I'm not taking a chance with my religious "inner voice".
Suzie is taking a personal / religious day on Friday. It just seems like the right thing to do.
I petition the district to poll S.E.M.S., and the employees. Do the right thing and OBSERVE A CULTURAL MOMENT.
Shut the schools down.
Amen.
****************************************************************
I have been reading the papers, blogs, and comments.
1) Some people get off bullying Christians. Those of you who take Good Friday off should be able to do so and not need to justify it. Do we quiz our Jewish, Protestant, or Muslim friends when they are "out" for a religiously important day? Atheists: get over it. We share the same rights.
2) Administrators who show up are being punished for doing so. Their day has increased to 12 hours. 6AM-6PM.
3) School Board members who make veiled threats ( Candy's modus operandi) trying to insure compliance are again showing their true colors. Don't forget this.
4) The secular vs religious calendar argument is BULLSHIT! Make the calendar 180 student days and 186 teacher days. Nobody is going to prove that 4 days will make a difference. Then give everyone some religious recognition. We probably need a ratio of sorts.
5) Our school board's arrogance is just more evidence that they do NOT VALUE ANY EMPLOYEE. Edgecomb, Olson, Faliero, Lamb, and Kurdell display this regularly. I'm not talking just teachers here. Our bus drivers, custodians, food service workers, administrators, and support staff know this.
6) Many of those who are taking Good Friday off SAVED the personal day and should not be punished just because they exercise this prerogative and the district cannot cope with the effects. Those that choose to go to school deserve our thanks not our anger. They also deserve the same respect we give those who choose to stay home.
7) It all comes down to leadership:
Could Yvonne have been any more "vanilla" and spineless? I'd have looked in the camera and said "The Board recognized the teachers religious conviction in every contract to date. I'm sure they would never consider something so un-American as to even consider denying them their right to participate in Good Friday".
Our Board couldn't figure out a solution and hid behind a committee. Remember this come election day.
8) Who cares what the kids do. This is an adult day.
9) The post title while not the cleverest has become prophetic.
Happy Easter all.
This goes beyond the bunny.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
26 comments:
Although we were highly discouraged by administration, I am taking off Friday because I am a practicing Christian. What do they expect? Oh, now I feel guilty, let me sell out on my principles too! I agree, if you are a Christian, don't come in. We deserve the same respect other religions are given.
I have had my sub reserved for a month for Good Friday. My administration hasn't said a word. As practicing Christians, observing THE most important time of our faith, we have just as much right to exercise that freedom as Jews and Muslims do---at least.
I have had EVERY Good Friday OFF since I began my career. It was a slap in the face when the Board sold its backbone for (whatever) and didn't stand up for what is right.
I can't wait to elect a person who will stare someone in the eyes and say "we have always honored Christian Culture and will continue to do so as recognition for what it has provided our country. If and when your home country recognizes the Easter Holidays with something other than beheadings, stonings, suicide bombings and the like then we'll talk.
Oh, don't believe in a supreme being? That's OK, come in and work, we'll find something for you to do and pay you."
I've only got two cheeks and ya'll slapped them both. Deal with it.
Suzie, check this out.
He filed March 4th. Bye, bye, Edgecomb?
Yippee, yay, yahoo,etc. Where do I send my pennies?
Thank you for the tip on Steve Shuler. I've added a link so that (hopefully) more voters will learn about him.
Stop by his site. Talk with him. Give him money. And, VOTE!
We are 30,000 STRONG. It's time to flex our collective muscle.
Tip: When you chat up voters to vote for Fred or Steve and they respond with "We're afraid they might rubber stamp everything that comes their way." You can reply: "That's exactly what's happening now - we're supporting candidates that know where the skeletons are, they will ask questions and not be afraid to say 'no'".
Thank You Steve. Thank You Fred.
I just realized the district has a day off scheduled for May 2nd.
WTF?
Check out Matthew Tabor's post about a first year teacher's Parent Conference.
Then read the comments!
Looks like quite a few teachers, bus drivers, lunch room workers, clerical workers, etc are choosing to take Good Friday off.
Watch closely.
More and more folks at my site may make their decision tomorrow.
I didn't like Matt's attitude toward the first year teacher. She doesn't know any better. She'll get there. I know in my first year, many people pulled a similar attitude. This leaves the young teacher feeling isolated and unsupported. That isn't right and it isn't a good feeling. He could have politely outlined points to improve and why. But, that's just me.
Teacher's aren't coming on Good Friday... GOOD! What is our next "statement", and how do we get the other teachers who don't rock the boat to participate?
United we stand; devided we fall...
Matt Tabor is a pompous a** who couldn't teach a class of kids if his life depended on it. Just another self-styled "expert".
I would love to see him dumped into a classroom of level 2 "honors' students.
He is typical of the sort who is very good at "talking" about education but knows NOTHING about it.
Come on Matt, chime in and tell us how smart you are?
I was amused (if that is the correct word) that Tabor criticized the teacher for her misspelling of a word only to have a commentator point out one of Tabor's typos. Tabor's excuse was that he had been writing a lot that day. Oh, poor baby... as if that first year teacher he was ripping apart wasn't also having a stressful day.
I find it telling that rather than admit the teacher did, in fact, make some critical errors in judgment ya'll slammed Tabor for pointing them out.
While some of his comments didn't really sit well with me I couldn't argue with his reasoning.
Until we can rise above this type of response and have some meaningful discussion about it, how can we improve? After all isn't learning measured by change?
I am the mother of 3 Hillsborough County School children. Tomorrow is going to be stressful on a lot of teachers, staff and students.
KUDOS to you teachers who ARE taking Good Friday off to be in your place of worship!!!
I really hope that this can open the district's eyes on WHY this needs to be continued as a school holiday! Isn't that the reason that the original holidays were started in the first place?
Just why did the district realize that Good Friday was going to be a problem on MONDAY? I am not a HCSD employee, but wouldn't the time off requests be turned in quite awhile before this Monday? Yet they didn't notice the LARGE amounts of time off requests coming in over the last 2 months or so? Then they are going to twist the problem and make teachers feel guilty about taking a religious day off when they had time to do something (perhaps by closing down the schools for instance or recruiting the non-Christian groups that helped create this mess?).
I am sorry for adding such a long comment! I just think it is silly for the district to mess with something for a few small groups (that don't make a DENT in the running of a school when THEY take their days off).
I support anon 5:05's comment.
It does not make sense to "kill the messenger" simply because they are not of the same profession.
I am not a brain surgeon, nor an auto mechanic, but does that preclude me from critiquing what they do - especially if they do it wrong to the point that a layman can tell?
Let not the arrogance of the teaching profession continue to be it's demise, as I fear it so often time does.
Not wearing the shoe if it fits leads to bad stability.
I was very aware of what my "religious personal day off" would do to my fellow teachers. However, I realize that I NEVER question a personal day they may take.
Whether or not the day will be stressful for the students will depend on each classroom.
"Yet they didn't notice the LARGE amounts of time off requests coming in over the last 2 months or so?"
The district's vision does NOT go out that far. They're generally looking about 2 weeks (the pay period) down the road. The Board's vision is marginally longer as illustrated by this debacle.
Remember to VOTE!!
I too agree with anon 5:05, perception is reality.
Here's a Good Friday lesson for the School Board from the book of Luke straight from the mouth of Jesus:
"...And you experts in law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them... Woe to you experts in law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering..."
I think this is fitting for the 6/7, SpringBoard, the Good Friday debacle, and various other issues in the district. The Bible is so ever wise.
...and the people said "AMEN".
I am a Hillsborough County School Bus Driver and I took the day off. Unfortunately, many of my co-workers did not. There was the stigma of " how could you leave your children standing" being the topic of most who did not take the day off.
Well, I turned in my leave form two weeks in advance. The drivers who worked had to double trip and triple trip. I told my parents to play it safe and take them to school. After all, isn't the responsibilty of their children's safety mostly upon them?
I was told by most of my students that the teachers said that the people who came, would just be watching movies all day. Why did the tax payers have to pay for that?? I drive 300 children a day. Been doing so for 18 years. I did enjoy the day off, it was nice. Hope the school board does it again soon.
Let's face it: without bus drivers, food service workers and custodial crews doing their jobs teachers couldn't do theirs!
When I start thinking about how cr@ppy a day I'm having I WILL REMEMBER those groups of people.
If you are getting criticized for observing your religious convictions it is only because those that are criticizing you are IGNORANT of your faith!
No one can MAKE you feel guilty so don't let them.
Happy Easter.
I have updated my blog.
Susie, may I suggest that you add the "nobodyspatsy" blog to your list? It's a good blog, apparently from an undercover administrator. We need those. I always go to your blog list as a route to all the blogs I want to check. lee
Glad to. Can you send me the link, address, or host site? It's not popping up on any searches.
Dug it out! added. whew.
Post a Comment