<p>How did this discussion go from teaching the bible at the top of the page to discussing anal sex at the bottom?</p>
<p>i think that christianity and other major religions are not touched in school because their proponents believe them to be absolute truth, and that they are offedended when they are taught in an offhand way.</p>
<p>no one believes greek mythology - that’s why it’s called mythology.</p>
<p>however thecomisar, jesus’ existence isn’t fictional as athena’s was</p>
<p>yup, i read that article, butcherer, and that’s how i started going off into the whole religion-should-be-taught-in-school tangent. </p>
<p>the professor asked me how people would react to having their kids being taught different religions and i said if it were to be kept as objective and educational as possible, without preaching, then it can be really beneficial. then the other interviewer asked me how parents would react to having their children be taught religion by someone who does not even believe in christianity, and i had to refine my initial train of thought. </p>
<p>anyways. we have a day off from school today even though there’s no hail (just a little bit of flooding) and the weather is fine. i’m not complaining, though. =D</p>
<p>Is sex a recreational sport at TASP? Because god knows it was at my public school. >_>;;;</p>
<p><em>is intrigued</em></p>
<p>I’d like to know as well…</p>
<p>"^ TASP - Total Anal Sex Party</p>
<p>edit: that arrow is pointing at butcherer…"</p>
<p>ROTFLMAO!!! <em>implodes</em></p>
<p>nooooooo they’re not even allowed to have exclusive relationships. god knows some people break the rules [coughcough] and have them anyways. but sex is a no no. i don’t know who said it, but the factota’s worst fear = sex.</p>
<p>I can imagine. If two TASPers spawned a baby, it would take over the earth.</p>
<p>So great would its TASPy power be. Having been spawned AT TASP of all things.</p>
<p>Yep.</p>
<p>first) today was incredibly ironic. I had only the good die young stuck in my head all day and then teh shooting at va tech =(</p>
<p>second) i sent someone a text message today and expected something like “oh god. You and the mall” in response. but no, nothing. </p>
<p>third) great conversation. TASPers can always get together the summer probably. Noone could stop that. And then when you’re actually at tasp, just think about it. It’s a summer with practically no parental supervision.</p>
<p>i would love to be ellen baer reading this board right nowand realizing that all the work i’ve done for this summer program has only led to a new moniker - total anal sex party.</p>
<p>lovely.</p>
<p>Nate are you in DC? Cause it is effining nasty</p>
<p>PIRATING!!! NOOOOOOactually its okay since my mom works at Yahoo now not Adobe (therefore your illegal nature doesnt affect my moms pay checks)… And for all you betchn and moaners out there, when my mom worked at Adobe I got the entire creative professional suite for 75$</p>
<p>Just had to rub that into your borderline-illegal wounds :-P</p>
<p>Oh my a TASP baby lets just get over the Qu’ran sex party first. Then move onto draping… THEN we can worry about TASP babies</p>
<p>sid!</p>
<p>I couldn’t find you at the convention 
I heard you asked some Monta Vista people for me, but I didn’t get that message until we were on the bus to the airport :(</p>
<p>Corey I hate you.</p>
<p>haha don’t hate jenny. Hate is a bad thing</p>
<p>I’m sick of talking about shootings. I’ll hear enough of it tomorrow. (my history teacher’s son went to va tech) So now i’m on here to ask who initially came up with the total anal sex party. was that nate? genious.</p>
<p>I know hate is a bad thing. I don’t think I’m capable of hating people, actually.</p>
<p>Total Anal Sex Party?</p>
<p>That’s GROSS, okay? Cooties is bad enough, but anal sex? :(</p>
<p>love you too.</p>
<p>I come home tomorrow </p>
<p>I have decided that I love washington more so than New York or Boston and that I want to be a spoiled brat who goes to Georgetown and partys by night and has a internship on the hill by day. :-P</p>
<p>On another note I went to the Supreme Court today!!! It was so awesome</p>
<p>we watched 2 hours of oral arguments. Gahhh the cases were lame and the arguers were crap but it was the supreme court!!!</p>
<p>I want to go out tonight but its so cold… Why am a California freezycat</p>
<p>i know! i tried finding you since we were staying at the same hotel, apparently. haha</p>
<p>lol…suck it up corey. be a man</p>
<p>Uhg. I have so much homework, but all I want to do is go to sleep…knowing full well that I will NOT wake up tomorrow to do it if I hold if off.</p>
<p>Gaaaaah. Gonna go do the work.</p>
<p>OH MY GOODNESS, I HOPE I DIDN’T MISS THE DISCUSSION (I got too excited when I read the posts and didn’t look at the time stamps)!!! If only my interviewers asked me some questions about this!</p>
<p>First of all, I have to come out as one of the few people who believes religion should be kept outside of the public school system. Now first of all, I have personally attended schools that taught religion as a course (both elementary schools, one taught Islam, the other, Roman Catholicism)–I’m not saying this to devalue comments of others who have not, or to put extra weight on my opinions; this is just a disclaimer of my personal experience. Also, the current public school I attend has a rather superficial religions component to its freshman social studies honors curriculum, which I’ll talk about a little further down. </p>
<p>There is a fine line, which roam alluded to, when it comes to teaching and preaching. What makes Greek Mythology so easy to discuss in class is that it is NOT a guideline for how we should live our lives, or how we should structure our beliefs. It’s a tale, a really complex and elaborate tale, and no one thinks more of it than that. </p>
<p>HOWEVER, religion DOES act as a guideline and a stratification of societal beliefs, which means that teaching the lessons of the Bible and Qu’ran (sp? p.s. don’t say I don’t know anything about the Qu’ran because I don’t know how it should be Romanized/Latinized/whatever you call translated to the Latin alphabet. I lived in Iran for 8 years of my life) will not only conflict in certain cases, but also how are those lessons supposed to be taught? </p>
<p>For the purpose of literature, purely literature and nothing else? That seems to be the argument. However, how does a Christian teacher react to questions posed by students regarding Christianity (and what is being said strictly on a literal level within the texts)? and contrastingly regarding Islam? in defense? in explanation (which is something that rarely exists in such texts)? or no answer at all? Either way, the teacher’s own bias will affect how students view certain texts and religions, whether the teacher meant to or not. This is something I personally discovered in my freshman year when students asked our social studies teacher why God would want humans to take the precious time out of our lives, 5 times a day, to pray (and prayers that aren’t simple amen?s but rather require great memorization and take minutes to recite). Also, why would God want us to recite prayers? My teacher had no way of tip-toeing around the questions, and no level of sensitivity would have prevented some sort of stigma from being attached to the teacher or the religion, unless he completely ignored the question and said that the inquiries did not pertain to the curriculum. The teacher did not answer the question and the students were left scrutinizing the ?laughable? practices of the religion.</p>
<p>Disregarding the crucial effect the answer had on how my classmates viewed Islam, there are problems with the placement of such ideas in a classroom. The answer to avoiding preaching is to ignore such questions. Now that makes for a very shallow class, particularly when you read texts and aren’t able to analyze their purposes, meanings, or ideas. Also, what happens when a teacher (and corruption in the school system is not something that I feel I need to argue exists) DOES begin answering questions and allowing their bias to ‘persuade’ students. When people are given the power to preach, what will hold them back? especially if their beliefs tell them that winning over ‘heathens’ or ‘infidels’ will secure them paradise or a higher heaven?</p>
<p>I’m not even going to get into the logistical problems this would pose for the public education system (the knowledge required to address these religious texts and ideas goes beyond the simple bachelor?s degree most public school teachers have), but all this seems too risky for the purpose of understanding a few jokes or analogies in speeches. This is especially risky when discussing WORLD religions such as Islam (and most Islamic leaders wouldn’t have much of a say as to how their religion is portrayed in an AMERICAN education system controlled by the AMERICAN government, and would see it simply as a threat to their belief system, regardless of how respectfully the issue is handled) especially when one takes into account how simple comics in a ?removed from Islam? northern European nation instigated mass riots and bombings of embassies. </p>
<p>Finally, religion is something that is personal and should be kept personal. It isn’t something that can be taught; that only breeds more closed mindedness. If you are going to truly reach a level of spirituality in which your soul feels at peace and you feel comfortable with your belief system, you aren’t going to need the help of a teacher telling you about the different paths available in mainstream spirituality. This leads further to my personal view of how spirituality isn’t something that can be bound as Christian or Muslim or Buddhist or ‘organized,’ it’s up to the soul to find that point of comfort and no set of boundaries will be able to define everyone. And if you are going to reach that point of spiritual understanding, it won’t be because a teacher told you that something called ‘Daoism’ exists, it’ll be because you know who you are and what you believe in (or at least at that point in time). </p>
<p>I’m starting to rant. I apologize for my poor grammar and disregard for English conventions. I?m rushing my typing to get my ideas our there, and I?m sorry for any incoherencies. Bring them up and I?ll clear them up! But let’s keep the discussion going! I’ll stop…now.</p>
<p>hahahaha uber…wow. I’m not reading that. I’m lazy. But i bet its awesome!</p>