thing until sometime in early July, or if not that, then we're stuck grinding through paperwork during our regular hours at the school. But even then, after you finish a meeting, you find yourself hunting for the coldest possible corner in the parking lot, clutching a liter of water, just trying to write in peace and QUIET while surrounded by nothing but the scent of your own sweat.
Since parts of these schools were basically designed like giant greenhouses—I honestly see some major issues with keeping classes running through July 1st. I mean, we’re barely even making it to mid-June as it is, just gasping for air, especially during those afternoon sessions.
It’s funny how nobody seems to be talking about short breaks anymore—instead, everyone is obsessed with extending the school year itself. Like, imagine stretching the whole thing from September 1st all the way through August 31st just to squeeze in two extra weeks for some "project-based learning" nonsense. Honestly, that sounds like a total nightmare. Imagine being stuck in a classroom until July 1st when it’s a blistering 100 degrees outside. And before anyone starts lecturing me about how school calendars work in other parts of the world or in more developed Western countries—please, just do a quick Google search to see what kind of heatwaves we deal with here in the States during July and August.
Labor Law STRIKES AND RESOLVING COLLECTIVE LABOR DISPUTES Strikes and solidarity strikes
Article 205. (1) Unions have the legal right to call for and carry out a strike to protect and promote the economic and social interests of their members—this also includes striking if wages, portions of pay, or benefits aren't paid out by the actual due date.