Okay.
You will note, please, the way I phrased the hypothetical. The person didn't just express their religious beliefs. I have no problem with religious believers who don't bring their beliefs into the classroom.
In my hypothetical, though, the person said "it is my teaching philosophy that any student of mine who has not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior is damned to burn in hell eternally." That brings it into the classroom, and says that this is a principle on which he is going to base his teaching.
That places it, IMO, in a different category. We may disagree on this, but when a teacher says this is part of his teaching philosophy, I think it takes it out of the category of pure personal belief and puts it into a category where the belief becomes relevant to his teaching qualifications. To me, there's a distinction, and it's a key distinction.
As to the other case, it appeared to me at first that you agreed that a teacher who wears nazi symbols on her clothing while at school and refuses to remove them should be taken out of the classroom, but then I re-read your post and wasn't quote so sure. And I don't want to jump to that conclusion. So let me be clear before I proceed: to discuss this case: do you think the teacher should be removed from the classroom, or not? |
