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mothwingI hope you all still believe in Santa, because apparently, you can be fired for saying that he doesn't exist. A few days ago, someone on ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
teaching posted a video about the case of the substitute primary teacher to whom exactly this happened, which apparently left a class of seven-year olds "in tears". Awww.
I bet. The entire class.
Please.
Could she have handled it more tactfully than straight out telling them? Definitely. Should she be fired because of that? I don't think so.
Even during my really sheltered childhood I found out that Santa doesn't exist from other kids during my first year at school, which was when I was six years old. If I am not mistaken, students start school at age five in the UK, don't they?
So these kids were told that Santa doesn't exist during their second or third year at primary school and the parents complain?
And as if this entire case is not already WTFy enough, people inteaching support the school's reaction, saying that she abused the trust placed in her, that she disrespected their family's customs, and by telling them she shattered the kids' innocence, and that it's just like smacking a child in the face. Oh, Santa is also a belief system like Christianity and too good a motivator to pass up.
Seriously.
I liked believing in the Christkind bringing the presents, but it's not as though my entire childhood was over when I found out that it didn't. In fact, I felt as though I had just matured because I stopped believing in something that the uninitiated little kids like my younger friends still believed in.
The amount of importance people place on kids' belief in Santa is really unnerving. Clearly, they want to believe more than their kids do, and that's a trait that I find mildly disturbing in people who are supposed to teach a generation critical thinking.
teaching posted a video about the case of the substitute primary teacher to whom exactly this happened, which apparently left a class of seven-year olds "in tears". Awww. I bet. The entire class.
Please.
Could she have handled it more tactfully than straight out telling them? Definitely. Should she be fired because of that? I don't think so.
Even during my really sheltered childhood I found out that Santa doesn't exist from other kids during my first year at school, which was when I was six years old. If I am not mistaken, students start school at age five in the UK, don't they?
So these kids were told that Santa doesn't exist during their second or third year at primary school and the parents complain?
And as if this entire case is not already WTFy enough, people in
teaching support the school's reaction, saying that she abused the trust placed in her, that she disrespected their family's customs, and by telling them she shattered the kids' innocence, and that it's just like smacking a child in the face. Oh, Santa is also a belief system like Christianity and too good a motivator to pass up. Seriously.
I liked believing in the Christkind bringing the presents, but it's not as though my entire childhood was over when I found out that it didn't. In fact, I felt as though I had just matured because I stopped believing in something that the uninitiated little kids like my younger friends still believed in.
The amount of importance people place on kids' belief in Santa is really unnerving. Clearly, they want to believe more than their kids do, and that's a trait that I find mildly disturbing in people who are supposed to teach a generation critical thinking.
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Re: EDIT because I hit reply instead of deleting to reply to the other comment first
Date: Monday, December 15th, 2008 04:11 pm (UTC)Christmas elves are also popular here and I'm about to go shopping for one for our house. Since I'm not sure if you do elves, I'll give a brief explanation (we didn't when I was growing up). You crumble some crackers and wish for an elf (leaving the crackers crumbled on the counter). That makes the elf "appear" the next morning, sitting somewhere high out of reach. The first rule is that you can't touch the elf or his magic disappears and he becomes just a doll. The elf sits in different places (moved each night) and watches to make sure you're being good (he reports back to Santa). Sometimes he makes messes and spills things like flour. During the month of December, he leaves gifts every night for the children in the house. (These are usually small things like pieces of candy, pencils, coloring books, etc - some elves have been known to leave outfits, jewelry and dvd's). I had hoped to avoid the elf, but Madison's friends have been asking what the elf has left her and she has reached the unfortunate conclusion that the elf must not be coming because we don't have regular crackers (we're on a gluten free diet due to her Celiac Disease and she thinks that elves must not like gluten free things *sigh*). So, I am elf-shopping and tomorrow a little elf will be perched up in our tree for his first day of good child watching. ;)
*hugs* back :) I hope your Christmas is wonderful as well!
Re: EDIT because I hit reply instead of deleting to reply to the other comment first
Date: Tuesday, December 16th, 2008 11:37 am (UTC)If the teacher really did what you said, then she probably really shouldn't teach that age group right now. Classes, especially rowdy classes, can grind on the most patient nerves, but if this was done in an attempt to calm them down, she's really doing it wrong and needs to find different ways to control her class.
Madison's explanation for her elflessness is the most adorable thing. The elf thing sounds like a fun way of giving children an self-made advent calender. It's a bit odd to have yet another entity introduced into the Christmas season. Do you know where this tradition comes from? I've never heard of that before.
Re: EDIT because I hit reply instead of deleting to reply to the other comment first
Date: Tuesday, December 16th, 2008 07:53 pm (UTC)I'm not sure where the elf tradition started, but it's fun. The girls woke up and saw the elf and came running back to our room to wake us up and tell us. They've named him Fred. (I'm not sure why, but I'm hoping for a harry potter reference lol)