[On teacher that got fired for branding the cross on his students]
Sounds to me like the kids were participating. Who didn't have a wacky teacher in High School?
49 comments
Yeah, where are all the teachers who would beat and brand you is you disagreed?
I miss that. I'm deprived! <sarcasm>
The kids "participating" doesn't seem to have been suggested by the story, and, even if they were somehow, it was the teacher's responsibility to keep them under control. Of course, ultimately, it was the teacher that burned the cross into the child's skin (in order to banish "demons" from him, no less) using a device that explicitly warns against people coming in contact with it. "Wacky" doesn't begin to approach the depths of sadism and religious fanaticism contained within this man.
It is a very serious violation of ethical standards for a teacher to inflict injury on a student. Even if the kids wanted the crosses branded on their arms, and thought it was cool and what not, it would still be wrong.
As a teacher he should know better.
Certainly as an adult he should know better. One would expect that his maturity level would be greater than that of his students.
What part of this don't you understand?
Generally, wacky teachers are the ones who try too hard to be 'hip' or like to pretend they're what they're teaching (i.e. Hi kids, I'm Napoleon, let me tell you a little about France in my day!). This doofus' actions sort of stretches the definition of 'wacky.'
Who didn't have a wacky teacher in High School?
I didn't. I didn't want one either. "Wacky teachers" are only fun when they're in the movies and being played by Robin Williams or Sam Kinison. I had no time for wackiness in high school because I was busy GETTING A GOD DAMNED EDUCATION .
I realize you guys were too busy in high school to get an education because your time was taken up with congratulatory reach-arounds every time one of your ilk managed to hassle some poor science teacher about his or her lesson plan. The rest of us were busy hitting the books and dissecting baby pigs. I have to give credit to the parents of the kids who got crosses burned into their skin. I'd have already paid that "teacher" a visit and burned a large "A" for anarchy into his back with a small propane welding torch.
Some day you fundies will go too far and we'll be forced to string a few of you up to get our point across.
I had a wacky teacher, but she brought in a pile of pinecones and told us that we were to observe the Fibonacci sequence in them. Then she had us make ice-cream molds out of laminated paperboard. Someshit to do with geometry.
She was wacky.
She most certainly wasn't violent and crazy--which is what lunatics who brand crosses onto random children do.
I had several wacky teachers in high school. Not one of them physically abused their students. Burning symbols into students arms isn't wacky. It is sick.
Every single christian who is defending this sick f@#$ needs to ask themselves what they'd think if it was a pentagram or a crescent moon instead of a cross.
Who didn't have a wacky teacher in High School?
Umm, I had an ex-hippie history teacher in my (Catholic) high school who would teach the class sitting lotus position on top of the desk. That's wacky. Branding students isn't wacky, it's fucked up.
"Who didn't have a wacky teacher in High School?"
I do. His name is Mr. Docherty. He doesn't brand us though. He just outwits t3h stupids.
I also had a wacky history teacher last year. He giggled every time he spoke of death, giggled his little Irish giggle.
I had an English teacher who wildy performed Shakespeare on top of the desks in her classroom.
I have a Geography teacher who promptly called Joey Sebbins-McDonald a "turky" because he said something stupid, and plays a revision game that can be heard at the other end of the school.
I had a PE teacher who threw a party just because he damned well felt like it.
I had a Science teacher who decided, in his infinite wisdom, to give us all ice-cream under the guise of "experiment".
THEY are wacky.
Notice the lack of branding?
In my freshman year (which I just finished, actually), my history teacher stood on a desk and tore up a student's paper with her feet to prove a point. It was hilarious. That, my friend, is a wacky teacher. A teacher who brands students? Is fucking psychotic.
I once had a Spanish teacher who would throw rubber Koosh balls at people if they fell asleep in her class.
I once had a chemistry teacher who would let us make icecream on Fridays under the guise of 'learning chemical reactions'
I once had an English teacher who brought in costumes for us to wear while we read Romeo and Juliet.
I once had another English teacher who would have a party just because she could.
I once had a history teacher who would act as the character in history that she was talking about.
These people? Wacky. That person who branded his students? A sick fuck.
5th grade: Miss W. the Child-Hating Bitch -- who got jilted at the altar (wonder why?) and became a teacher to salvage her reputation and because it was a respectable job for young women of her era. On Valentine's Day she wore totally red even to hgeart stickers in her wig; on St. Patrick's Day it was green and a phony Irish accent; starting when we came back from Turkey Day until we left for Christmas she'd add a piece of jewelry until she looked like a walking Christmas tree -- upshot to that was we could hear her coming. She finally went too far in '84, when she tried to indoctrinate the entire student body to Mondale/Ferraro. I thought my father's head was going to explode, which we did not need at that time.
6th grade: science teacher who brought his pet boa constrictor to school, and set her loose to slither around the room while the class was going on. I mortally despised snakes by that point, but I wasn't the kid who ran for the door when Bo (named for Bo Derek) investigated my ankles.
10th grade: Mr. M. dressing up in 17th century garb to read us the 'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God' sermon while we were studying The Crucible/Salem Witch Trials, then leaving his class and crossing the building to Mr. H.'s History class, where we were also learning Eastern Philosophy.
Mrs. O. the Chorus instructor, an aging and not gracefully leftover flower child, who enjoyed lording over the whole Arts Dept. -- which was pretty wacky as a matter of course -- that she was More Politically Correct Than Thou. I wore my Gulf War I T-shirt to Chorus class on purpose, then stayed in Chorus for the rest of the school year, just to show her that I refused to give her the satisfaction of knowing that she'd run me off.
It was a small town in Vermont. Wacky wasn't exactly the order of the day.
I had Bret (the Hitman) Heart* as a substitute in Biology for a week in Grade 12. Does the fact that he challenged the class mouth to a wrestling match count as wacky? Then again, we didn't hear a peep out of the guy for the rest of the week. P.E. teachers are notoriously sadistic. But I never had one who tried to brand me.
* He was with Stampede Wrestling in Calgary at the time, guess it didn't pay as well as WWF did
That thread right there is enough to separate those at RR who are fundies, but are not totally insane and those who should have their kids taken away from them by CPS and themselves involuntarily committed to a mental institution. I am appalled at some of the comments in that thread:
"Wish I had him as a teacher!"
"It could have been worst.. back in the ol' days, teachers would just smack kids' hand with a ruler."
"I would have loved having him as a teacher when I was young, and I wouldn't mind him as a teacher for any of my kids. Obviously the burning was a scientific experiment, and he knew what he was doing, it obviouslly wasn't painful. The kids didnt seem to mind it, and probably thought it was cool. If he had burned a crescent or some kind of new age symbol he probably would still have a jod[sic], IMHO."
That's right, because burning kids in the classroom is a-ok, so long as it's not a Christian symbol.
The one redeeming quality of that thread is at least the majority of posters agree that the teacher's actions are wholly abhorrent. The fact that *anyone* thinks this is "cool" or "admirable" or even acceptable is terrifying, though.
This situation calls for understanding and restraint. The teacher, Mr. Freshwater, should be mildly beaten with a Louisville slugger, gently kicked around the schoolyard, softly whipped with barbed wire, tenderly dragged behind a car for no more than a few miles, and then quietly shot. We are, after all, a civilized society.
@Darwin
My husband said that if his son ever came home from school and said he had been branded by his teacher, he would go to the school, punch the teacher's lights out and then brand "666" across his forehead.
My wackiest teacher was in english lit, a guy who had a serious obsession with "Moby-Dick." The white sperm whale swimming in the ocean symbolized a human sperm swimming in the uterus. Ahab's peg leg symbolized his castration, and harpooning symbolized sex. It was an extremely interesting class. But nobody got hurt.
See the difference?
I've had several wacky teachers. None of 'em hurt me. The most I got was: a Geography teacher who once pretended to be a river; a History teacher who made us re-enact the Battle of Hastings with home-made "weapons" on the school field; a Science teacher who ranted on about goldfish, cats and her new car; an English teacher who made us watch an Adam and the Ants video; and more beside.
My favorite English teacher would have us act out little skits based on Mesopotamian history, and in Puritan Lit would occasionally read Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God in a voice so loud and hammy she was hoarse the rest of the day.
My science teachers stood on tables to teach, had us memorize a silly song about the elements WORD FOR WORD, and would accuse some of the girls of reading about anal sex on their school laptops (they were.)
They were wacky. Branding? Not wacky. Wackaloon.
This is a relevant point of the dangers of subjecation to a religion: If you wrap any act up in Christianity you lot will accept the most heinous actions.
Had she heard of the school giving the kids a rub-on tatoo of the Islamic Crescent moon moon she'd be drooling mad hysterical about it
"Who didn't have a wacky teacher in High School?"
Mr. Wilson, our Junior School (East Mount) maths teacher - if he saw someone in class trying to give the answer to a question to another - would lob the (heavy) wooden blackboard rubber at the offender whilst roaring 'DON'T HELP YOUR NEIGHBOUR, BOY!'. Said thrown rubber would always hit it's target.
I'm positive those things were laser guided! X3
Moral: There's light-years of difference between doused in a cloud of chalk dust (a process known these days as 'Antiquing' [/"Jackass"]); looking older than you really are, and thus looking a complete tit in the process, and being almost mutilated .
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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