I was raised in the same town my mother was born and raised in: Cupertino, CA. Cupertino has gonethrough many changes from it's incoropartion (I think in 1952) until it's present day. When it became a town, it was mostly agricultural. Now it's more famous as the headquarters of Apple Computers. Then, as now, it is primarily a town of immigrants. when my mother was small, Yugoslavians, Italians and others were coming to Cupertino to farm the rich farm land. Silicon Valley is built upon some of the best farm land in the world. Now, maybe people come from Asia and elsewhere around the US and the world to work in the electronic industry (which has polluted the hell out of the best farm land. what was orchards are not superfund sites.). For as long as I can remember, Cupertino has been a destination not only for engineers relocated from asia, but also extremely wealthy asains looking to move someplace new. Somehow, real estate agents in Hong Kong started spreading the word that the Cupertino School District is the best in the world. If you want your kids to be well educated, you've got to send them to Cupertino. The resultant influx of serious students caused the school system to become very very good. My parents sent me to Catholic schools, wich were, unfortunately, not nearly as good as the local public schools, because they wanted to me to hear about god. Apparently, if they wanted me to hear about God, they could have just sent me to Stevens Creek Elementary.
One of the results of the influx of immigrants from India and China is that Cupertino is most likely less than 50% Christian. Which is probably why this teacher felt like he had to evangelize, to reach out to these heathens. So while Fox is saying Jesus belongs in the classroom and the left is saying that this guy stepped over some line between teaching context and promoting the bible, nobody is talking about how Jesus is probably not the religion of the majority or a significant minority of the class. Not only does Jesus not belong in the classroom, most of the parents probably don't want him there. Fox and others on the right have the idea that our country was founded on Jesus and almost all of us beleive in Jesus, so why not make that clear? Except that in Cuperinto, it's not the case that almost everyone belives in Jesus. The teacher is not reinforcing a pre-existing set of beliefs. He's trying to convert. Now that I write this, I relaize it doesn't matter, really, to anyone involved. Those on the left don't want Jesus teachers evangelizing for any reason. Those on the right think converting the heathens is just another part of our reach christian heritage. bah. Won't someone think of the children?
I'm mostly upset that my favorite Fox show went to Flint Center while I was away for school. At least I didn't miss Anee Coulter.
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