Posts by wanderingbadger44

Yeah, I suppose we’re all just going to act completely blindsided by this, much like how the Secretary of State reacted, pretending this guy is just some one-off outlier or a freak occurrence rather than part of a pattern.

wanderingbadger44, honestly, do you really think a child’s autism, Down syndrome, or physical disabilities just magically evaporate when they walk into an exam room?

An aide is assigned to the student, not to a specific subject. Their entire job is to be by that student's side, through both classes and breaks.

And regarding our colleague—just like the aide—nobody is foolish enough to stick their neck out when it's obvious that the principal, the school administration, and the parents are all looking the other way. In fact, plenty of people probably think this guy is unhinged, which gives him all the cover he needs to speak comfortably without any real consequences. 🙂

At the end of the day, like the link I shared and what frupy mentioned, we're talking about straight A's here... let's be real. 😬

It's up to the parents now. They just need to let the District Attorney's office take formal statements from their children.

edit: Why would the DA even bother subpoenaing the homeroom teacher? First off, the teacher isn't the colleague's boss, so there's no hierarchy there to exploit. Second, even if he did know something, how could anyone actually prove it? The kids haven't filed a single complaint against the religion teacher; if anything, they're busy signing petitions to make sure he stays.

driftinggull83 said:Honestly, this whole situation is just grim. My kid starts school this year, and this was quite literally the final straw—there is absolutely no way they'll be participating in religious education classes.
What’s the actual landscape like for outliers like us in the Chicago public school system? What percentage of a typical class actually signs up for those courses? And what do the other kids end up doing instead?

The only real way to get religious education stripped from the standard daily schedule is if parents collectively stop opting in. The logic used to keep it in the curriculum is basically that most students attend, and most parents sign their kids up simply because they don't want them feeling left out or neglected. It creates this endless loop. The only way parents can break that cycle is by refusing to enroll their children.

If there were more of us, we'd have actual leverage. We could make a stand. It feels incredibly isolating when your child is the only one skipping those classes. But if you have five or six kids doing the same thing, it becomes much more manageable. At the very least, they won't be stuck wandering the halls or sitting alone in the library; and let's face it, those "alternative" spaces aren't officially regulated, and the school doesn't exactly assign staff to supervise the kids who opted out.

Parents 😍 won't let their kids testify in court

“You guys really messed up with him instead of that physics teacher. With him, we all walk away with an A.”

Susan James said:Fair enough. I asked if you had specific experiences dealing with religion teachers versus regular classroom teachers, and you mentioned you just have general experience with parents revolting.

Let’s break this down step by step:
More people here have shared (and linked) stories where religious instructors aren't treated on equal footing with other teachers.
I get that you're annoyed by parents attacking the teaching profession and constantly questioning things, but we're talking about reporting a religious instructor. It’s about their hiring, their career advancement, their work ethic, and how they treat students.
If you're making reports without any proof, you can take that advice elsewhere.

An English teacher is going to face way more heat for asking kids to write an essay on a topic like "Where would Jesus lead us?" or "A prayer for my family"—even when following the approved curriculum and using standard textbooks🙄—than a religious instructor from a recent story (not naming names!) who hasn't provided any evidence.

Honestly, I don't think even that English teacher will get in trouble because nobody is questioning or changing religious views; if anything, people just offer a blessing. There isn't a massive Facebook mob that will result in a formal reprimand for a regular teacher, let alone getting fired without proof. 👎

Look at this whole topic... there are endless Facebook groups, articles on news sites like CNN or USA Today, and various other portals where people share their experiences regarding religious education, the curriculum, and how religious students are treated by instructors compared to non-religious ones. As far as I know, not a single religious instructor has been fired yet, despite all the stories.
Stories we know about.
Stories being discussed.
And unfortunately, there are stories we don't know about, where kids are just forced to deal with whatever is being served under the guise of "education."
In small towns where authority is never questioned, people just submissively follow along.
👎

Personally, it makes me a little sad that even regular teachers just quietly accept that their colleagues—despite being on the same budget and working in the same building—get more perks. Are you guys going to stand up for yourselves, or are you just waiting for parents to start a riot on Facebook?

It feels like you look for any excuse to take a jab at teachers.

It’s funny how you linked that article about how untouchable they are, claiming even principals can't touch them, yet here you are wishing the faculty lounge would tear them apart instead.

It is just sad that the only real leverage comes from parents. But oh, heaven forbid we hold them accountable—you immediately brush them off as "uninformed" or "poor things." Meanwhile, for everyone else, teachers seem to know exactly where the local agency and the Department of Education offices are located.

If any other teacher acted this way, parents would be staging revolutions in the streets by now. But because he's the religion teacher, he gets a free pass because:
a) every single student gets an A in religion class
b) "Oh, don't be too hard on him, the kids need their sacraments and their First Communions..."

To be honest, I'm actually kind of looking forward to seeing this scandal play out. 🥳

I think that’s an incredible way to look at things, and honestly, it’s a brilliant suggestion that could work just as well for high schoolers as it does for college students, letting everyone choose their own path based on what they actually want to study.

My only hesitation is that a plan like this usually comes with a hefty price tag, so we might have to face the reality that it’s out of reach before we even get started.

Susan James said:It’s not like they have to be geniuses, and not everyone who nails advanced math chooses to go into liberal arts or pure sciences (by the way, you need advanced math for psychology too).

I’m not expecting a perfect score on the SAT or anything, but if someone wants to become a teacher—someone whose whole job is laying the educational foundation for kids—and they choose the easier math track, I think that’s a real disservice to the teaching profession.

Computer science will probably end up being taught by theology majors with a minor in IT. 🥳 🙂

My main point was that anyone with enough academic leverage to actually make a choice—those with high enough test scores to aim higher—tends to steer clear of the public school system or social work, instead opting to engage in endless debates with the John Does of the world who think they're experts on everything.

It's a textbook case of negative selection.

Look, I honestly don't get why someone who's already crushed advanced calculus would even consider enrolling at Teachers College. You really have to think about it.

And just wait until you see the absolute chaos of who they’ll actually be hiring to teach computer science once it becomes a mandatory subject. 😬

Larry Walker24 said:And you actually think it's normal for SAT English scores to be better than the scores on the literature exams?!

I don't really see why anyone would find that unusual; it feels like asking why someone might be better at math than history.

urbantinker8 said:Honestly, after seeing how this current state-mandated graduation exam turned out, I think we should just pray to God we never have to deal with any more "standardized testing" like this again.🤦

What’s actually wrong with the SATs? Aside from students getting decent scores? Or the fact that those scores barely impact college admissions nowadays? (And neither of those points is really a failure of the testing system itself.)

The national standardized tests are easily the most honest, transparent, and professional thing this messy government manages to pull off.

Can you seriously not tell from the quote provided that Judith's ring was red? Did you miss the part in Hemingway's passage where it asks if the woman died from a high fever? Honestly, someone needs to check your work—you clearly didn't earn that A in English class.

Jason Morgan said:I find myself hearing from parents on a systematic basis that their kids "just don't study," yet the moment they are faced with a question that requires actual deduction, the outcry begins: "Where is that written?!" Both the children and the parents seem to have a profound, almost romanticized love for mindless memorization.
You can take those fairy tales somewhere else.

Amen.
Enter.

nimblelynx7 said:What "black war"? The last one ended about 20 years ago, started nearly 30. How long are we going to blame war for everything? If anything is to blame, it certainly isn't the school system.

I'm living here right now. I didn't come up with those stupid American arguments, but I'm still waiting for an answer to my question.

🤦

Dear parent John Doe,

the user Maja responded to your question:

nimblelynx7 said:That isn't an issue here in the States; we’re smart enough to actually run a government, unlike those clueless Americans. But that's beside the point.

The real question is how on earth can such ignorant, uneducated Americans run the entire world, while people as brilliant and highly educated as us can't even manage our own backyard?

She put it quite nicely:

silentraven6 said:One word: WAR!

Let's just say their entire historical timeline looks a lot like ours did back with Rojs ☕

Go live in the States and then get back to me on how that works out for you.

I'm not even going to bother commenting on these mindless questions being spun by parents; it's not the first or last time you see parents trying to paint a picture that doesn't reflect reality. It's like kids just doing whatever they want regardless of what's expected of them.

Like someone already said, reading the map is the core of everything!

So, I'll try explaining this to you once more because I'm feeling generous, and it seems like the concept isn't quite clicking for you yet:

Americans don't hold global sway because of our past conflicts; 🤣 they do it through their own. It's pure brute force, not intellect. Does that make more sense?

We saw a perfect example here, caught right on camera, of how much easier it is for students—and even their moms—to just Google a specific statistic like population density rather than actually looking at a map. It’s much simpler than trying to connect the dots between topography, climate, and geography to make an educated guess about whether a region is sparsely or densely populated.

It’s that classic case of wanting the answer without doing the heavy lifting. It’s like asking, "Just give me the number; why do I even need to think or reason through this?"

Then comes the inevitable backlash where they start blaming the entire school system, the teachers, or even the textbook authors for the fact that they're being taught to actually learn things.

Parents 😍

And John Doe 😍

Jason Ortiz5 said:Did I mention before that studying this stuff is pointless? Didn't I? So what's the deal here? Is this just about needing to shut someone down because they dared to offer a critique, regardless of what it was?

If we're pretending there's actually something to learn from this—and if this is supposed to be some kind of lesson—then it's a total piece of cake to just drop Kazakhstan into any sparsely populated country and call it a day.

There wasn't even a mention in the prompt about looking up the actual population density of that Kazakhstan, which you pointed out quite clearly yourself.

The real issue is that you're misreading the assignment entirely; you're interpreting it as if it's just an attempt to force people to be overachievers.

At this point, whether it comes from genuine ignorance or actual bad faith doesn't much matter to me, because both paths lead to the same disappointing destination.

Honestly, who actually has the patience to memorize every single latitude, longitude, and mountain range, let alone decode what all those different colors on a physical map are trying to tell you? Not to mention trying to factor in how much the coast affects the weather versus being stuck deep in the Midwest.

It’s just easier to grind through the studying now and then complain about how much work it was later.

Jason Ortiz5 said:I mean, I gotta say, this feels kind of silly to me, sorry.
It’s just like when you have computer science classes where they’re still wasting time teaching kids about floppy disks...

I wouldn't even be surprised if the teachers were totally on board with it, too.

Is it actually "nonsense" to teach a child how to Google something, or how to look up a fact in a textbook—like finding out that almost all of Turkmenistan, for example, is desert?

Sure, it’s much easier to play the victim of a "broken" school system and vent on a forum about how tragic it is that kids have to memorize the population density of some remote place like Truk... Turk... Turkmen... Turkmenistan (what even is that place, why does it even exist??!!11).

But hey, thanks for sharing the assignment so we could explain it to you. 🙂

Jason Ortiz5 said:

I can't believe I actually found this thread! It’s such a vibe. Honestly, just seeing people talking about this makes my whole morning better. Anyway, hope everyone is having a killer day! kaže:
Hey, could you please let me know who the author is? I’m trying to track down the specific textbook title where this is mentioned—you know, the one that actually expects students to have this stuff down.🙂

I honestly don't see where it asks for any of that here:

Jason Ortiz5 said:asap regarding geography: my daughter was cramming for her test yesterday, and since she likes to study out loud, I ended up catching some of it... For example, she had to memorize the population density of Kazakhstan. And then there were all these tongue-twisting, pointless facts designed just to see if you can memorize them.

I mean, seriously. Kazakhstan, plus the names of every single island, river, valley, mountain, and even the specific crops and main industrial exports for every tiny little corner of Asia... All in 6th grade. Or ever, really. I'm speechless. Aside from the obvious ones...

A student really just needs to understand if Uzbekistan consists of densely populated areas or sparse ones; there's no requirement to memorize specific statistics. They might need a general grasp of how the terrain, climate, or geographic location influences settlement patterns, but it’s always much easier to point fingers at teachers and claim they're just forcing rote memorization.

But you seem to have convinced yourself that this is exactly what's being tested, even though you actually provided evidence that suggests otherwise.

Chris Edwards4 said:Well, you might be looking at it wrong; in my district, religious studies is either the very first thing in the morning or the last thing before dismissal, and most kids just go along with it. Still, some parents find something to gripe about—whether it's the textbooks or the fact that religious studies is even offered at school. I heard one mom say she didn't want her kid singled out from the group—like, if everyone else is going, her kid should go too. Honestly, it's hard to wrap my head around the logic regarding these classes... there's always some reason why certain kids are "forced" to attend, even when parents claim they don't agree with any of it. Meanwhile, nobody bats an eye if half the kids go to soccer practice and the others sign up for different extracurriculars 🤔🤔

Does your school only have two classes total? Because if we're looking at it logically, a single teacher could only cover one first period and one last period.

If there are more than just two classes, then I assume your school employs enough teachers to ensure every student gets their religious education during those specific slots? So, if there are 16 classes in the building, does that mean you actually have eight different religion teachers on staff?

Or, to put it simply, you're just being untruthful. ☕

Nicole James said:Religious studies isn't actually an elective; it’s more like a "mandatory requirement for those who choose it." It explicitly shouldn't be placed within the daily schedule in a different position than any other mandatory subject. That is how it is written in the agreements through which the USA transfers its sovereignty to the capital.

Just a small clarification here. Religious ed is technically an elective, but it carries a special status—exactly the way you just described it.

The unique part is that it HAS to be held during regular school hours.

It actually goes so far that Bozanic has pushed back against principals trying to schedule it whenever they can fit it in. Ideally, if there were only a few kids opting out, you could just put the class in the middle of the day for groups where everyone attends, or stick them at the very beginning or end of the day for classes with more non-religious students.

But it really means the religious ed schedule ends up dictating the entire school timetable. They try to have it both ways—keeping the religious students happy while ensuring the non-religious kids don't end up with massive gaps in their day.

In reality, the goal of Cathedral Hill and the Vatican is quite the opposite: they want to create a schedule so fragmented that hesitant parents feel pressured to enroll their kids just to avoid the logistical headache.

If the parents who aren't religious—and let's be honest, the number of believers is nowhere near that 90% figure people claim—didn't feel forced to sign them up, this whole issue would disappear overnight.

But we aren't dealing with a newcomer; the Vatican has been practicing this kind of shrewd diplomacy for a long time.

Things are starting to shift slightly because now almost every single classroom has a few kids who aren't attending, and that’s becoming a massive administrative nightmare. To be clear: nobody is officially responsible for supervising these kids. And the more of them there are, the harder it becomes to manage. Legally, the school is responsible, but that’s incredibly vague. A principal simply CANNOT and is NOT ALLOWED to assign a teacher to act as a babysitter for the non-religious students.

The old workaround of sending them to the library is becoming impossible because librarians are being treated like daycare workers, and they have their own curricula to run; they can't just sit there watching kids all day.

Once Cathedral Hill is forced to actually hire and pay for staff to watch these kids, they might finally drop their demand that religious ed stays within regular school hours.

Otherwise, the government will have to foot the bill for those employees. Librarians can't handle it anymore, and it’s not in their job description. It’s a constant game of hot potato, passing the responsibility from elementary teachers to librarians and back again. Often, the older kids who don't attend are left totally unsupervised in the library if the librarian is busy running a workshop or helping someone else.