Chatham Parents Question Emphasis on Islam in 7th Grade 'World Cultures and Geography" Class

[BubbaJack]

CHATHAM, NJ - Chatham Middle School parents questioned the emphasis being put on the teaching of the religion of Islam in a 7th grade social studies class on Monday night during the public portion of the Chatham Board of Education meeting.

Nancy Gayer, one of the parents to address the board, told a story about how her son had been prohibited from presenting a power-point to the class years earlier because the teacher objected to one panel shown for "three seconds," which gave his own religious view.

Gayer said her son was not allowed to show his power-point to the class because it was "proselytizing." She compared it to the "World Cultures and Geography Class" her son is taking at the middle school (see video below), which Gayer believes is outright "proselytizing" in violation of district policy No 2270.

Chatham Parents Question Emphasis on Islam in 7th Grade 'World Cultures and Geography" Class

 

[Hank77]

Chatham Parents Question Emphasis on Islam in 7th Grade 'World Cultures and Geography" Class

If the teaching of the different religions is not balanced and teaching equivalent information then it is biased, which is clearly a violation of the Constitution.
The curriculum needs to either be corrected or completely dropped.

 

[USincognito]

Good. Gayer the younger needs to learn that an academic presentation is not the place for his personal peeves.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Learning facts about religion X is not promoting religion X.

"She agreed that students may not be able to answer questions about the tenets of Islam, but pointed out that the same questions about the tenets of Judaism and Christianity would not be known by the students, either, but those religions are not taught. "

If true, this would be a problem with a "World Cultures and Geography Class".

 

[essentialsaltes]

Learning facts about religion X is not promoting religion X.

It only took 6 years, but the courts agree.

In sum, the curriculum and materials here were not coercive and do not
otherwise bear or resemble the “hallmarks of religious establishments the framers sought to prohibit when they adopted the First Amendment.” Accordingly, the Board did not violate the Establishment Clause.

Elsewhere in the decision: to take the Ninth Circuit’s cogent example, “Luther’s ‘Ninety-Nine Theses’ are hardly balanced or objective, yet their pronounced and even vehement bias does not prevent their study in a history class’s exploration of the Protestant Reformation, nor is Protestantism itself ‘advanced’ thereby.”