New York Teacher Tells Kids There Is No Santa Claus

[xXGeckoXx]

There are 2 sides to this story:

One side has been explained very well by others which is that a teacher should not ruin childrens imaginations and on that I can believe.

The other side of it is the definition of what a teacher is supposed to do, a teacher is meant to teach the truth to their students. If it was said out of spite for the children then it is a terrible thing but the teacher does have an obligation to teach the truth, in context (for example if a student asked how santa does it) the correct answer would be that it is physically impossible.

 

[ike42]

truthful yes

***** move? yes...

Let the kids find out on their own, let them be kids for a while.

So let me get this straight. A teacher "ruined" Christmas for some eight year olds that a fat man in a red suit who travels around the world in a sleigh and leaves presents for kids is actually ficticious? That's ridiculous. The kids are going to get presents anyway, they're gonna spend Xmas with their family and friends and have a jolly old time regardless of whether they know Santa exists or not. How about someone teach them about Jesus, which is the reason there even is an Xmas.

Not true, Christmas is a holiday that was actually taken from the Pagans. While biblical "scholars" tend to make the argument that Jesus was born in the spring, the holiday was put in December to coincide with the Pagan celebration of the Winter Solstice. So really, without Jesus there would be a Christmas, it would just be called something different...probably.

yeah uh....no one really cares dude, the reason the holiday still exist is because we celebrate the birth of jesus, may not be the right time of year, but we dont care. we never cared.
christmas is friggin christmas. and christmas rules.

No, the reason most people still celebrate Christmas has less to do with religion and more to do with commercialism, or tradition. But even so, that's no reason to say that "no one cares," I can assure you that there are many people who care about the origin of traditions more than to just take it on face value because the church tells them so.

 

[XandNobody]

In truth, this whole Santa thing has always bothered the hell out of me. Why, exactly? Because in my eyes it is more or less degrading the imagination of the child, not fostering it like everyone uses as the thing's justification. The child isn't imagining a dang thing about Santa, they are picturing in their head an image that comes from the massive amount of bull and lies both parents and the media put out there for them to absorb. This includes the pictures, the songs, the books, the commercials, TV in general, etc.. To me, it's like saying if I picture the Empire State Building in my head after seeing a special about it on the History Channel, I'm imagining about it; yet in truth little to none of that is my imagination, it's simple recollection.

To illustrate my point, I've listened in on conversations between my Santa age cousins and my aunts, and it's more of a lesson on a subject than it is any sort of imagination. "Why is Santa so fat, why are there eight reindeer, how can he go so fast, why is his suit red?". These are the questions I hear, as since the kid believes Santa to be a real thing, they want to know the truth, you know, instead of alternatively knowing it's a story and then imagining for themselves why those things might be.

Also, over here in America, Santa stands as the first time the government just flat lies to you as a person, NORAD and all that 'tracking Santa' crap we have to put up with on every media outlet that they can put it on. Though, on second thought, maybe getting a kid used to the government lying to them is a good thing; tis a debatable topic I suppose.

You want to foster imagination, have a kid imagine their own world. Telling them what to imagine is, well, pointless, and in this case nothing more than a lie. I don't want schools teaching lies.

 

[ike42]

How about someone teach them about Jesus, which is the reason there even is an Xmas.

You're joking, right?

Holidays were celebrated around the Winter Solstice *long* before the Christians decided to steal the day and claim their Savior was born on it. Several other religion have, and have had for a very long time, holidays in this time frame.

Further, if you actually look into the facts, Jesus wasn't actually born in December.

Lastly, keep your religion to yourself. The only person who should be teaching kids about any belief in any deities is their parents. I know that if my kid came home and started telling me their teacher was talking to them about God, I'd be raising some hell.

Lol I just made this point to someone else on this thread, except his reply was that "no one cares." Also, if you want to get technical your explanation is slightly flawed in where you say "if you actually look at the facts..." If you do look at the facts, there is not a speck of acceptable proof that Jesus was ever born at all. Everything we know about this myth comes from hearsay. None of the gospels were even written by who they're attributed to, they were orally passed on until someone later transcribed them.

 

[DracoSuave]

When you deliberately teach someone a falsehood, you have no one to blame but yourself when they learn the truth.

Are there ways to engage childhood imagination and wonder that don't involve lying to them and convincing them of a fictitious chimney invader? Yes. So the argument Santa is needed for childhood imaginiation holds no water.

 

[Samurai Silhouette]

I'm a person who grew up with a big reliance on my imagination. Santa Clause was someone I believed existed, and I would imagine him alot when I was younger when it was almost christmas time. Now that I'm older, I respect the stories my parents would tell me and all the carols about him. It plays to a childs mind and uses what they like to make the holiday what it's meant to be - fun, family oriented and exciting!

I can see kids in my head now going "SANTA'S COMING! SANTA'S COMING! Gotta get the milk and cookies!"

It's a magical kind of moment, that. They're all excited at the idea of this great man breaking into their home at night and giving them gifts for being good that year. So I say Yes, it is bad to tell kids that he does not exist. Let them be innocent and enjoy their years as a young'in because god knows that sort of thing disappears when you get older. I still mess with my imagination but it's not the same. I grew up with the moral of telling the truth, too ike42. That being said my family also took happiness of the families children into account as well. So it was kind of a loophole. =3

tl;dr: Santa is one of the things that should be linked to a childs (religion allowing) early life experiences before they grow up and have to deal with the big bad world. D:

After skimming the posts in this thread, this is the only post past OP I care to take seriously on this topic. Nice to see that someone has a grasp of growing up. It's like the last ten years everyone turned into "pics or didn't happen" cynical pseudo-intellectuals.

 

[ace_of_something]

The teacher is supposed to say "You'll have to talk to your parents about that." My wife is a teacher and kids ask her theological questions all the time. These are her stock answers. Kids ask her if she thinks santa is real (she teaches 10-11 year olds so a lot of them don't believe in santa at that point) she says "I just don't know. It's a mystery isn't it? I'd talk to your parents. I'd bet they'd know!"
I'll repeat it again.
Not the teacher's place to say any more than teaching about Jesus or the lacktherof. I love how often anti-theists get up in arms about religion being taught in school but the second a teacher teaches disbelief it's 'well the kids should know the truth'

Yes, it is ok to let kids believe in santa, the tooth fairy, what have you it's called childhood where things can and do feel more magical. There is no reason to crush a kid's sense of wonder and fun. The world will do it soon enough. Yeah there are other ways to engage a child's imagination but this one has all kinds of fun culture around it.

It's not the same as out and out lying it's playing pretend. It's not to dissimilar as going into the backyard with your kid and playing space pirates or telling them ghost stories while camping. Letting your kid decide when they want to stop believing is enough.

Lighten the hell up people. Why so jaded?

 

[KeyMaster45]

Wow, we have lots of christmas killjoys on here don't we? I half expected most of the posts I've read to end with "Bah humbug!" I mean really guys, they were second graders. Let them just fucking enjoy being kids who believe in Santa. All this bitter "Oh well I already knew he was a fraud by the time I was 8," bullshit is ridiculous. I mean really, how fucking mean spirited is it to just rip that kind of thing from a child because you have decided that they shouldn't have believed it in the first place. Let the kids figure it out on their own, most will by the fourth grade anyway.

I mean fuck, is it really so wrong to let a child believe in something that makes the seem just a little more magical to them?

Without more to go on I can't say anything about the teacher, but if in some kind of bitter rage they decided to shit on a bunch of families holiday cheer then they're a douche bag of the highest caliber.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

They were gonna find out eventually anyway. No point in lying to them. Telling them the truth shows them more respect in my opinion.

Boy, you gotta love this idiot

"It's outrageous that a teacher would strip a child of their innocence and try and demystify something," 59-year-old Margaret Fernandez said.

Can you really live in a world where punishing people for telling the truth is OK? If that teacher gets punished for not lying, that will expose the entire nation as one big pile of hypocrite scum. Especially the Christian population.

 

[Xaryn Mar]

It was a geography lesson about the North Pole. Telling the children that anyone lived up there would be a lie. Besides geography is about facts, so of course she was in the right to tell the children that there was no santa on the North Pole.
Everyone knows that he lives in Greenland (unless you are Finnish then he lives in Finland).

Now of course he doesn't exist and I for one have never believed in him (why should I need an American commercialised fictional being bringing me presents?) but for a while I believed that Nissen (a very old mythological creature in Scandinavia who takes care of the farm/house and the animals as long as the farmer treats him well) came with my presents as long as we gave him some rice porridge at Christmas (or Jul as it is known here).

 

[Cecilthedarkknight_234]

The teacher is supposed to say "You'll have to talk to your parents about that." My wife is a teacher and kids ask her theological questions all the time. These are her stock answers. Kids ask her if she thinks santa is real (she teaches 10-11 year olds so a lot of them don't believe in santa at that point) she says "I just don't know. It's a mystery isn't it? I'd talk to your parents. I'd bet they'd know!"
I'll repeat it again.
Not the teacher's place to say.

Yes, it is ok to let kids believe in santa, the tooth fairy, what have you it's called childhood where things can and do feel more magical. There is no reason to crush a kid's sense of wonder and fun. The world will do it soon enough.

It's not the same as out and out lying it's playing pretend. It's not to dissimilar as going into the backyard with your kid and playing space pirates or telling them ghost stories while camping. Letting your kid decide when they want to stop believing is enough.

Lighten the hell up people. Why so jaded?

to answer your question why lie to your kids with fairy tale in this day/age anymore? Hell I am 26 years old what's the point of covering up and making the world seem all happy sparkles when some one would stab you in the back over a f**** pizza or just walk out on his wife after 24 years of marriage saying "i'm done". Giving kids false hope and letting them pretend life is an okay world is what's b.s. but hey this is how I feel.

 

[Amphoteric]

The fewer people that believe in idiotic things the better.

 

[GamerKT]

Meh. If I ever have kids, I'm not lying about Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy. In hindsight, I didn't like being lied to, and they're not cool enough to disregard the untruths. I'd much rather have known that my parents were getting me gifts so I can thank THEM and be nice to THEM. And also make realistic requests. Kids don't hold back with their desires if they think magic'll cover it.

 

[Xaryn Mar]

The teacher is supposed to say "You'll have to talk to your parents about that." My wife is a teacher and kids ask her theological questions all the time. These are her stock answers. Kids ask her if she thinks santa is real (she teaches 10-11 year olds so a lot of them don't believe in santa at that point) she says "I just don't know. It's a mystery isn't it? I'd talk to your parents. I'd bet they'd know!"
I'll repeat it again.

If your wife answers that to the question of whether she thinks that santa is real then she is not answering the question (unless she really are in doubt).
The correct answer (in my case at least and most adults, I don't know what your wife believes) would be: "No. Santa doesn't exist". This is what I think about santa and that would be my answer.

 

[Kinokohatake]

I've raised my 3 kids with the knowledge that there is no Santa.

 

[D Moness]

You guys might be okay with the fact the kids learned the truth behind Santa.. but really I don't think it's okay. Teacher shouldn't get in trouble, but the children are only around 8 so perhaps the parents like to extend Christmas. I remember I was 14ish when Santa still was a big miracle worker in my life when Christmas came around.

I am really surprised (and slightly ashamed) about the majority of the reactions here. Kids already have to grow up to fast in my opinion and most just want to sped this up. Give kids a childhood in where impossible things look possible.

Let kids be kids and let parents decide when they tell the truth about santa claus , easter bunnies , fairies and all else mystical.

all those people saying you should all tell the truth to kids from the start reminds me of a stand-up comedian:

(after he was told santa claus was fake) I decided to tell the truth to my kids. So standing above the box i should be like there is no santa claus , no tooth fairy. To be honest you will live 18 years before finding out you are a complete loser and will fail in life whatever you try to do until you die. So let's just take out the middle road , hammer a board on the top of your crib throw it in a hole and cover it with dirt. easy ..

 

[Xmaspast]

I kind of want to die when my kid's like eight years old. That way when I'm on my death bed I can say "Come closer...I have something to tell you." And when they do I can bring them in close and say "Billy, there is no Santa Clause." and have those be my final words. Scarred for life.