Poll: Teachers Not Allowed to Discuss Personal Religious Beliefs in Class

[Keava]

If it actually is a discussion, as in presentation of opinions between the involved parties, then yes, it's perfectly fine with me. Discussions about various topics, especially the 'harder' ones, if handled correctly can teach way better than typical lessons. Discussions are pretty much the only way to fight the worst trait of human beings - ignorance.

I'm personally a non believer, not even atheist as i lean more towards complete nihilism yet i had luck to discuss my views with some reasonable people, including bishops of the catholic church. Even back in primary school we had religion lessons and despite my lack of faith i used to attend them for sake of discussion about different aspects of morality.

If we don't let people discuss such things, how can we hope that in future they will be able to find compromise whenever they disagree at something? Allowing students to discuss such matters with teachers let's them look at various matters form different points of view.

What i'd be against is indoctrination in form of teachers saying "My point is so and so and you are wrong, thus convert or your soul will burn in eternal flames of hell", but that's hardly discussion.

 

[Darken12]

I think, personally, that teachers should keep their personal lives outside the classroom, and the same should apply to students. The point of teaching and learning is, unsurprisingly, teaching and learning. Can this be applied to personal insights and slice-of-life moments? Of course, but that's not what school/college/seminars/symposiums are for. Their subject matters are almost invariably objective, not subjective. Even in fields such as philosophy, psychology and theology, matters are supposed to be handled objectively, keeping whatever personal feelings or beliefs either party has to themselves.

Of course, I've heard from a lot of people the exact opposite opinion, saying that becoming more personally engaged in the class helps them learn better. They say that seeing the teacher as a human being with beliefs and feelings helps improve their opinion on the class and consequently, their interest on the matter. To me, it's the exact opposite.

I don't believe that there's a right way to answer this question. Expressing personal beliefs will make some students more interested in the class, and will make others lose that same interest. It's simply a matter of personal taste that depends, paradoxically, on what the teacher in question believes.

 

[Zipa]

As long as its not in primary schools (elementary for the USA?) , people need to be allowed to make up their own minds about religion and not have it influenced/forced upon them when they are too young to decide for themselves.

I went to a religious Primary school and now looking back on it I find it cringe worthy and I attribute it as being the main reason that I renounced religion as quickly as I could and became a atheist.

But in secondary education a teacher wants to say this is my belief as part of the class learning more about the different religions and that you shouldn't hate someone for what they believe then I don't see a problem with it. It only becomes a problem if the teacher for example said I believe X and if you don't you will all suffer in hell (or equivalent for the religion )

 

[Hop-along Nussbaum]

No. Except as it pertains to the lesson at hand.

Say, a history class is covering the religious persecution of Protestants that took place under Queen Mary (Tudor). If the teacher states that he/she is Presbyterian or Baptist, and that they could have been flogged, tortured and burned at the stake for their beliefs back then, then yes I understand.

But if parents want their children to learn about religion during school hours, I would suggest they send their kids to a parochial school, rather than public.

 

[Nightvalien]

if the kids ask yes, otherwise screw the cultists.

Oh man! Your so kewl! You hate religion and therefore are smarter than everyone else! You are so totally awesome!

Why thank you, i got my certificate of awesomeness this week.

 

[aashell13]

Just the opposite. It's the whole 'separation of church and state' thing. If the state tries to dictate religion it would be a violation of the first amendment, and since a public school teacher is in a position of state funded authority...

Off hours? Discuss whatever you want. But when you are earning your tax-funded paycheck, keep your beliefs to yourself. Religious brainwashing is a parent's job.

Key word here is "personal". If a public school were to require teachers to present a single religious viewpoint as official, that would constitute an establishment of religion which is forbidden under the first amendment. But the question here concerns personal beliefs which are a form of protected speech under the first amendment. Threatening to fire someone for expressing beliefs contrary to policy is a form of discrimination, and precedent exists to bar employers from doing so.

Besides, the constitution doesn't require absolute separation between all things official and religious, merely that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof". It takes a rather extreme stretch of the imagination to construe the occasional classroom discussion in which a teacher's personal beliefs are made known as an official establishment of a particular religion.

 

[AGrey]

Teachers should not be allowed to proselytize to their students.

While I agree with that statement in general, did you actually read the OP or just the thread title?

I don't think teachers in public schools should be allowed to "push" their religious or political views in class, but in the specific circumstances in the OP it would seem entirely appropriate for the teacher to answer the kid's question, and the use that as the launching point to find out what other people felt about the subject of evil, which was probably on curriculum for that book anyway.

I think that "I was just answering a kid's question" is a great way for a teacher with a religious agenda to get around the "you are not allowed to preach to your students" law.

A flat ban, regardless of the circumstances, is the best solution.

If a teacher can't have a class discussion about literature on the subject of Good and Evil without keeping their personal feelings out of it, they shouldn't be teaching.

 

[HerbertTheHamster]

organised religion and fraud should be discussed equally in the classroom

 

[klaynexas3]

only if the kids are truly interested in what the teacher's views are. they shouldn't just start preaching to the kids if it's uncalled for, but if there is a class discussion, and everyone is allowed to give their own personal views, say if it were debate class, and someone tried to include the teacher, then the teacher should be allowed to add to it, but not go off on a tangent of their own beliefs, just contribute a little.

 

[Zeekar]

If the question is provoked, yes. Otherwise, no. Too many teachers would use the classroom as a soap-box to preach their world-views if given the opportunity. Sad, but true.

 

[JET1971]

No absolutly not. there should be no reason at all that a teacher should be allowed to discuss personal religious preferances during class time. they are there to teach the students the curriculum allowed by the school board in the best way they can and injecting religion into it should not be allowed, same thing for political views. teachers need to be nuetral plain and simple and discussing there own preferances is not nuetral.

after class is over if a student wishes to discuss it then thats a completly different situation and should be allowed but thats ofcourse not in class.

 

[AnkaraTheFallen]

My RE (Religious Education) teacher doesn't really discuss his personal beliefs in class but I never thought there was a rule for it, I just thought he didn't want to. He talks to me and debates with me in his office however about Philosophy and stuff. I wonder if this rule applies in the UK?

As far as I know, it doesn't apply here.
I used to talk a lot about religion and philosophy with my physics teacher, and I loved that class because we had some interesting discussions about it.

Saying that I don't think teachers (or anyone for that matter) should be allowed to push their personal beliefs onto others. It's fine to talk about it, but when you try to make others think as you do it becomes wrong. I grew up in a strong christian family and having those beliefs pushed onto me really screwed me up later in life when things in my life seemed to be 'wrong' according to my (or should I say my parents) beliefs.

 

[Farseer Lolotea]

The very fact that it prevented your teacher from explaining his beliefs on the topic at hand suggests to me that there should be some leeway. It's not as if he was preaching at the class.

 

[tehweave]

School is a place for learning. To learn something you need to know every angle and make an informed decision/opinion based on your own thoughts. A student says "What's your opinion on good and evil" and a teacher can't state their own opinion? Something is broken here. If a single teacher is preaching his or her own beliefs and trying to convert students (Christian, Atheist, Catholic, Deist, Muslim, what have you) should be told to stop.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with having beliefs. If you want to share those beliefs to people, you should. If you abuse that privilege, it should be taken away. From you. Not everyone. Simple.

Students should be taught how to make their own informed decisions, not forced to believe one thing.

 

[Thaius]

Absolutely. This is an example of our culture taking the whole "separation of church and state" thing waaaaaaay too far. All my teachers and college professors rant on a consistent basis about their own atheistic beliefs, but if someone says a religious word they can get in trouble for pushing their faith on others. Which is really screwed up. If we want freedom of religion and freedom of expression, we should allow expression of any belief system in the classroom or no belief system in the classroom. The latter would keep things more objective, but all the current system does is keep religion out of the classroom but allow anti-religious sentiment to reign. That's not okay, and definitely does not accomplish what it should.

 

[TiloXofXTanto]

I'm fine with it everywhere but in the most zealous of countries/states/provinces.
So basically keep it out of the parts of the world that are least secular.

 

[badgersprite]

It's kind of sad that they can't, and the fact that they're scared they could be sued if they did. I attended a private school which was technically religious even though they didn't force it on anyone, so the rule didn't apply.

When I was in twelfth grade, I had a really interesting discussion with my English teacher (we weren't technically in class, it was just a lunch break that happened to be inside because it was raining) about why we believed what we believed. There was no attempt to convert anyone, it was just interesting in that I gained a perspective on the school's brand of Christianity, and she was able to gain a perspective on atheism that she probably didn't have before.