Religion classes in school - Megathread

urbantinker8 said:I suppose I’m just speaking from general experience regarding how parents tend to revolt within the American school system. It seems like they’ll push back against just about anything these days. You post something on Facebook and, well, within minutes, there’s a full-blown mob. Sometimes their grievances are actually valid, and sometimes they aren't really, but once that dust starts kicking up, it’s hard to stop it.

It isn't that school staff don't appreciate an entrepreneurial spirit—not at all.😉
Encouraging initiative and a sense of enterprise is fine, I guess. But unnecessarily poking the bear or starting fires where they don't need to be lit... that's a bit more questionable.
It can often be quite difficult to tell what the actual goal behind a certain "initiative" is supposed to be. (Not that I'm referring to this specific situation right now, obviously.)

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?

Honestly, you aren't really bringing anything new to the table here, which I think most people realized quite a while ago.🤷
It’s definitely a mess how the Church operates, especially with all those dioceses and the way they insist on placing untouchable religious instructors in our public schools.
But, I don't know, I can't really wrap my head around the idea of just starting a revolution against everything for the sake of it.
If there were less interest in attending these religious classes, things might look different, but that doesn't really have much to do with the other teachers—it’s almost entirely down to the students and their parents.🥳

Besides, this whole topic of religious education in schools isn't particularly interesting to me, so I don't see much point in overanalyzing it or going on a massive tangent.
My take is pretty simple: move the classes back to the church and call it a day.
But then again, who’s actually asking me? As long as more than 90% of the kids are still showing up to these lessons, I suppose nothing is ever going to change.

urbantinker8 said:Honestly, you aren't really bringing anything new to the table here, which I think most people realized quite a while ago.🤷
It’s definitely a mess how the Church operates, especially with all those dioceses and the way they insist on placing untouchable religious instructors in our public schools.
But, I don't know, I can't really wrap my head around the idea of just starting a revolution against everything for the sake of it.
If there were less interest in attending these religious classes, things might look different, but that doesn't really have much to do with the other teachers—it’s almost entirely down to the students and their parents.🥳

Besides, this whole topic of religious education in schools isn't particularly interesting to me, so I don't see much point in overanalyzing it or going on a massive tangent.
My take is pretty simple: move the classes back to the church and call it a day.
But then again, who’s actually asking me? As long as more than 90% of the kids are still showing up to these lessons, I suppose nothing is ever going to change.

It's not common knowledge 🙂
You might be surprised by how little parents actually know about how these religious instructors are hired or who is actually in charge of them.🥳
Even though I felt pretty informed, I had no idea until recently that they get promoted to counselors and mentors much faster than regular teachers do.
To me, that feels like a real blow to the teaching profession.
Just awful.

And on this thread, you see parents with strong opinions, but they tend to stay quiet if things aren't looking bad or if it's not being highlighted—that's exactly why so many kids still attend.
In real life, it's even more pronounced.

Susan James said:It's not common knowledge 🙂
You might be surprised by how little parents actually know about how these religious instructors are hired or who is actually in charge of them.🥳
Even though I felt pretty informed, I had no idea until recently that they get promoted to counselors and mentors much faster than regular teachers do.
To me, that feels like a real blow to the teaching profession.
Just awful.

And on this thread, you see parents with strong opinions, but they tend to stay quiet if things aren't looking bad or if it's not being highlighted—that's exactly why so many kids still attend.
In real life, it's even more pronounced.

so, yeah, that’s really what needs to be addressed first in our American school system.
it's honestly pretty tragic, maybe even a little intimidating, that such a tiny fraction of that 90+% of parents sending their kids to religious ed classes actually understands the hiring process for the people teaching their children "about goodness."🤦

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 can't help but wonder, if religious studies were actually treated as a core academic subject where grades truly reflected a student's mastery of the material—you know, with averages comparable to what we see in math, history, or geography classes, so a failing grade wasn't just some unpredictable mystery... would people still be making such a huge fuss about it?

brightheron64 said:I can't help but wonder, if religious studies were actually treated as a core academic subject where grades truly reflected a student's mastery of the material—you know, with averages comparable to what we see in math, history, or geography classes, so a failing grade wasn't just some unpredictable mystery... would people still be making such a huge fuss about it?

In my class, the mid-term average for religion was a flat 3.0 (literally only one kid out of 24 actually earned an A)

I don't know if it matters that it's a local Catholic class taught by the neighborhood priest, but still...

And honestly, I have no clue what he’s even testing them on regarding actual knowledge...

Not a single kid in the entire school skips religion, even though under this particular priest, grades range from absolute zeros to perfect scores... unbelievable...

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

urbantinker8 said:Well, actually, no, they aren't allowed to use cell phones without explicit permission.
and honestly, that "good guy" probably won't even make it to a courtroom because if you record someone without authorization, you can basically throw the whole thing out the window—it's pretty much useless as evidence in an American court.
losing their job would be the ultimate outcome, I suppose, but maybe that's still better than nothing at all.
i guess i find it somewhat surprising, actually, that the principal even managed to pull that off.

That’s exactly what was all over the news sites today. The teacher's lawyer is going to hammer home the fact that the cell phone footage isn't admissible evidence since it was recorded secretly.

A cell phone video won't hold up as evidence here—but the kids' statements will. That means the man will still have to face the music in court.
The school or the Department of Education is legally required to report this once they have these facts, so the legal proceedings against him will continue even if that footage isn't admissible. Of course, things change if the video captures a felony carrying at least a five-year sentence... or something to that effect.

Having this video on hand could be a huge help for the witnesses before the trial actually kicks off; it might give them a chance to refresh their memories regarding exactly what they heard at the clock tower that day.😉

Probably won't come to anything. Parents aren't letting their kids testify. I saw it in the paper yesterday.

Parents 😍 won't let their kids testify in court

wanderingbadger44 said:Parents 😍 won't let their kids testify in court

Good grief, what a total circus🤦🤦

The school principal was just on the news, and she’s out here claiming that because the students are signing a petition to get their teacher back, he can return to his position as long as he isn't convicted in court.😵👎 As if that somehow excuses or nullifies what he actually said.

If I were in charge, I’d probably suggest getting a psychologist involved to help navigate this crisis. It seems pretty clear that after years of abuse, the kids have developed Stockholm syndrome. ☕

Does it even matter if they decide to pull him from the school or not?
Who actually cares when there are hundreds more just like him, and when the textbooks staying in our classrooms basically say the exact same thing, just with much softer language.

Honestly, you get what you pay for—you can't expect better schools than the society that produces them.
The aggressive, narrow-minded crowd has taken over the culture. There isn't much you can do about it besides moving out of state.

urbantinker8: I was thinking about what was mentioned earlier, though I suppose it’s all a bit speculative, isn't it? It feels like we often jump to conclusions without really weighing the long-term implications of how these systems interact. I guess you could say there's a certain complexity to it that gets lost when we try to simplify things for the sake of a quick conversation. Maybe it's just me, but I find myself dwelling on the nuances more than I probably should. It's easy to overlook the subtle shifts in the landscape, especially when everyone seems to be rushing toward a single, obvious answer. I tend to hover in that middle ground, wondering if the details we ignore now might end up being the very things that complicate everything later on. It's a bit of a slow burn, I suppose, watching these patterns unfold.

Jacob Lopez2 said:The school principal was just on the news, and she’s out here claiming that because the students are signing a petition to get their teacher back, he can return to his position as long as he isn't convicted in court.😵👎 As if that somehow excuses or nullifies what he actually said.

I mean, honestly, those parents are just absolute morons.☕
urbantinker8:

I suppose I should probably mention that I’ve been thinking about SummerNight lately, though I’m not entirely sure what I’m aiming for with that thought, if I’m being honest. It feels like one of those things that just sort of drifts into the back of your mind while you're doing something else entirely, like staring out a window at a rainy street in Seattle or waiting for a light to change in Chicago. There isn't much to say, really, I guess, unless you count the way certain memories seem to hang in the air, much like the humidity before a thunderstorm breaks over the Midwest. It’s a bit vague, maybe, but then again, most things worth noting tend to be. urbantinker8 says: If I were running things, I suppose I’d probably suggest sending a psychologist to help navigate that whole mess during the crisis, mostly because it seems pretty obvious those kids have developed a bit of Stockholm syndrome after everything they've been through over the years. ☕

If I were ever in charge of the Department of Education, I guess I might just send a psychiatrist to handle the parent-teacher conferences. Maybe it would be more productive that way, though I suppose that’s a bit of an unconventional approach.

Honestly... I can't say I'm surprised by those kids starting a petition.
I wouldn't go so far as to call it abuse, per se—it’s more about eight years of being conditioned in one specific direction. In other words, they've been taught to think a certain way since they were toddlers.
This unfortunate situation should serve as a warning to any parent wondering whether to enroll their child in religion class just "to see what they teach there."
In those classes, you aren't just learning about faith; you are being indoctrinated into it.
Anyone who doesn't want their child raised that way—whether it's the debunking of Santa Claus, the views on the LGBTQ+ community, or teaching that masturbation is a mortal sin, among other things—should probably skip choosing religion as an elective.
As for everyone else, respect. I truly value people who hold firm convictions and raise their children accordingly.

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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?