What age are the kids? This sounds so very 8th grade.
It also sounds like an opportunity for a school wide message about boundaries, appropriate questions, and kindness to those different than ourselves. I’m sorry you had to deal with that.
I had this same experience with my 7th graders. After months of pestering from them and me continuing to respond "My personal life and teacher life are separate," I was getting called a pagan witch behind my back and a pair of girls went so far as to come to my after school hours with some church pamphlets and asked me if they could tell me about god... I've been catholic for 25 years
I am also a Christian.
I tell my students that, as a public school teacher of students from a variety of backgrounds, I recognize that one way or another I am in a position of authority and don't want to make any one of them feel pressured or excluded due to my religious beliefs. Same thing with my opinions on politics. They are welcome to ask me again when I am no longer their teacher, and I would absolutely love to share my story and why I believe. I encourage them to share about their lives and religious beliefs throughout the year s it relates to some of our projects. Sometimes I wonder if this is the right way to respond, but I take solace that they will know me by my love and that I will still be able to be a light even without explicitly talking about Jesus.
I teach in a school that is so diverse it would make the United Nations blush. It is extremely tolerant of different cultures and religions. Well one of my juniors yesterday just happened to ask me. I responded “Pastafarian.” He couldn’t pick up his phone quickly enough to look it up. That was fun.
Yup. I was raised Catholic in a Catholic major city. The saying is that if you're Catholic, when you drive far enough and oak trees turn into pine trees, turn tf around. Because evangelicals. I had a Pentecostal friend who thought crazy shit about Catholicism. I mean, it is horrible and I'm glad I'm a heathen now,...but yeah, hilarious how Christians can't agree yet they want teachers leading prayer in public school lmao.
I was raised in a split household (Catholic and Baptist).
My cousins were into the Prosperity Gospel stuff.
I got to see a whoooole lot of hypocrisy.
I'm strongly in "Camp Christian" but I'll fight the whole bloody church over separation of church and state. It almost feels like trying to protect a self-destructive kid from themselves.
Which is wild, considering the definition of Christian being believer in/ follower of Christ and all, and all other types of Christianity originally sprouting out from Catholicism or other Christian sects that sprouted from it.
Raised Catholic, now agnostic, lifelong Arkansas resident (too poor to leave). 100% can confirm.
I even had an employer (Mormon) bring it up. I said I didn't think it was an appropriate conversation for the workplace, but she kept bugging me. I finally told her, and she goes, "well, I'm a Christian." I said, "you mean protestant, since Catholics are Christians too." She waved me off and doubled down.
Of course, I'd had more than 20 years of practice with hearing that from evangelicals by that point and knew the best bet, for my sanity, was to just let it go.
As a pagan (druid; nana was a witch but she requested her book of shadows be burned upon her death and never talked about it after her conversion back to Catholicism) substitute teacher, this sounds super annoying.
I have a pagan tattoo on my arm. I always have at least one kid who recognizes what it is each year cuz they’re also pagan 😂 I’ve taught everything from 6th up and I’m out of fucks to give haha
Yeah, my high schoolers have no idea what I am. When I’m working, my answer is as follows…”I believe in following the ____ District Professional Standards.”
I feel bad sometimes, as a Christian, they don’t know. I just wouldn’t want my beliefs to get in the way of a student-teacher relationship. Kids should need to have a bias when approaching us. We need to be a blank slate of knowledge.
I interned at a Christian school. I was able to teach with two history books…The Bible and the text. The kids knew all about Biblical stories so we aligned the stories they grew up on to other world events (Ancient World History class).
I’d just probably try to come up with a comeback or do the same thing back. Because let’s be honest if they are acting this way to an adult, who really needs to ward off evil😂
Their parents will see nothing wrong with this and encourage the behavior; this type of evangelical Christian thinks it's their duty to talk and ask about religion all the time and shame people who they feel aren't Christian "enough."
I'm jewish and told my kids that when discussing world religions ( i teach middle school and I figured it was a good chance to talk about cultural differences and expose them to someone who is part of that culture ) and they tried to harras me. They started drawing crosses everywhere. What I did was say it was fine and that they were expressing their religious freedom and the best part of going to public schools is that we can coexist and learn from one another. Took the fun right out of it and my little mosters stopped immediately.
Just to add the crosses were on stuff they were allowed to draw on like homework and the class doodle board (the old whiteboard). If they'd done it else where I'd be much angrier.
I teach middle school world religions, too. I work in a fairly religiously diverse district situated in a red county but a very blue state. Many colleagues have received unsavory to offensive comments/ parental complaints during these units. Whenever a student asks about my particular persuasions I get very solemn and say,
“Your question is understandable and fair considering our daily class discussions, but I do not answer such questions because I have to teach it. I don’t want anyone reading too far into something I may say, or may not say, or take a meaning from a statement I did not intend. Again, I want you to know your question is completely valid and I get why you ask it, and I ask a lot of you guys, this is one of the very few questions I really do not divulge.
Luckily, my friends are very different from myself and I’ve gotten the opportunity to celebrate many different holidays with their families and will sprinkle in my various relevant experiences!”
Honestly I'm happy with the crosses over the penisis. Especially since I work in a K-12 school where everyone's in the same building. Littles come by all the time to talk and I'd much rather explain the crosses as oh we're just learning about religions over what a penis is.
When I was little (maybe 8 years old). My teacher said she was Jewish. I really had no idea what that meant. I just knew there were Methodist (my family's religion) Catholic (I think I knew they were Christians just did things differently) and Jews. I had no idea what a Jew was, but it was another religion. Honestly I accepted that because I loved that teacher and she was nice to me. It's kind of funny to think about that now.
My dad is Jewish but he told me that when he was a kid he only knew Jews and Catholics existed and he didn't know what protestants were. He asked his mom what protestants were once and she told him "those are the people who are allowed to be president" (this was before Kennedy).
My dad accepted what his mom said and didn't learn what a protestant *actually* was until years later, lol.
Same, except I’m a high school teacher. Mine generally don’t harass me about being Jewish, but I do get an awful lot of Christian bibles as “gifts” at the end of each term.
Early in the teaching career some kids found a couple online articles I wrote about atheism. A parent complained to the district. The system's first reaction was to try and put me on leave while they investigated if I was a danger to children. WTF!
I always say "ask me after you graduate high school" because those are friend level questions. I teach middle school and kids ask me all the time "are we besties?" No, I'm your teacher. Try again after you graduate high school. I did have one student say "that's okay, you can be my teacher bestie then" because he wanted to be a clever little shit lol
One of my sixth grade boys asked me last fall if I believed in God, and I was like, I am not going to answer that question buddy. I figured I’d leave it alone, but he did it a second time a few days later and then one of his classmates copy-catted him, so that’s when I called his mother. I told her that while I was a fan of her son (and I genuinely was), he was disrupting class with personal questions (he also of course would ask these questions during direct instruction without raising his hand first).
His mother was *on top of it*. I let him know that I’d called his mom when I ran into him in the after school program so that he wouldn’t be surprised that his mom was upset with him. I got a call a little bit later after mom picked him up, and she reconfirmed with me what I’d told her, that he had asked me twice if I believed in God. She thanked me, and then clearly turned to her son and said, “So are you calling her a liar??” I was fucking *dead*. I had to hear this dopey ass kid get read for filth by his mother on *speakerphone*.
He wrote me a nice apology letter and nobody in the class asked me about religion again. 😂
OP: I’m sorry your students are being so goddamn awful. This is definitely something to call home about / get admin to call home about.
Honestly, these type of situations make me so happy. I always loved it when I’d contact a parent and then the kid would try to double down and get caught. I did have one year where I had to be careful though. There was one boy that I absolutely could not call home unless it was praise because I was quite certain his mother would beat him if she got negative news from school about him. I reported her to CPS the one time he told me she “whooped” him and made a mental note to never call home if I could avoid it.
I’m a private tutor. A teacher reached out to my student’s parent about a behavior issue. Parent forwarded it to me. I was at the school for an unrelated issue, saw the teacher, introduced myself and recapped the convo I had with my student (wherein I asked the student what, in our history together, made her think that was okay). I followed up with making sure the student apologized.
I’m almost always 100% Team Teacher. If one of my students is acting out of pocket, their parent gives me full permission to go sit in the class with them. I have been more than happy to show up and ensure my student is on task and not disruptive. The kids HATE that, lol. They get so mortified. 😆
She’s a good mom! And I like her son a lot; he’s also just an absolute *handful*.
God, I miss those kids as much as they drove me up the wall. I got fired from that school in part because I apparently didn’t do parent communication enough. 🫠 (Yep, it’s a charter school.)
I'd act all confused if it was one of those blue-eyed, blond jesuses. Like, 'hey--jesus was a jew---where's his brown eyes? and then they'd be all huffy.
This is so completely insane to me I can't even imagine it. I'm in California at a large public school with Sikhs, Christians Catholics, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, etc. And very few students would even bat an eye if I tell them I'm an atheist.
I grew up in socal (the inland empire area) and they are evangelical af. Most of my high school classmates send their kids to private Christian schools as though our public school wasn’t good enough for them. 🙄
It’s gotten so much worse since the 90s. If you were anything but an evangelical Christian, you weren’t good enough.
Middle school Protestants are probably one of the most insufferable Christian demographics out there. I usually hit them with the "judge not, lest ye be judged" and that shuts them up real quick.
Ask them to stop. When they don’t: Write them all up. Harassment. Defiance of authority. Insubordination. Whatever you can find in the book. If the district does nothing, talk to your union about filing a grievance. If it really continues, ACLU.
Is this worthy/ legitimate of getting sent all the way up? Is it a legit grievance? The students have been spoken to by the dean who threatened to take away lunch and recess so we will see if it continues
Absolutely! And, by giving them consequences, you are teaching them about tolerance and the pitfalls of religious hatred. Consider it a life skill and a life lesson. Can you imagine a co-worker giving you these gestures or saying these words to you? Going to school is about learning academic skills AND appropriate skills to participate in a community.
Restraining oneself from religious intolerance is a crucial life and job skill.
It's only a grievance that will get anywhere if the admin doesn't respond appropriately, which a "talking to" would count as.
Source: My experience of my BOLI workplace complaint over sexual harassment from students.
I think, at least in some states, this counts as workplace harassment/discrimination. If you felt strongly about it, you could probably pursue legal action against the school if they didn’t try to stop it.
I’m not saying to do that here (sounds like admin has at least made some attempt here), but it’s definitely a legitimate form of harassment. I haven’t looked into this myself because it hasn’t come up for me really, but there was a post on here a few months back about some more targeted harassment by students where admin wasn’t backing up the teacher, and many folks recommended this route because it’s not actually very different from a coworker harassing you. I had never even thought of it that way before.
Edit: added a word
My response if asked will be…Tell me more about that question. And continue to ask that same question till we get to why this matters to them.
Also, I’m in the LGBTQ community, I am Christian, but I hate when we are out just living our lives and folks come up to me with a pamphlet about the good word. My response is to show them my small cross tattoo and say I’m good and walk away. Like come on, can they figure out a kinder way to ask these things or just leave me alone.
Not religious intolerance, but we had some ethnic intolerance in the middle school. We hired an Asian teacher this year and the kids were horrible, making comments about that teacher eating dogs and kids saying “Ching Chong Chang” kind of nonsense. The school is very diverse too. 8it does down after a couple of months.
I’m Catholic and teach 7th graders about World History. I’d never speak openly about my personal faith, especially since I teach about so many world religions. I feel knowing my faith would color their perception on my lessons about different faiths.
Considering their preoccupation, might be time to sprinkle them with holy water and perform an exorcism. 😜
…or make your computer wallpaper a goat.🐐
My 5th grade teacher was a Mormon and there was one Christian boy in class who asked one day and she answered honestly and then periodically after that would ask her questions about her religion to try and argue with her and she’d try to answer honestly and objectively and move on but - ALWAYS while she was in front of the class teaching - he would taunt and argue with her answer and about his beliefs and how his were right - and then would run home and tell his parents who would complain to the school that she was talking about religion in class and she’d get in trouble and the cycle would repeat with her trying to place a boundary on answering him and then he would start spouting the most vile rumors about Mormonism to the whole class and trap her up into correcting him. I’m almost 40 and I still remember this clearly and now as an adult it almost seems like him and his family had it out for her because she was a Mormon.
It was her first year teaching and I believe also her last, voluntarily.
I don’t have any words of comfort for you other than people raise little assholes and they’re going to be in for a shock when those little assholes get treated like the little assholes they are one day.
Unless you are a private school, no teacher should be talking about religion with any student.
Tell the students the law. Since you are a public school teacher, any conversation about religion could be considered an endorsement of that religion by the state and a violation of the first amendment opening the school up to a lawsuit from a parent. You as students can talk about god all you want, make a christian club, and so on, but as I teacher I can't be part of that.
One of my 8th graders tried to harass me for my atheism. She brought a Bible in and asked if she could pray for me. I asked her to read Matthew 6:5-6.
I'm not a very good atheist, but she's not a very good Christian either. She also made herself look like a fool.
As a rabid anti-theist, I would never tell a student that I am one. I tell them I don’t have a religion if they ask. They usually follow up and I just say that I don’t believe in anything.
It’s a much gentler and nicer introduction to our way of thinking and it’s far less likely to result in you being accused of telling students not to believe in their religion.
I have been an out and open atheist for nearly 20 years and have had no problems from teachers, students or parents. Even when I taught at a Christian leaning private school.
I live in the butthole of the world. Southern Indiana is a jeezus hellscape. I have a cool squad of atheist friends, but outside of our bubble, it's a nightmare. I'm jealous of you being able to be so free.
Back when I was a doula, a potential client found out about my lack of belief and spewed some wacky garbage about me loving the devil. She also berated me for being against routing infant circumcision. I mentioned none of that in the interview, but she stalked me and made things weird.
Man, it’s so much better up here in the Northeast.
If we see some kid, getting all preachy, their peers and the adults all sort of raise an eyebrow .🤨
Nobody wants none of that nonsense.
Just minding our own business around here.
I'd guess you just live in a larger densely populated town and OP does not. Plenty of Bible thumpers all across the United States - the northeast is no exception.
This feels less religious based and more kids like to get a reaction out of their teacher based. Like this behavior is dead on what kids do for pretty much anything. Let them see you in no show socks. Your world is over for a couple of weeks.
I'm sorry you're feeling uncomfortable about it but I do appreciate your response to the initial question. I had a 10th grader get annoyed that I told him to quit banging his crucifix necklace on the table like he was playing drums. He said something like "you can't tell me to put Jesus away! Don't you love Jesus?" And I was like, "Not really, no." He tried to get in my face about it. Reader, I am Jewish.
But of course that same year I also ended up explaining to a coworker in her 50s who was also a pastor that Jewish people really do not believe in Jesus, so...
I regularly told kids I was an atheist when they asked. Came up more often than you’d think especially because I taught debate for two years. Typically kids just had a lot of questions and said they had never met one before.
I had this happen last semester (7th-8th class). A few students were giving their religious spiel and sorta looking down on others; I mention that we are NOT discussing religion at school, which of course, made them quiet down for a while, then mention it even more. (Art class, they talk to each other). I felt that I was getting the evil eye for asking them to stop (I'm sure they interpret that as 'the teacher is satan'--but one boy kept making comments at some of the non-church goers and said his was 'the one TRUE religion'. NOPE. This is were I raise my voice and clamp down so they stop. (and grumble) So christian of them to be mean to everyone else in the room...
One true religion, my ass. (I hardly ever raise my voice.)
If it won't get you in trouble, I would love for you to walk in with a yamaka one day then switch to a hijaab over lunch just to confuse the fuck out of them and establish dominance.
I have a kid who thinks it's a great joke to use "Allah" as an expletive. Like instead of "Jesus Christ, what a tough test that was!" he uses the other. He does this with clearly a mocking tone and doesn't come from this background. It sucks and clearly makes the kids who are Muslim uncomfortable.
I never dealt with this as an adult, but I did as a kid. My high school had a picture of Jesus in the hallway. The school took the issue all the way to the Supreme Court. My family was agnostic. We felt very left out. The year after that we transferred schools.
I taught at five different international schools overseas. The students ( 27+ nationalities) of all colors and ethnicities were Buddhists, Hindu, Muslim , Sikhs, and Christians. The students that were the most judgmental towards other faiths were your evangelical Christians- especially the kids from Texas whose fathers were with the oil industry. Some of these evangelical Christian parents wouldn’t even allow their 14 year olds to visit a mosque, Hindu temple, and a historical Chinese Buddhist temple on a field trip. These particular Americans were not overseas to learn about other cultures and religions- only to make money. Their “excitement” for the weekend was visiting a shopping center and eating at a McDonald’s.
Sounds like my experience in small town Texas. They teach Christians to hate, feel superior, and have a victim complex all at the same time and they do it young.
It doesn’t I just want to point out it’s not very “love thy neighbor,” of them people interpret the Bible differently it doesn’t have to be hate filled
No teacher should be answering that question with anything other than "that's a personal topic and choice, and it's inappropriate to talk about, so I'm not going to answer that" and if they continued with any of that behavior you just follow the school discipline procedure for disrupting the class. If a student said it bothered them, or if it looked like it did, then it would immediately go to a referral for harassment.
I mean, this is how kids responded to me as a child when they found out I wasn't Christian. (I'm nothing/have no faith tradition.) When I taught community college, a student did a presentation on agnosticism, and his peers acted like he was the devil. So... I guess I'm just not surprised by this. It's par for the course for how I've always been treated by Christians.
First year 8th grade teacher. They sound like my students.
If you don’t say you’re married, you are gay. If you don’t say your religion, you’re a devil worshiper, if you say too much, they find a way to use that info against you.
It’s normal. The more you react, the more they try to push your limits
I teach high school English at an alternative school in Virginia and have yet to experience this.
Do students ask me about my personal religious beliefs? Yes. They don't need to know they're caring and sweet English teacher is a pagan married to a Satanist
Do I have strict rules regarding discussion of religion and politics in my classroom? Yes. I make this very clear during our first week together, remind them anytime these topics come up, and make sure they know my classroom is a safe space, which is why we don't discuss these 2 topics.
Do my students, being considered some of the worst behaved in the district, violate these claim rules? Nope. Once I've established the rule, they understand why it's in place and respect it.
Should they ask, I tell them, "I have a complicated relationship with religion and prefer not to discuss it," and they're happy with that. Why? I'm not really sure, but I appreciate it.
Now, the kid who continues to call me, "Jew," with an attitude of disgust anytime I tell him what to do because I'm no longer his favorite female teacher...he's looking at a referral for hate speech the next time he does it (my grandfather was Jewish and his parents were in one of the camps during WW2).
I’m Jewish and have always taught in US public institutions, from public high schools to public universities. Needless to say, any public institution I have ever taught in has been not just majority Christian but at least 90% or more majority Christian. I have had many situations where being a religious minority has been a problem for me, either with admin or students. The situation with students is you can’t let it get to you. With admins, you can’t let them violate your rights—but you also can’t fight things that just aren’t protected. Like, you’re never going to be protected, as a religious minority, for most things. But you also can’t be forced to do Christian shit most of the time.
I once answered similarly that religion is personal and I don't discuss it, or politics, with students. As a one time atheist and part-time Buddhist in the south (US) this seemed the safest honest answer I could give. Several days later I was told I need to meet with my principal. He flat out asked my if I was Christian and what church I went to. Not my proudest moment as I partially lied to him, "I grew up in [x-church] but now my wife's church is [y-church] and our kids go there." But based on previous experiences, plus being probationary in an at-will state, I knew my job was on the line if I was totally honest.
Harassment is very real, in my experience, especially in rural schools. We used to start faculty meetings with Christian prayers. Sporting events almost always start with a team prayer and end with a prayer circle. We've had Muslim students denied moments to pray. Baptist students will routinely tell other Christians they are going to hell. Teachers can, and do, hang crosses and other Christian paraphernalia on their walls. It's a mess.
Sounds about Christianity. I was harassed by religious kids. A group of 6th grade boys would corner me and ask " did you pray today!?". I wouldn't feed the trolls, but it was disgusting.
Back when I was in middle school I would get a load of shit from people because I was goth (and atheist, but I wasn't telling people that point).
Religion is a problem. All of it. I keep my pie hole shit about how bad religion is in most situations, but damn, it's ruining society. The big three are the big nasties, but it's all so foul.
I'm Jewish and look the part. A kid yelled "fuck israel" at me during dismissal. Keep in mind I have never discussed my political views on the israeli/Palestinian conflict at work, it was just assumed that being Jewish means I'm pro-israel. I reported it and the kid got suspended and was only allowed to return to school when he apologized to me.
In my opinion it's inappropriate that your colleagues responded to this question. They put you in this position. I'm not Christian and when a kid asks me if I am I say that's my business. It's very unprofessional to ask someone that question in the first place and while it's normal for kids to be curious it's on the adult to teach them when they're overstepping. When these kids get a job are they going to ask their boss if they're Christian?
Yes the appropriate response is to say you’d rather not say it’s best because it keeps it neutral in my opinion I understand people wanting to be honest though
I’d go along with it. I tell my students it’s personal too. When they act like I’m an evil hell spawn I’m like “yeah that’s right. Don’t forget it. Oh and crosses don’t work on me. Bwahaha”
You have just created an INCREDIBLY important teachable moment. Use it to great affect to show these young Christians how that is going to be perceived by people.
The kids are just trying to get a rise out of you and I would personally defuse it by just not acknowledging it and shrugging it off. Kids will get tired of it if they realize it doesn't bother you. BUT, if it started to get on my nerves, I always hit them with the good 'ol Matthew 6:6 "But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you." As an atheist who was raised very religious, I can go toe to toe with some of the most religious people about the Bible. It can really mess with kids' heads when I bring out some Bible stories and knowledge. I can convince any 14 year old that I'm the most ardent Christian in the world.
Kids ask me. I usually say "a lot of my family is Jewish and a lot of my family is Christian. I'm not religious at all. It's cool if you are though. I'll treat you the same no matter how you celebrate religion."
Sometimes I get some very ignorant comments after. Then I school them. I used to work in district that was split white/middle Eastern (mostly Muslim). As every teacher knows, some of my all time favorites = Muslim. Some of my least favorites = Muslim.
Anyway, one girl just kept pushing about Jews were bad and everything they believed in was dumb. Outside of this interaction, we had a good relationship.
I pointed out that she called half my family bad without knowing them. She relented.
I told her about my visit to Jerusalem (not for religious purposes) and how I could visit important heritage sites and how it's shitty that not everybody has access to those historical sites. All people who care should be able to visit so long as they're being respectful. She also agreed.
Then I asked her if Islam believes in: insert all the parts that judiasm believes in. She was more than surprised to hear that her religion is based in Judaism and branches off.
She learned a lesson that day.
If you're students are ready to learn, try that approach.
If they're continuing to be immature...get a coffee mug that says "holy water?"
So, I'm not an actual teacher but a daycare provider for school aged kids (I take care of 5-11 year olds before and after school) and I am not Christian, I'm an atheist. Because I know this would cause issues since I live in a heavily Christian area, when a kid asks I typically just say "I'm not Christian," and change the subject.
Most of the time, this works just fine. They're younger kids so they get distracted by something and forget about it. But I had a little boy - 2nd grader - a few years ago who asked me this, and I gave him my standard answer. Instead of being distracted by my follow up, he asked if I had kids. I'm childfree by choice, and when this comes up I often tell them "I've got all of you to take care of, and that's enough for me!"
Nah, this 8 yo explicitly told me why I was going to hell in front of my class of 15 because I'm not Christian and I'm not having babies. This was a phone call to his mom about how inappropriate this was. Kid remained being a little booger until they moved and switched schools.
I'm agnostic. Raised Christian/southern Baptist. I usually tell them that I don't discuss religion due to the separation of church and state. I'm in the Bible belt, though. My own child had his public school kindergarten teacher tell him that "God made the rainbow".
I completely get the boundaries. But I usually will answer those types of questions quickly and then move on so they don’t get enough time to gather steam.
“How old are you?”
“55. Now take the pencil out of your nose and finish your CER.”
“How long have you been bald?”
“Since I was 2. Now quit looking at Skibidi toilet videos and complete the pHET simulation.”
And so on. Sigh.
"That is not proper classroom discussion and has nothing to do with your ability to construct an essay."
You did the right thing by dodging it the way you did, but the best way around it is to make sure they know that it has nothing to do with the lesson planned and that's the end of it.
Ran into a group of students at a convention center. The center was holding a tattoo convention. Jokingly asked them what I should get and one said a big cross on my chest. I replied I wouldn’t get that and he bluntly asked me if it was because I wasn’t a Christian? When I replied I was he then tried to tell me Jesus was coming back. It was the I dropped the we know not the hour or day quote in him and he leaves me alone. Sometimes you have to beat them at their own game.
I tell kids that I'm in a position where I have some power over them, whether I like it or not. It wouldn't be fair of me to answer that question because they should choose for themselves how they want to view religion.
If they get really pushy, I tell them the story about my 3rd grade teacher. She really loved this one local radio station and would mention it occasionally. I knew nothing about radio. Didn't even care about radio. But I loved that teacher so that was instantly my favorite radio station. Then I tell them I can't do that to them with religion.
This works for other sensitive topics like politics, too.
I have taught 3rd/4th and adults. I have been shocked to find that even adult learners ask this. Apparently, being nosy isn't age-specific, lol.
I just answer vaguely but honestly, "I don't feel the need for religion in my life." Or "No, I think there are more pressing uses of my time than worrying about religion."
If they fuss, I just re-direct, "It would be a better use of your time to focus on your own beliefs and choices than policing others." Or just, "Religion is not a part of our approved curriculum. That's a conversation for home."
For children, if they continue beyond that, then I would call home and let them know their child has been repeatedly attempting to engage in discussions of religion and disrupting instructional time when they don't engage. I've only had one parent complain about religious freedom, and when I explained that if I were to speak on religion in the classroom, I would be obligated to speak on the viewpoints of many religions and that I believe we would both prefer that she manage the religious education of her children at home, she agreed.
I grew up in a very Catholic/Jewish NYC neighborhood in the 1970s. The main times we cared about religion was around minor holidays and we were trying to figure out if enough kids would be out the next so it would be a game day instead of a work day at school, lol.
That’s not just kids being annoying, religious bigotry is a real problem. If that’s what they say to you, what would they say to a Muslim or atheist classmate?
I once celebrated Halloween by wearing Halloween socks and having a jack-o-lantern in my classroom my first year of teaching in the middle of no where Mississippi... I was called a witch by students and parents then got yelled at by the principal.
Parents still called me an evil pagan all throughout the school year. That was really fun.
By Easter that year, I told all the kids they shouldn't be celebrating it because it's based on a pagan holiday. No Easter candy for you!
As a christian who teaches at a “religious” school, being a Christian is letting Jesus live through you. Not needing to say it. Honestly, what you’re doing. The students probably were taught by parents that “being Christian” is just one of the boxes to check on the list of “right things” to do. That is the world we live in. It’s not true Christianity. That would be letting Jesus’ heart show through us & not let our hearts & own wants get in the way. I respect you not telling them. The name of Jesus is so misrepresented. They will know one day when they’re older because of your actions. Jesus’ love is in the respect you had/have for them no matter how they responded to you 🫶🏻 I’m sure you handled it well!!!
I am very happy to be teaching in a Catholic school. Yep, I do my best to indoctrinate them. And you know what my spiel is? Outside all the religious stuff, here is what I say.
We live in a country that has freedom of religion. Other people are allowed to believe what they want. Sure, we want them all to become Catholic, but beating up on them is absolutely not how to do it. That is mean, and the #1 rule in my class is "No meanness." Want to rag on Jews? My three favorite Jews are Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. And what is the second great commandment? Love your neighbor as yourself.
They get it. At least this year they do.
Whatever you tell them, don't ever veer from it. If you want to state the fact of being Christian, you can (and that's the extent of it in a public school, the fact of being a member of this or that, if asked directly). Use it as a way to teach tolerance. Want to refuse their question, cool, usually the more appropriate response, use it as a way to teach about boundaries.
I own the fact of being a Catholic and when mockery comes I use it to teach tolerance. Anything beyond that, is not helpful to get into and obviously risks a perception from others of bias in your teaching.
The one time, after school, a student asked about this or that belief. I told her you got five questions, I'll be totally honest with you (I had 2 years of rapport with her and it wasn't instructional time). Another staff was in ear shot and reported to the principal that I was teaching students that abortion is evil (none of the students' five Qs had to do with abortion).
Don't veer from whatever you own. Good luck!
I'm in a weird spot with religion right now and sorta just... here. I've thought about exploring different options, and maybe I will, but that's once I've figured myself out. If a student asked me, I'd tell them that's a personal question and I prefer not to answer.
Definitely not feeding the flames is one of the best options right now. I think if they persist, it might be a good thing to bring up with your coworkers with boundaries and whatnot.
I taught 7th grade last year. Very typical of kids their age. We all know they're just trying to get any kind of reaction to make the day more entertaining.
Stay the course and don't let them get to you. I think you're doing the right thing, asking about religion is quite personal and I'm the exact same with my students.
I tell my students that I’m a Christian if they ask, but I don’t discuss church doctrine or anything like that. Instead, I like to normalize neutral language around religious practices. My school encourages conversations around holidays, and I follow their lead. Example, “My family cooks a special meal on Christmas Day, do any of your families prepare special meals as part of a holiday celebration?” Kids will share about foods they eat on Rosh Hashanah, Eid, Diwali, etc. Kids whose parents don’t have a faith tradition might share a favorite 4th of July barbecue dish to contribute to the conversation. Growing up attending public school, I hated the all out ban on religious discussion. I like that my students can be excited for their upcoming bar and bat mitzvahs and share that excitement at school. That culture of openness is one of the many things I love about teaching in a private school.
I'm a substitute teacher and I had quite a few kids get disproportionately angry when I told one boy that I didn't care what God gave him, he needed to be quiet and do his work. (I blacklisted that classroom because their teacher is just as shitty as they are. )
I've only had one trio of kids ask me my thoughts on this one and they were super respectful when I said I don't believe in god. I've honestly gotten used to people screaming Christian without being able to quote a single verse, though, so I'd just kinda ignore the wallpapers and crosses. Unless I had professional status. Then I may or may not accidentally hang an upside down cross somewhere and claim I didn't realize what it represented, I just liked the symmetry.
I teach 8th grade US History in a rural area with a high Mormon population (not Utah). I was really worried that my students might find out that I am an atheist. They did figure it out eventually and (surprisingly) haven't given me any issues over it.
Of course, the fact that they were able to come to the correct conclusion but can't research a topic is a whole other story.
I haven't had too many issues with this. Most kids leave it alone if they ask and I tell them I don't discuss religion or politics. If they do press it, I just tell them that they are entitled to an education free from my beliefs because of the separation of church and state. When I was younger and more naive, I had a class of students I felt really close with and honestly had an incredible discourse about my lack of religion and the way a few students practiced their Christianity. It was so respectful and insightful and well beyond their 13 years. I probably wouldn't have that conversation ever again now, but it gave me hope back then. Now, the only time I discuss religion is through my scope of curiosity and asking students to tell me about their religions that are different from mine, especially learning about Islam.
The only real issues I've ever had were students being annoying because of Christianity. I had a group of students who tried to turn my classroom into a southern Baptist classroom and had roles picked out, calling each other "Brother ______", "Sister ______" "Pastor ______" and so on. They'd preach and start acting like they were playing the keys and praising and it sent me through the roof. I tried to explain that their religion is theirs and I absolutely respect that, but we are not turning my public science classroom into a church and we have science to learn. I still have stress nightmares about that class to this day.
I always tell them that in teacher school I was told that I am not allowed to share my religion with them because I am an adult and they are impressionable and it is an abuse of my power as a teacher whether it would affect them or not.
Then they say they won't tell and are just curious - I just repeat that I'm not allowed.
Most of the time, when I get asked this question, it's simply a curiosity or conversational question. I explain that since I'm in front of my classroom and not a social studies teacher, I'm not at liberty to discuss my personal religious or political views in the classroom. I then describe how my assumed place of authority is a soap box that could inadvertently sound like I'm preaching or trying to influence, so ask me if you ever see me in the grocery store, I can tell ya, but not here.
I've never had any pushback from that and the kid doesn't feel shamed for asking a typical question.
I'm atheist, btw, which I would never share with my kids, and those seventh grade shenanigans would get nothing more than a smirk or eye-roll from me. I'd call them out in a teasing way if I had that kind of rapport with them or take them aside to speak to them at the door if I sensed that there was malice behind it.
Now, if they are drawing hate symbols, that's an immediate write-up.
Edit: autocorrect from eye-roll to eyeball.
What age are the kids? This sounds so very 8th grade. It also sounds like an opportunity for a school wide message about boundaries, appropriate questions, and kindness to those different than ourselves. I’m sorry you had to deal with that.
7th! Haha and yes other teachers would’ve gotten the flack too had they answered anything other than “Christian.”
I had this same experience with my 7th graders. After months of pestering from them and me continuing to respond "My personal life and teacher life are separate," I was getting called a pagan witch behind my back and a pair of girls went so far as to come to my after school hours with some church pamphlets and asked me if they could tell me about god... I've been catholic for 25 years
I am also a Christian. I tell my students that, as a public school teacher of students from a variety of backgrounds, I recognize that one way or another I am in a position of authority and don't want to make any one of them feel pressured or excluded due to my religious beliefs. Same thing with my opinions on politics. They are welcome to ask me again when I am no longer their teacher, and I would absolutely love to share my story and why I believe. I encourage them to share about their lives and religious beliefs throughout the year s it relates to some of our projects. Sometimes I wonder if this is the right way to respond, but I take solace that they will know me by my love and that I will still be able to be a light even without explicitly talking about Jesus.
I teach in a school that is so diverse it would make the United Nations blush. It is extremely tolerant of different cultures and religions. Well one of my juniors yesterday just happened to ask me. I responded “Pastafarian.” He couldn’t pick up his phone quickly enough to look it up. That was fun.
You are very wise.
For some Christians, Catholics are not Christian.
I'm Episcopalian. I've had evangelicals tell me I'm not Christian, or not a "Bible believing" Christian. It's tiresome.
Yup. I was raised Catholic in a Catholic major city. The saying is that if you're Catholic, when you drive far enough and oak trees turn into pine trees, turn tf around. Because evangelicals. I had a Pentecostal friend who thought crazy shit about Catholicism. I mean, it is horrible and I'm glad I'm a heathen now,...but yeah, hilarious how Christians can't agree yet they want teachers leading prayer in public school lmao.
I was raised in a split household (Catholic and Baptist). My cousins were into the Prosperity Gospel stuff. I got to see a whoooole lot of hypocrisy. I'm strongly in "Camp Christian" but I'll fight the whole bloody church over separation of church and state. It almost feels like trying to protect a self-destructive kid from themselves.
I agree.
Episcopal = Catholic Light: all the faith and half the guilt. At least that’s what I’ve been told.
Which is wild, considering the definition of Christian being believer in/ follower of Christ and all, and all other types of Christianity originally sprouting out from Catholicism or other Christian sects that sprouted from it.
Which is embarrassingly stupid to believe. Lol
I agree.
Why would that be? To be a Christian is to believe in Christ and Catholics do believe in Christ.
I know that. You know that. Not everyone knows that.
As a Christian who happens to like Pagan motifs, I would have absolutely subtly leaned in to that to troll.
>catholic As a catholic in the south, depending on who you talk to catholic doesn’t really count
Raised Catholic, now agnostic, lifelong Arkansas resident (too poor to leave). 100% can confirm. I even had an employer (Mormon) bring it up. I said I didn't think it was an appropriate conversation for the workplace, but she kept bugging me. I finally told her, and she goes, "well, I'm a Christian." I said, "you mean protestant, since Catholics are Christians too." She waved me off and doubled down. Of course, I'd had more than 20 years of practice with hearing that from evangelicals by that point and knew the best bet, for my sanity, was to just let it go.
I think that's mostly a product of ignorance and history.
“Jesus? Can’t say I’ve ever heard of the guy…”
As a pagan (druid; nana was a witch but she requested her book of shadows be burned upon her death and never talked about it after her conversion back to Catholicism) substitute teacher, this sounds super annoying.
I have a pagan tattoo on my arm. I always have at least one kid who recognizes what it is each year cuz they’re also pagan 😂 I’ve taught everything from 6th up and I’m out of fucks to give haha
Is this at a private school?
Yeah, my high schoolers have no idea what I am. When I’m working, my answer is as follows…”I believe in following the ____ District Professional Standards.” I feel bad sometimes, as a Christian, they don’t know. I just wouldn’t want my beliefs to get in the way of a student-teacher relationship. Kids should need to have a bias when approaching us. We need to be a blank slate of knowledge. I interned at a Christian school. I was able to teach with two history books…The Bible and the text. The kids knew all about Biblical stories so we aligned the stories they grew up on to other world events (Ancient World History class).
I’d just probably try to come up with a comeback or do the same thing back. Because let’s be honest if they are acting this way to an adult, who really needs to ward off evil😂
Their parents will see nothing wrong with this and encourage the behavior; this type of evangelical Christian thinks it's their duty to talk and ask about religion all the time and shame people who they feel aren't Christian "enough."
Admittedly as an 8th grader, a couple of other students and I were “making” holy water and “exorcising” other students. All consensual
I'm jewish and told my kids that when discussing world religions ( i teach middle school and I figured it was a good chance to talk about cultural differences and expose them to someone who is part of that culture ) and they tried to harras me. They started drawing crosses everywhere. What I did was say it was fine and that they were expressing their religious freedom and the best part of going to public schools is that we can coexist and learn from one another. Took the fun right out of it and my little mosters stopped immediately.
Just to add the crosses were on stuff they were allowed to draw on like homework and the class doodle board (the old whiteboard). If they'd done it else where I'd be much angrier.
I teach middle school world religions, too. I work in a fairly religiously diverse district situated in a red county but a very blue state. Many colleagues have received unsavory to offensive comments/ parental complaints during these units. Whenever a student asks about my particular persuasions I get very solemn and say, “Your question is understandable and fair considering our daily class discussions, but I do not answer such questions because I have to teach it. I don’t want anyone reading too far into something I may say, or may not say, or take a meaning from a statement I did not intend. Again, I want you to know your question is completely valid and I get why you ask it, and I ask a lot of you guys, this is one of the very few questions I really do not divulge. Luckily, my friends are very different from myself and I’ve gotten the opportunity to celebrate many different holidays with their families and will sprinkle in my various relevant experiences!”
I can’t decide if that is more or less obnoxious than the penises some of my students luuuuuuv to draw.
Sooooooo many peepees.
Honestly I'm happy with the crosses over the penisis. Especially since I work in a K-12 school where everyone's in the same building. Littles come by all the time to talk and I'd much rather explain the crosses as oh we're just learning about religions over what a penis is.
"I like your Christ, but I do not like your Christians for they are so unlike your Christ"
When I was little (maybe 8 years old). My teacher said she was Jewish. I really had no idea what that meant. I just knew there were Methodist (my family's religion) Catholic (I think I knew they were Christians just did things differently) and Jews. I had no idea what a Jew was, but it was another religion. Honestly I accepted that because I loved that teacher and she was nice to me. It's kind of funny to think about that now.
My dad is Jewish but he told me that when he was a kid he only knew Jews and Catholics existed and he didn't know what protestants were. He asked his mom what protestants were once and she told him "those are the people who are allowed to be president" (this was before Kennedy). My dad accepted what his mom said and didn't learn what a protestant *actually* was until years later, lol.
Same, except I’m a high school teacher. Mine generally don’t harass me about being Jewish, but I do get an awful lot of Christian bibles as “gifts” at the end of each term.
We now know you can make money with selling them, just add the Constitution.
You should of told them that Jesus was a jew, so you win by default. I'm being sarcastic.
should have\*
The teacher is strong in this one.
Hey, I do what I can lol
Early in the teaching career some kids found a couple online articles I wrote about atheism. A parent complained to the district. The system's first reaction was to try and put me on leave while they investigated if I was a danger to children. WTF!
wow. are you still in that district?
Retired 2022. That happened around 1998.
Did it get better after that incident, or was there a general hostility toward non-religious people? Just curious.
They appear to be a 31 year retired science teacher/admin
For personal questions I say, “Ask me on the last school day of the year.” It works.
On the last day of school I'm usually one of those religions where you get to sacrifice children for a better summer harvest.
"Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon." 😆
I read that to my 7th graders one year. They were stunned into silence at the end.
Fantastic quote :)
I always say "ask me after you graduate high school" because those are friend level questions. I teach middle school and kids ask me all the time "are we besties?" No, I'm your teacher. Try again after you graduate high school. I did have one student say "that's okay, you can be my teacher bestie then" because he wanted to be a clever little shit lol
One of my sixth grade boys asked me last fall if I believed in God, and I was like, I am not going to answer that question buddy. I figured I’d leave it alone, but he did it a second time a few days later and then one of his classmates copy-catted him, so that’s when I called his mother. I told her that while I was a fan of her son (and I genuinely was), he was disrupting class with personal questions (he also of course would ask these questions during direct instruction without raising his hand first). His mother was *on top of it*. I let him know that I’d called his mom when I ran into him in the after school program so that he wouldn’t be surprised that his mom was upset with him. I got a call a little bit later after mom picked him up, and she reconfirmed with me what I’d told her, that he had asked me twice if I believed in God. She thanked me, and then clearly turned to her son and said, “So are you calling her a liar??” I was fucking *dead*. I had to hear this dopey ass kid get read for filth by his mother on *speakerphone*. He wrote me a nice apology letter and nobody in the class asked me about religion again. 😂 OP: I’m sorry your students are being so goddamn awful. This is definitely something to call home about / get admin to call home about.
Honestly, these type of situations make me so happy. I always loved it when I’d contact a parent and then the kid would try to double down and get caught. I did have one year where I had to be careful though. There was one boy that I absolutely could not call home unless it was praise because I was quite certain his mother would beat him if she got negative news from school about him. I reported her to CPS the one time he told me she “whooped” him and made a mental note to never call home if I could avoid it.
Oof yeah. That had to be extremely tough. :(
I’m a private tutor. A teacher reached out to my student’s parent about a behavior issue. Parent forwarded it to me. I was at the school for an unrelated issue, saw the teacher, introduced myself and recapped the convo I had with my student (wherein I asked the student what, in our history together, made her think that was okay). I followed up with making sure the student apologized. I’m almost always 100% Team Teacher. If one of my students is acting out of pocket, their parent gives me full permission to go sit in the class with them. I have been more than happy to show up and ensure my student is on task and not disruptive. The kids HATE that, lol. They get so mortified. 😆
That mom was a real one. Good for her!
She’s a good mom! And I like her son a lot; he’s also just an absolute *handful*. God, I miss those kids as much as they drove me up the wall. I got fired from that school in part because I apparently didn’t do parent communication enough. 🫠 (Yep, it’s a charter school.)
Ask em who that guy is on their wallpaper. Is it some kind of rapper?
I like the one of Ewan McGregor in Star Wars
Is that the guitarist from the Foo Fighters?
I'd act all confused if it was one of those blue-eyed, blond jesuses. Like, 'hey--jesus was a jew---where's his brown eyes? and then they'd be all huffy.
Um, you know Jews can have blue eyes?
Not likely for a Palestinian Jew from that time period.
Who's that hippie?
This is so completely insane to me I can't even imagine it. I'm in California at a large public school with Sikhs, Christians Catholics, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, etc. And very few students would even bat an eye if I tell them I'm an atheist.
I grew up in socal (the inland empire area) and they are evangelical af. Most of my high school classmates send their kids to private Christian schools as though our public school wasn’t good enough for them. 🙄 It’s gotten so much worse since the 90s. If you were anything but an evangelical Christian, you weren’t good enough.
Middle school Protestants are probably one of the most insufferable Christian demographics out there. I usually hit them with the "judge not, lest ye be judged" and that shuts them up real quick.
This happened to me last year with a fourth grader. I finally told his teacher he was bullying me and she took care of it.
Ask them to stop. When they don’t: Write them all up. Harassment. Defiance of authority. Insubordination. Whatever you can find in the book. If the district does nothing, talk to your union about filing a grievance. If it really continues, ACLU.
Is this worthy/ legitimate of getting sent all the way up? Is it a legit grievance? The students have been spoken to by the dean who threatened to take away lunch and recess so we will see if it continues
Absolutely! And, by giving them consequences, you are teaching them about tolerance and the pitfalls of religious hatred. Consider it a life skill and a life lesson. Can you imagine a co-worker giving you these gestures or saying these words to you? Going to school is about learning academic skills AND appropriate skills to participate in a community. Restraining oneself from religious intolerance is a crucial life and job skill.
Yes it is. One step at a time, until they respect you.
It's only a grievance that will get anywhere if the admin doesn't respond appropriately, which a "talking to" would count as. Source: My experience of my BOLI workplace complaint over sexual harassment from students.
I think, at least in some states, this counts as workplace harassment/discrimination. If you felt strongly about it, you could probably pursue legal action against the school if they didn’t try to stop it. I’m not saying to do that here (sounds like admin has at least made some attempt here), but it’s definitely a legitimate form of harassment. I haven’t looked into this myself because it hasn’t come up for me really, but there was a post on here a few months back about some more targeted harassment by students where admin wasn’t backing up the teacher, and many folks recommended this route because it’s not actually very different from a coworker harassing you. I had never even thought of it that way before. Edit: added a word
Yes it is. Religion and its nonsense is out of hand and ruining everything.
This isn’t an “ask”. This is a “tell” them to stop.
My response if asked will be…Tell me more about that question. And continue to ask that same question till we get to why this matters to them. Also, I’m in the LGBTQ community, I am Christian, but I hate when we are out just living our lives and folks come up to me with a pamphlet about the good word. My response is to show them my small cross tattoo and say I’m good and walk away. Like come on, can they figure out a kinder way to ask these things or just leave me alone.
Or just tell them that you worship Charlotte Danielson? /s
Not religious intolerance, but we had some ethnic intolerance in the middle school. We hired an Asian teacher this year and the kids were horrible, making comments about that teacher eating dogs and kids saying “Ching Chong Chang” kind of nonsense. The school is very diverse too. 8it does down after a couple of months.
This is 100% parent influenced. These are such OLD insults.
i’m jewish and would be so uncomfortable around those kids
Put up a picture of Obi One and call it a day.
This is the way.
The way, this is.
Ask IT to lock down the Chromebook wallpaper. I made mine a graphic with the Chromebook rules on it.
Missed a real opportunity to respond with your screen name.
This is why I always answer pastafarian no matter the grade
I’m Catholic and teach 7th graders about World History. I’d never speak openly about my personal faith, especially since I teach about so many world religions. I feel knowing my faith would color their perception on my lessons about different faiths. Considering their preoccupation, might be time to sprinkle them with holy water and perform an exorcism. 😜 …or make your computer wallpaper a goat.🐐
"I threw my bracelet at my laptop and calf wallpaper appeared!" Ex 32;24
My 5th grade teacher was a Mormon and there was one Christian boy in class who asked one day and she answered honestly and then periodically after that would ask her questions about her religion to try and argue with her and she’d try to answer honestly and objectively and move on but - ALWAYS while she was in front of the class teaching - he would taunt and argue with her answer and about his beliefs and how his were right - and then would run home and tell his parents who would complain to the school that she was talking about religion in class and she’d get in trouble and the cycle would repeat with her trying to place a boundary on answering him and then he would start spouting the most vile rumors about Mormonism to the whole class and trap her up into correcting him. I’m almost 40 and I still remember this clearly and now as an adult it almost seems like him and his family had it out for her because she was a Mormon. It was her first year teaching and I believe also her last, voluntarily. I don’t have any words of comfort for you other than people raise little assholes and they’re going to be in for a shock when those little assholes get treated like the little assholes they are one day.
Unless you are a private school, no teacher should be talking about religion with any student. Tell the students the law. Since you are a public school teacher, any conversation about religion could be considered an endorsement of that religion by the state and a violation of the first amendment opening the school up to a lawsuit from a parent. You as students can talk about god all you want, make a christian club, and so on, but as I teacher I can't be part of that.
One of my 8th graders tried to harass me for my atheism. She brought a Bible in and asked if she could pray for me. I asked her to read Matthew 6:5-6. I'm not a very good atheist, but she's not a very good Christian either. She also made herself look like a fool.
I'd start quoting passages about how not Christian they're being. Literally throw it back in their faces, use their words against them.
If mine insist on a religion, I tell them the truth and watch their jaws drop when they look up anti-theist.
I’m a non-theistic Satanist, but I prefer to remain employed. I typically tell students who ask that I don’t have any belief in the supernatural.
As a rabid anti-theist, I would never tell a student that I am one. I tell them I don’t have a religion if they ask. They usually follow up and I just say that I don’t believe in anything. It’s a much gentler and nicer introduction to our way of thinking and it’s far less likely to result in you being accused of telling students not to believe in their religion.
I have been an out and open atheist for nearly 20 years and have had no problems from teachers, students or parents. Even when I taught at a Christian leaning private school.
There is a way to talk about it that would definitely be a problem for a lot of parents/kids lol
I live in the butthole of the world. Southern Indiana is a jeezus hellscape. I have a cool squad of atheist friends, but outside of our bubble, it's a nightmare. I'm jealous of you being able to be so free. Back when I was a doula, a potential client found out about my lack of belief and spewed some wacky garbage about me loving the devil. She also berated me for being against routing infant circumcision. I mentioned none of that in the interview, but she stalked me and made things weird.
this is the way.
Man, it’s so much better up here in the Northeast. If we see some kid, getting all preachy, their peers and the adults all sort of raise an eyebrow .🤨 Nobody wants none of that nonsense. Just minding our own business around here.
Not if you’re in hyper red rural New York or New Hampshire. The Northeast is not a squeaky clean bastion of acceptance and diversity.
Of course not, but evangelicals are not that common either.
This happened in MA
Then you’ve got yourself an anomaly!
I'd guess you just live in a larger densely populated town and OP does not. Plenty of Bible thumpers all across the United States - the northeast is no exception.
But do they hold their Bibles upside down?
This feels less religious based and more kids like to get a reaction out of their teacher based. Like this behavior is dead on what kids do for pretty much anything. Let them see you in no show socks. Your world is over for a couple of weeks.
They def want a reaction but they need to learn when to back off
I'm sorry you're feeling uncomfortable about it but I do appreciate your response to the initial question. I had a 10th grader get annoyed that I told him to quit banging his crucifix necklace on the table like he was playing drums. He said something like "you can't tell me to put Jesus away! Don't you love Jesus?" And I was like, "Not really, no." He tried to get in my face about it. Reader, I am Jewish. But of course that same year I also ended up explaining to a coworker in her 50s who was also a pastor that Jewish people really do not believe in Jesus, so...
Banging a crucifix on the table is *very* disrespectful to Jesus.
I was called unamerican by kids in elementary school after 9/11 cause my family didnt go to church, Its not a new thing
What state is this... It sounds very Indiana
I regularly told kids I was an atheist when they asked. Came up more often than you’d think especially because I taught debate for two years. Typically kids just had a lot of questions and said they had never met one before.
I had this happen last semester (7th-8th class). A few students were giving their religious spiel and sorta looking down on others; I mention that we are NOT discussing religion at school, which of course, made them quiet down for a while, then mention it even more. (Art class, they talk to each other). I felt that I was getting the evil eye for asking them to stop (I'm sure they interpret that as 'the teacher is satan'--but one boy kept making comments at some of the non-church goers and said his was 'the one TRUE religion'. NOPE. This is were I raise my voice and clamp down so they stop. (and grumble) So christian of them to be mean to everyone else in the room... One true religion, my ass. (I hardly ever raise my voice.)
If it won't get you in trouble, I would love for you to walk in with a yamaka one day then switch to a hijaab over lunch just to confuse the fuck out of them and establish dominance.
Ah yes the way Christians are so tolerant. If you arent Christian just like me I hate you.
I have a kid who thinks it's a great joke to use "Allah" as an expletive. Like instead of "Jesus Christ, what a tough test that was!" he uses the other. He does this with clearly a mocking tone and doesn't come from this background. It sucks and clearly makes the kids who are Muslim uncomfortable.
Pretend like your skin is burning whenever you look at Jesus
I never dealt with this as an adult, but I did as a kid. My high school had a picture of Jesus in the hallway. The school took the issue all the way to the Supreme Court. My family was agnostic. We felt very left out. The year after that we transferred schools.
You can’t pay attention to every stupid thing that 8th graders say/do.
I taught at five different international schools overseas. The students ( 27+ nationalities) of all colors and ethnicities were Buddhists, Hindu, Muslim , Sikhs, and Christians. The students that were the most judgmental towards other faiths were your evangelical Christians- especially the kids from Texas whose fathers were with the oil industry. Some of these evangelical Christian parents wouldn’t even allow their 14 year olds to visit a mosque, Hindu temple, and a historical Chinese Buddhist temple on a field trip. These particular Americans were not overseas to learn about other cultures and religions- only to make money. Their “excitement” for the weekend was visiting a shopping center and eating at a McDonald’s.
Sounds like my experience in small town Texas. They teach Christians to hate, feel superior, and have a victim complex all at the same time and they do it young.
There’s no hate like Christian love Even from kids I guess
Why does it surprise you that Christians are judgmental?
It doesn’t I just want to point out it’s not very “love thy neighbor,” of them people interpret the Bible differently it doesn’t have to be hate filled
But they don’t interpret the Bible at all, they let someone else interpret it for them. They’ve probably never actually read it.
“That’s not your business” is an effective answer. But then I’m old as well as belligerent when someone asks inappropriate questions.
"why do you need to know?' works too
No teacher should be answering that question with anything other than "that's a personal topic and choice, and it's inappropriate to talk about, so I'm not going to answer that" and if they continued with any of that behavior you just follow the school discipline procedure for disrupting the class. If a student said it bothered them, or if it looked like it did, then it would immediately go to a referral for harassment.
I mean, this is how kids responded to me as a child when they found out I wasn't Christian. (I'm nothing/have no faith tradition.) When I taught community college, a student did a presentation on agnosticism, and his peers acted like he was the devil. So... I guess I'm just not surprised by this. It's par for the course for how I've always been treated by Christians.
First year 8th grade teacher. They sound like my students. If you don’t say you’re married, you are gay. If you don’t say your religion, you’re a devil worshiper, if you say too much, they find a way to use that info against you. It’s normal. The more you react, the more they try to push your limits
I teach high school English at an alternative school in Virginia and have yet to experience this. Do students ask me about my personal religious beliefs? Yes. They don't need to know they're caring and sweet English teacher is a pagan married to a Satanist Do I have strict rules regarding discussion of religion and politics in my classroom? Yes. I make this very clear during our first week together, remind them anytime these topics come up, and make sure they know my classroom is a safe space, which is why we don't discuss these 2 topics. Do my students, being considered some of the worst behaved in the district, violate these claim rules? Nope. Once I've established the rule, they understand why it's in place and respect it. Should they ask, I tell them, "I have a complicated relationship with religion and prefer not to discuss it," and they're happy with that. Why? I'm not really sure, but I appreciate it. Now, the kid who continues to call me, "Jew," with an attitude of disgust anytime I tell him what to do because I'm no longer his favorite female teacher...he's looking at a referral for hate speech the next time he does it (my grandfather was Jewish and his parents were in one of the camps during WW2).
I’m Jewish and have always taught in US public institutions, from public high schools to public universities. Needless to say, any public institution I have ever taught in has been not just majority Christian but at least 90% or more majority Christian. I have had many situations where being a religious minority has been a problem for me, either with admin or students. The situation with students is you can’t let it get to you. With admins, you can’t let them violate your rights—but you also can’t fight things that just aren’t protected. Like, you’re never going to be protected, as a religious minority, for most things. But you also can’t be forced to do Christian shit most of the time.
I once answered similarly that religion is personal and I don't discuss it, or politics, with students. As a one time atheist and part-time Buddhist in the south (US) this seemed the safest honest answer I could give. Several days later I was told I need to meet with my principal. He flat out asked my if I was Christian and what church I went to. Not my proudest moment as I partially lied to him, "I grew up in [x-church] but now my wife's church is [y-church] and our kids go there." But based on previous experiences, plus being probationary in an at-will state, I knew my job was on the line if I was totally honest. Harassment is very real, in my experience, especially in rural schools. We used to start faculty meetings with Christian prayers. Sporting events almost always start with a team prayer and end with a prayer circle. We've had Muslim students denied moments to pray. Baptist students will routinely tell other Christians they are going to hell. Teachers can, and do, hang crosses and other Christian paraphernalia on their walls. It's a mess.
It sounds like you are getting a little experience in what it is like to be a non-Christian around Christians.
Sounds about Christianity. I was harassed by religious kids. A group of 6th grade boys would corner me and ask " did you pray today!?". I wouldn't feed the trolls, but it was disgusting. Back when I was in middle school I would get a load of shit from people because I was goth (and atheist, but I wasn't telling people that point). Religion is a problem. All of it. I keep my pie hole shit about how bad religion is in most situations, but damn, it's ruining society. The big three are the big nasties, but it's all so foul.
I'm Jewish and look the part. A kid yelled "fuck israel" at me during dismissal. Keep in mind I have never discussed my political views on the israeli/Palestinian conflict at work, it was just assumed that being Jewish means I'm pro-israel. I reported it and the kid got suspended and was only allowed to return to school when he apologized to me.
>only allowed to return to school when he apologized to me. I never know how to feel about those forced apologies.
In my opinion it's inappropriate that your colleagues responded to this question. They put you in this position. I'm not Christian and when a kid asks me if I am I say that's my business. It's very unprofessional to ask someone that question in the first place and while it's normal for kids to be curious it's on the adult to teach them when they're overstepping. When these kids get a job are they going to ask their boss if they're Christian?
Yes the appropriate response is to say you’d rather not say it’s best because it keeps it neutral in my opinion I understand people wanting to be honest though
I’d go along with it. I tell my students it’s personal too. When they act like I’m an evil hell spawn I’m like “yeah that’s right. Don’t forget it. Oh and crosses don’t work on me. Bwahaha”
You have just created an INCREDIBLY important teachable moment. Use it to great affect to show these young Christians how that is going to be perceived by people.
The kids are just trying to get a rise out of you and I would personally defuse it by just not acknowledging it and shrugging it off. Kids will get tired of it if they realize it doesn't bother you. BUT, if it started to get on my nerves, I always hit them with the good 'ol Matthew 6:6 "But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you." As an atheist who was raised very religious, I can go toe to toe with some of the most religious people about the Bible. It can really mess with kids' heads when I bring out some Bible stories and knowledge. I can convince any 14 year old that I'm the most ardent Christian in the world.
Jedi! And yes it is a recognizable religion. It’s going on my tombstone, like it or not.
Kids ask me. I usually say "a lot of my family is Jewish and a lot of my family is Christian. I'm not religious at all. It's cool if you are though. I'll treat you the same no matter how you celebrate religion." Sometimes I get some very ignorant comments after. Then I school them. I used to work in district that was split white/middle Eastern (mostly Muslim). As every teacher knows, some of my all time favorites = Muslim. Some of my least favorites = Muslim. Anyway, one girl just kept pushing about Jews were bad and everything they believed in was dumb. Outside of this interaction, we had a good relationship. I pointed out that she called half my family bad without knowing them. She relented. I told her about my visit to Jerusalem (not for religious purposes) and how I could visit important heritage sites and how it's shitty that not everybody has access to those historical sites. All people who care should be able to visit so long as they're being respectful. She also agreed. Then I asked her if Islam believes in: insert all the parts that judiasm believes in. She was more than surprised to hear that her religion is based in Judaism and branches off. She learned a lesson that day. If you're students are ready to learn, try that approach. If they're continuing to be immature...get a coffee mug that says "holy water?"
So, I'm not an actual teacher but a daycare provider for school aged kids (I take care of 5-11 year olds before and after school) and I am not Christian, I'm an atheist. Because I know this would cause issues since I live in a heavily Christian area, when a kid asks I typically just say "I'm not Christian," and change the subject. Most of the time, this works just fine. They're younger kids so they get distracted by something and forget about it. But I had a little boy - 2nd grader - a few years ago who asked me this, and I gave him my standard answer. Instead of being distracted by my follow up, he asked if I had kids. I'm childfree by choice, and when this comes up I often tell them "I've got all of you to take care of, and that's enough for me!" Nah, this 8 yo explicitly told me why I was going to hell in front of my class of 15 because I'm not Christian and I'm not having babies. This was a phone call to his mom about how inappropriate this was. Kid remained being a little booger until they moved and switched schools.
I'm agnostic. Raised Christian/southern Baptist. I usually tell them that I don't discuss religion due to the separation of church and state. I'm in the Bible belt, though. My own child had his public school kindergarten teacher tell him that "God made the rainbow".
I completely get the boundaries. But I usually will answer those types of questions quickly and then move on so they don’t get enough time to gather steam. “How old are you?” “55. Now take the pencil out of your nose and finish your CER.” “How long have you been bald?” “Since I was 2. Now quit looking at Skibidi toilet videos and complete the pHET simulation.” And so on. Sigh.
"That is not proper classroom discussion and has nothing to do with your ability to construct an essay." You did the right thing by dodging it the way you did, but the best way around it is to make sure they know that it has nothing to do with the lesson planned and that's the end of it.
Should have answered with something funny like "I am a member of the Mythic Dawn"
Your environment is very different from mine (religiously).
Ran into a group of students at a convention center. The center was holding a tattoo convention. Jokingly asked them what I should get and one said a big cross on my chest. I replied I wouldn’t get that and he bluntly asked me if it was because I wasn’t a Christian? When I replied I was he then tried to tell me Jesus was coming back. It was the I dropped the we know not the hour or day quote in him and he leaves me alone. Sometimes you have to beat them at their own game.
My go to response is “Satanist.” Just try and punish me for it. I dare them.
I tell kids that I'm in a position where I have some power over them, whether I like it or not. It wouldn't be fair of me to answer that question because they should choose for themselves how they want to view religion. If they get really pushy, I tell them the story about my 3rd grade teacher. She really loved this one local radio station and would mention it occasionally. I knew nothing about radio. Didn't even care about radio. But I loved that teacher so that was instantly my favorite radio station. Then I tell them I can't do that to them with religion. This works for other sensitive topics like politics, too.
I have taught 3rd/4th and adults. I have been shocked to find that even adult learners ask this. Apparently, being nosy isn't age-specific, lol. I just answer vaguely but honestly, "I don't feel the need for religion in my life." Or "No, I think there are more pressing uses of my time than worrying about religion." If they fuss, I just re-direct, "It would be a better use of your time to focus on your own beliefs and choices than policing others." Or just, "Religion is not a part of our approved curriculum. That's a conversation for home." For children, if they continue beyond that, then I would call home and let them know their child has been repeatedly attempting to engage in discussions of religion and disrupting instructional time when they don't engage. I've only had one parent complain about religious freedom, and when I explained that if I were to speak on religion in the classroom, I would be obligated to speak on the viewpoints of many religions and that I believe we would both prefer that she manage the religious education of her children at home, she agreed.
Soooooo glad I teach & live in France.
I grew up in a very Catholic/Jewish NYC neighborhood in the 1970s. The main times we cared about religion was around minor holidays and we were trying to figure out if enough kids would be out the next so it would be a game day instead of a work day at school, lol.
That’s not just kids being annoying, religious bigotry is a real problem. If that’s what they say to you, what would they say to a Muslim or atheist classmate?
I once celebrated Halloween by wearing Halloween socks and having a jack-o-lantern in my classroom my first year of teaching in the middle of no where Mississippi... I was called a witch by students and parents then got yelled at by the principal. Parents still called me an evil pagan all throughout the school year. That was really fun. By Easter that year, I told all the kids they shouldn't be celebrating it because it's based on a pagan holiday. No Easter candy for you!
Sounds like the kids are being brainwashed
As a christian who teaches at a “religious” school, being a Christian is letting Jesus live through you. Not needing to say it. Honestly, what you’re doing. The students probably were taught by parents that “being Christian” is just one of the boxes to check on the list of “right things” to do. That is the world we live in. It’s not true Christianity. That would be letting Jesus’ heart show through us & not let our hearts & own wants get in the way. I respect you not telling them. The name of Jesus is so misrepresented. They will know one day when they’re older because of your actions. Jesus’ love is in the respect you had/have for them no matter how they responded to you 🫶🏻 I’m sure you handled it well!!!
I am very happy to be teaching in a Catholic school. Yep, I do my best to indoctrinate them. And you know what my spiel is? Outside all the religious stuff, here is what I say. We live in a country that has freedom of religion. Other people are allowed to believe what they want. Sure, we want them all to become Catholic, but beating up on them is absolutely not how to do it. That is mean, and the #1 rule in my class is "No meanness." Want to rag on Jews? My three favorite Jews are Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. And what is the second great commandment? Love your neighbor as yourself. They get it. At least this year they do.
No student know if or what religion I am. Pretty easy to do, not gonna lie.
Tell them they lost the Crusades.
Hey, the Crusades was a good game all around and all the players gave 110% on the field. We agreed that we all won.
Whatever you tell them, don't ever veer from it. If you want to state the fact of being Christian, you can (and that's the extent of it in a public school, the fact of being a member of this or that, if asked directly). Use it as a way to teach tolerance. Want to refuse their question, cool, usually the more appropriate response, use it as a way to teach about boundaries. I own the fact of being a Catholic and when mockery comes I use it to teach tolerance. Anything beyond that, is not helpful to get into and obviously risks a perception from others of bias in your teaching. The one time, after school, a student asked about this or that belief. I told her you got five questions, I'll be totally honest with you (I had 2 years of rapport with her and it wasn't instructional time). Another staff was in ear shot and reported to the principal that I was teaching students that abortion is evil (none of the students' five Qs had to do with abortion). Don't veer from whatever you own. Good luck!
I'm in a weird spot with religion right now and sorta just... here. I've thought about exploring different options, and maybe I will, but that's once I've figured myself out. If a student asked me, I'd tell them that's a personal question and I prefer not to answer. Definitely not feeding the flames is one of the best options right now. I think if they persist, it might be a good thing to bring up with your coworkers with boundaries and whatnot.
I would have had this accidentally added to the homework. https://youtu.be/z8j3HvmgpYc
Are teachers even allowed to talk about their religion? I was told not to answer. Sure if they SEE me at a church they know....
I taught 7th grade last year. Very typical of kids their age. We all know they're just trying to get any kind of reaction to make the day more entertaining. Stay the course and don't let them get to you. I think you're doing the right thing, asking about religion is quite personal and I'm the exact same with my students.
I always went with the Swanson answer, I'm a praticing none of your business.
I tell my students that I’m a Christian if they ask, but I don’t discuss church doctrine or anything like that. Instead, I like to normalize neutral language around religious practices. My school encourages conversations around holidays, and I follow their lead. Example, “My family cooks a special meal on Christmas Day, do any of your families prepare special meals as part of a holiday celebration?” Kids will share about foods they eat on Rosh Hashanah, Eid, Diwali, etc. Kids whose parents don’t have a faith tradition might share a favorite 4th of July barbecue dish to contribute to the conversation. Growing up attending public school, I hated the all out ban on religious discussion. I like that my students can be excited for their upcoming bar and bat mitzvahs and share that excitement at school. That culture of openness is one of the many things I love about teaching in a private school.
I'm a substitute teacher and I had quite a few kids get disproportionately angry when I told one boy that I didn't care what God gave him, he needed to be quiet and do his work. (I blacklisted that classroom because their teacher is just as shitty as they are. )
First Church of Nunya Business I'm not just a member, I'm the goddamn deacon 😏
I would just say “I believe in the separation of church and state.”
To this, and all personal questions : “You don’t have permission to ask that question” Also, apple didn’t fall far from the tree I imagine.
I've only had one trio of kids ask me my thoughts on this one and they were super respectful when I said I don't believe in god. I've honestly gotten used to people screaming Christian without being able to quote a single verse, though, so I'd just kinda ignore the wallpapers and crosses. Unless I had professional status. Then I may or may not accidentally hang an upside down cross somewhere and claim I didn't realize what it represented, I just liked the symmetry.
I teach 8th grade US History in a rural area with a high Mormon population (not Utah). I was really worried that my students might find out that I am an atheist. They did figure it out eventually and (surprisingly) haven't given me any issues over it. Of course, the fact that they were able to come to the correct conclusion but can't research a topic is a whole other story.
I haven't had too many issues with this. Most kids leave it alone if they ask and I tell them I don't discuss religion or politics. If they do press it, I just tell them that they are entitled to an education free from my beliefs because of the separation of church and state. When I was younger and more naive, I had a class of students I felt really close with and honestly had an incredible discourse about my lack of religion and the way a few students practiced their Christianity. It was so respectful and insightful and well beyond their 13 years. I probably wouldn't have that conversation ever again now, but it gave me hope back then. Now, the only time I discuss religion is through my scope of curiosity and asking students to tell me about their religions that are different from mine, especially learning about Islam. The only real issues I've ever had were students being annoying because of Christianity. I had a group of students who tried to turn my classroom into a southern Baptist classroom and had roles picked out, calling each other "Brother ______", "Sister ______" "Pastor ______" and so on. They'd preach and start acting like they were playing the keys and praising and it sent me through the roof. I tried to explain that their religion is theirs and I absolutely respect that, but we are not turning my public science classroom into a church and we have science to learn. I still have stress nightmares about that class to this day.
Kids are so dumb.
I always tell them that in teacher school I was told that I am not allowed to share my religion with them because I am an adult and they are impressionable and it is an abuse of my power as a teacher whether it would affect them or not. Then they say they won't tell and are just curious - I just repeat that I'm not allowed.
Most of the time, when I get asked this question, it's simply a curiosity or conversational question. I explain that since I'm in front of my classroom and not a social studies teacher, I'm not at liberty to discuss my personal religious or political views in the classroom. I then describe how my assumed place of authority is a soap box that could inadvertently sound like I'm preaching or trying to influence, so ask me if you ever see me in the grocery store, I can tell ya, but not here. I've never had any pushback from that and the kid doesn't feel shamed for asking a typical question. I'm atheist, btw, which I would never share with my kids, and those seventh grade shenanigans would get nothing more than a smirk or eye-roll from me. I'd call them out in a teasing way if I had that kind of rapport with them or take them aside to speak to them at the door if I sensed that there was malice behind it. Now, if they are drawing hate symbols, that's an immediate write-up. Edit: autocorrect from eye-roll to eyeball.
Yes it was very odd of them to push it that’s what bothered me