Hell teaching in school

[Silvia Martin]

I'm floored at what they are teaching our kids in school. First my 14 year old daughter's homework assignment is to make up her own " god". They were studying Greek mythology. Today she asked me what a good eternal punishment for disrespect was. She said...her teacher said it had to be painful to humans. Natasha explained, that they were studying DANTE'S INFERNO. Now they had to come up with their own gruesome punishments. I teach my kids the right stuff... but I'm at a total loss as how to handle this. Roy of course says to raise a stink at the school... what do I do ?


   HELP,
   Silva   

[Akira329]

Hey Silvia,
Have you and Roy told your daughter the truth about hell??

Pretty sick assignment. Must be a creative writing class no?
Antaiwan

[Silvia Martin]

She knows the truth about hell and the other false church doctrines. She doesn't believe any of the stuff they're reading and her teacher told them that they shouldn't. Just reading some of those things can give a person nightmares... being boiled in blood or trapped in a coffin and then at judgment day God puts the nails in,for you to be trapped for eternity. i won't even watch those PG13 scary movies. I mean ... look at poor Lupak and what that kind of teaching has done to him. We quit church to get away from this. And the worst part is they are making the kids play God and dish out the punishment!!!!!


   Silvia

[rockrdude]

Silvia,

What a painful reminder of just how similar the teachings of the 'church' go hand in hand with the world.

My wife and I dealt with such things by removing our children from the public schools and we brought them home. We have schooled them at home ever since with fairly good success, even though we're probably not very good at it.

But, we decided to take to heart passages like:

Ephesians 6:4 - And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. (NKJV)

To me, this meant it was my job and not the job of total strangers as well as people who are not like-minded to instruct my children, especially in the things of the Lord.

and this one:

Proverbs 22:6 - Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.

Who has the primary task of training up a child? The parents. (See Titus 2)

I am thankful that your daughter knows the truth. Now, how will she deal with this subject with it being forced upon her this way?

No matter what you do and how you handle this, in the end, you and Roy will prayerfully handle this as God shows you how. Of this I have no doubt. He has given you the task of raising your child in the way she should go, so I am confident He will lead you every step of the way.

[mmijares]

Hi Sylvia,

I myself need some input as to how to handle kids studying in a school where Babylonian doctrines are being taught.  But as for me, I just let it go.  Like your kids, my kids can handle those doctrines, I think, with of course a steady guidance from us, parents.  In fact, I want them to be exposed to various doctrines, not only of the Catholics, but also of different Protestant churches, and make them come to me and ask questions about them.  Through this, I guess, they will begin to treasure the truth as much as I am now.

-Mijares

[Linny]

Silvia,
As a parent, this is my opinion. You are responsible for the education of your children. If the school she is in is stepping on your beliefs as a family, your discretion as a parent and what you wish for your child to participate in, then you have the right to go to the teacher in a non-combative way. Tell the teacher that your child is not going to do the assignment as you don't feel it will lead to any positive teaching for your child. Ask the teacher for another assignment for your daughter that is on the same topic.
If this teacher is mature and open-minded, they shouldn't be offended at your wanting another assignment.
Let her take a big 0 if you must. But if that were the only choice, I'd at least go over the teacher's head and ask for the other assignment.

These are my feelings and my husband's feelings on this.
Lin

[Dave in Tenn]

{Just a little housekeeping.  There's nothing wrong with this discussion.  I'm just trying to move it to a more appropriate sub-forum.   Please continue.}

[Astrapho]

Oh... My god. If I were in that situation, I'd kindly tell the teacher to fail me for the assignment because there is simply no way I'm going to do it. (I mean, seriously. Dante's Inferno?! -When I read it I had nightmares!- Exercising their imagination to think up of gruesome punishments??!! What the!!)

I agree with Linny's advice, that's probably the best way to go.

[Akira329]

She knows the truth about hell and the other false church doctrines. She doesn't believe any of the stuff they're reading and her teacher told them that they shouldn't.

Hey Silvia,
Its interesting that the teacher, (who I assume doesn't believe this stuff either), would even give an assignment on the subject of torture. Why would she want to see how demented her students minds are???

Are you worried what your daughter will think differently about the truth after the assignment??
If she knows and understands the truth, I don't see how any fantasy writing class would change her mind or why any of it would offend.
How does she feel about writing the paper??

Besides she is not writing about the only true and wise God, just some false mythical god.
I can also see the opportunity in trying to resolve the reasons for torture. What does it accomplish? What is the purpose? What are the moral implications of it? How is it justice? Do you know what I mean??
I think she could explore these options in the paper and be creative.

I don't want her to fail the class or assignment.
Ultimately I believe the decision is hers to make on how she will approach the assignment.

She must have a clear conscious either way. Do or don't do!

I remember writing a similar type of paper in my college psych class. I believe a got an B on it but I wrote it from the perspective of what I understood to be the truth about God(which was not very much then). It was my opinion, it was creative and more important for the class it had to make some sense. I was not graded for my beliefs. Judging by what you daughters teacher said I don't think she would grade on beliefs either.

Hope this helps you
Antaiwan

[Roy Martin]

A short update of what happened.
Silvia has gone from down and out and weak to a raging little bull over this matter. She has the school in a panic. Not to boast but she tore them up.
First Silvia and I went together and spoke to the principle. He kept saying, its just literature. Later in the day the teacher called Silvia and deceived her into thinking that it wasn't what we thought and that Tasha misunderstood. Well things got calm, but Silvia found out from Tasha after turning in her homework assignment and a class discussion of it that the teacher had lied. The kids had to come up with appropriate punishment for different sins based on Dante's views. The kids had answers like cut their tongue out and make them eat it. Tie them to horses and tear them apart,etc,etc. gruesome evil stuff.
Silvia stormed back to the school yesterday.I didn't even know she was going.She told me after it was over all the things she said to them, and it left me speechless to say the least. I'm left with one conclusion that God gave Silvia strength, and walked right into that school with her and put the words in her mouth. They didn't and don't have a chance or alternative but to do exactly as she has demanded that they do. She has demanded that they never teach this stuff in the future to any child and that they have another class discussion and assignment to try to clean it up and correct this wrongful type of teaching. The principle has asked for a few days to see what he can do. Oh one more thing. The principle asked Silvia if she expects them to change the whole system for one person. She said everything starts with one person and most likely the parents don't know what is going on in school or just don't care. She asked for a name list of all the parents so she could contact all of them to inform them of this matter. This made the principle very uneasy.
At present it seems that Silvia has them hopping. Silvia is not giving up.
At least she isn't lieing  in bed shaking and crying.

Roy

[Roy Martin]

The Principle is questioning each student individually as to what they thought about it. He called Tasha into his office and asked her if she liked it. Tasha said no. He asked her what they should do about it.Tasha said, talk about Dante's other view about heaven. He didn't know about this, so he looked it up on the computer while she was there, and said well I wasn't aware of the heaven part.
I don't know what Dante's view was of heaven, but its strange that the teacher chose to teach on the  hell fire torture thing. Its in the text books so its my speculation that this is an issue that will have to be taken to a much higher level. I'm thinking about contacting the news paper to see if they might be interested in this story. It took one person to ignite the fire that took the Lords prayer out of school. Well we will see if we can start a fire.
Yes to some they will think of this as boasting, but its about standing up against putting these evil graphic images of God torturing people into the minds of 13-14 year young people.

Roy

[Lupac]

And... This is why I've never attended school one day in my entire life.

[LiberatedEagle]

That's what I'm talkin bout' Silvia!! God is awesome!! I thank God He's given you a stage to show His strength through you..

In His Will,

Charles

[cjwood]

the sound of that footstep which our silvia took, will resound through the minds of all those effected. nothing stronger on this earth than that of a 'mother bear' defending her young. watching God's Hand work in this situation brings a smile to my face. 

claudia

[Roy Martin]

At first I thought she would need my help, but was I surprised!

Roy

[Silvia Martin]

   Here's my update. The principal said that he is not going to do any of the things I asked him to do. He deems the material appropriate for higherlevel English, and he is not going to make the teacher go back and clean up her act. i wanted her to talk to the kids on what a real " punishment that fits the crime" vs. hellish torture, demented vs. REAL. He said no can do cause that would be manipulating the children. UNBELIEVABLE!!! .
He said,he was very impressed with my daughter because it doesn't happen often that a student can point something out to him that didn't know . Good for Tasha, made that stupid man look even more stupid . By the way, the vice-principal, who is also the head of the Eng. department and has taught Eng. for years( Dante included) didn't know about it ether. Well... I told him ,that i did some research on Dante that morning, and it took me about 5 min to figure the piece out.
Hell is the confusion of the mind and on your journey " to heaven" the closer you get to God the clouds of your mind get lifted until in the you end up with the " vision of god ". Tadaa!!! The truth through the mind of a poet... no torture required.
Since I didn't get anywhere with the school, I tried to get the community riled up. I tried to contact one of my former pastors...he wasn't available... talked to the  secretary ( she was appalled too)...left a voice message for the pastor...never heard back( yet?). I also called both local TV stations... one wasn't interested... the other one said I would have to get some more parents involved which also would have to be willing to talk to the press. I had requested a list of the 9th grade(which I'm entitled to) to be sent home with Natasha Friday afternoon ...didn't happen. So that's where I'm at. I'm still going to try to get in touch with some parents.

Thanks for all your support,
 
Silvia