Church or School? That is the question
An interesting article at the NYT about a teacher who seemed to have
some difficulty distinguishing a school building from a Church:
Before David Paszkiewicz got to teach his accelerated 11th-grade history class about the United States Constitution this fall, he was accused of violating it.
Shortly after school began in September, the teacher told his sixth-period students at Kearny High School that evolution and the Big Bang were not scientific, that dinosaurs were aboard Noah’s ark, and that only Christians had a place in heaven, according to audio recordings made by a student whose family is now considering a lawsuit claiming Mr. Paszkiewicz broke the church-state boundary.
“If you reject his gift of salvation, then you know where you belong,� Mr. Paszkiewicz was recorded saying of Jesus. “He did everything in his power to make sure that you could go to heaven, so much so that he took your sins on his own body, suffered your pains for you, and he’s saying, ‘Please, accept me, believe.’ If you reject that, you belong in hell.�
The student, Matthew LaClair, said that he felt uncomfortable with Mr. Paszkiewicz’s statements in the first week, and taped eight classes starting Sept. 13 out of fear that officials would not believe the teacher had made the comments.
There is some debate about whether or not the student was ‘baiting’ the teacher. In my opinion, that question is completely irrelevant: if the student baited the teacher, the latter should have either explained his beliefs in a careful and respectful manner, or better yet, he should have changed the subject.
Besides, don’t most kids fall asleep during the preaching?
Not a great strategy to keep students interested, then…
UPDATE
H/t commenter ‘Uncle Joe McCarthy’: “If you wish to hear the teacher in his own words… Go here”
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