Discussion 2

Carry

The information from Gateways Topics 1-4 was a lot at once but so significate for me as a Christian teacher in these last days. One side of me wants to write it down and memorize it, and the other side of me, my heart, is saying, "Relax, you always knew God's word is internal and will not be stopped." The best information I found came from David Cortman, the Senior Legal Counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom. He said, "Teaches can discuss religion for education purposes and not for religious purposes." I felt this was spoken understandably. I have the right to educate my students on religion, but I do not have the right to try and convert. As a Christian, in my heart, I want everyone to become a Christian. As a mother, I would not want a teacher to try and convert my child to another religion without my approval. My students are children, not adults. I do not have the right to try and convert them without their parents. I do have the right to teach about history, culture, and science, which all include God and religion. As a Christian, I am to carry this out lovingly and patiently, so I reflect the light of Christ in my actions more than my words. Children follow our actions more so than our words anyhow. 

I also was well pleased with the explanation of fairness from topic 1. I enjoyed how fairness was explained with our congress and our house of representatives. Fairness is not always an equal share but can be proportional, as in our electoral voting system, based on population. American heritage is more from Christianity than any other religion; we can fairly teach about Christianity history more than other religions. 

As a Christian parent, watching all the statistics in topic 4 gave me much greater strength to be even more determined not to know anything but Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor. 1:17-18)

Tondia

After working through modules 1-4, the information I found most pertinent to my teaching assignment this year is what I can and cannot do as it pertains to religion in the classroom. I teach 6th and 7th graders and at that age, they are curious. I have encountered students that have questions about God, and I was always unsure of how to answer them. It has always been more of "I do not want to tell them the wrong thing because they may believe in something different." After reviewing the conversation with Attorney David Cortman, I now know that if it pertains to a lesson then I can engage them in the conversation. I now know that, with school administration permission, I can wear religious apparel. I learned that as long as I am not trying to promote or teach the gospel, I can teach religion in an educational context. 

This pertains to my Physical Education assignment because my course has an open discussion every day. I allow my students to appropriately express themselves, and I want to ensure that I am within my boundaries to talk to them about the things that they want to, especially regarding religion. I know that I cannot teach them or persuade them to be religious, but I can answer questions with an educational answer. 

 Even if I’m not actively sharing my faith with my students, my belief will influence how I interact with them. My faith is part of who I am. I can’t just turn that off during PE classes, practices and games.

Sorrel

After working through the Gateways Better to Education modules 1-4, the information I found most pertinent to my teaching during this current school year is all the examples of different state standards which require teaching the Bible. While we often fear teaching the Bible to our public school students for fear of violating separation of church and state laws, we fail to realize that many states require biblical instruction as part of helping students understand our rich, American history. I also appreciate the suggestion that more than half of public school students have been raised with Christian beliefs and morals, and to fail to support these students in the interest of keeping church and state separate is an injustice to this large population of our classrooms. Living in South Mississippi, it is likely that significantly more than half the students in my classes are being raised in the Christian faith, so it is appropriate for me to incorporate biblical instruction in subjects such as history, science, and language arts. Particular instruction about the founding fathers of our nation as well as leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr. would be incomplete without including information about how their Christian faith impacted their decisions and accomplishments. Furthermore, instruction about our nation's flag and the pledge of allegiance warrant inclusion of instruction about God. While it is clearly unlawful to proselytize or to try to convert students to Christianity, it is perfectly lawful to teach them about how Christianity is woven into our American history.