Some Teachers Kind,
Others Sadistic and Secretive
[name withheld]
From:
To: "Positive Atheism" <editor@positiveatheism.org>
Subject: Re: Letters Section Update Completed!!!
Date: Thursday, August 03, 2000 4:14 PM
I enjoyed reading your answers to the Atheist in the south. I was touched by your experience as a fourth grader. Maybe there is something about fourth grade, that triggers bigotry.
I was raised as a Russian Orthodox. I loved the traditions, the music, and the excitement. I could not swallow the Trinity. But my Mother told me to let it go, I would understand it when I grew up and so I languished in my Russian inheritance and culture.
However, in fourth grade, after eating home lunch at school, I was observed burning my Easter egg shells in the furnace at the school by my fellow classmates. This was required by church cannon. That is anything blessed by the priest, could not go to the trash but needed to be burned. When they asked, I explained that I was Russian, and that's all they needed to hear. We were in the midst of the cold war, and my confession, caused a riot.
The mob of school children pushing and shoving, and screaming "Russians are not wanted here" was enough to traumatize me. Thankfully in my case the teacher took the time to explain the difference between Russia, and Russian Orthodoxy, and they left me alone after that.
Some of the teachers were kind and respectful, others were sadistic, and secretive. One of them was let go, after my formal letter to the school board.
I am so sorry for your suffering.
Later in life, I realized that no loving god could practice sexism to the extent that the god of the bible does, and be more intelligent than me.
It is only logical that the human race benefits from the abilities of both male and females, and subjugating females limits their ability to fully function. This earth is such a mess we need all the help we can get from all humans.
Well I didnt mean to go off on a tangent, I simply wanted to let you know that I am enjoying reading your letter site.
Thanks,
[name withheld].
Cliff Responds:
This is no tangent: the best we can hope for is that, in describing our experiences, others may learn -- that this madness might be reduced.
The bigotry I experienced from fellow students was in the second grade. In the fourth grade, it was the teacher who forced us to pray, years after the Supreme Court ruled this practice illegal. By then, my experiences of religious bigotry at the hands of my fellow-students had thankfully ended and never returned. Ours was the first generation to openly and collectively question the Cold-War mentality that was so strong in the 1950s.
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