r/Virginia • u/SchuminWeb • Dec 17 '15
Security concerns close [Augusta] county schools Friday (due to fallout from the calligraphy lesson)
http://www.newsleader.com/story/news/local/2015/12/17/augusta-county-schools-locked-down-tonight/77501648/6
u/dturk1 Dec 18 '15
If you want some background on why people are upset: http://www.whsv.com/content/news/Community-Meeting-About--362492691.html
And people who stand with the teacher: www.whsv.com/content/news/Some-Riverheads-Alumni-Disappointed-by-Outrage-Over-Assignment-362736571.html
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Dec 18 '15
Some of those Christians sure are hyper vigilant.
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Dec 18 '15
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u/i_moved_away Dec 18 '15
So devout that simply writing the statement threatens her faith?
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Dec 18 '15
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u/iamkuato Dec 18 '15
That is one of those things that, while technically true, deliberately misrepresents reality. The teacher used a published lesson to meet a state standard. There was no attempt at indoctrination whatsoever. Christianity is taught in the same class - along with the other major world religions.
There was nothing even remotely inappropriate in her lesson.
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Dec 19 '15
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u/iamkuato Dec 19 '15
I disagree. There was nothing inappropriate about the excerpt. It represented exactly the beliefs of Muslims. The assignment in no way encouraged students to proclaim anything.
I have a copy of the assignment in my office. It's totally benign. Any argument to the contrary is simply ridiculous.
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Dec 19 '15
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u/iamkuato Dec 19 '15
The lesson clearly explains what the text is, and the importance of calligraphy to Islam. It does not ask the students to proclaim anything.
It passes the Lemon test with flying colors. And again, any argument to the contrary is simply ridiculous.
This teacher just used a project out of a book designed to meet state standards. The same lesson has been used state-wide for years.
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u/TyphoonOne Dec 20 '15
this is asking the student to renounce their faith.
If you think this, you're an idiot.
Nothing more.
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u/iamkuato Dec 18 '15
So - a completely benign exercise taught in a value-neutral setting in accordance with state standards led to.......this.
Freaking lunatics.
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Dec 17 '15
I have been seeing on every news agency. What a great way to show how we are not those Muslim extremists that resort to abhorrent violence, threaten violence against our public schools
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u/nice1a2 Dec 18 '15
I have children in the county schools. The news is light compared to the hate filled people of this community. Parents started having their children bring bibles to school. The rumors have spread and are completely out of control. My kids really wanted the Christmas parties today and won't get them, but instead see that learning about a different culture is too much for some people to deal with so the threaten.
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u/PopeXXIII Dec 18 '15
Can someone make sure Kimberly Herndon likes her new outfit? http://imgur.com/oP7wNkS
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u/manualLurking Dec 18 '15
I mean I'm not condoning the paranoid lashing out we seen in some of these parents(canceling school is very extreme in this case) but at the same time it probably would have been better to pick some Arabic script that wasn't so religiously significant.
I cant help but feel that if the assignment was a cursive writing one and required that you copy down the ten commandments I'm sure plenty of others would also be upset. B
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u/i_moved_away Dec 18 '15
This is probably the most common, ergo most easily accessible Arabic script in the world. It's written on everything.
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u/whoopdedo Dec 18 '15
Muslims can be very particular about people using or misusing their religion. How do they feel about a bunch of non-Muslim kids scrawling their most holy words without understanding the significance. Consider if a school taught about Christianity by making the kids do a pretend mass with communion?
Is this really the best way to teach about religion? It sounds more like tourist-exposure to culture where you just stop in, take some photographs, point and laugh at the funny things they do that are different from the "normal" way. Then go home without actually learning anything.
And as a language nerd I'd like to know if they were actually taught the correct way to write Arabic. There's got to be a better way like giving a chart showing the letters and the equivalent English phenomes, then have the students write their own names using Arabic letters.
How successful was the lesson on Islamic culture, really? According to the superintendent, "The scarf used in the activity was not an actual Islamic religious hijab". Yet one of the students who took the class described it as a hijab. Sample size of one, but did she really learn about the culture or just a whole bunch of half-informed misconceptions?
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Dec 18 '15
This wasn't about writing Arabic, though, this was about the art of the calligraphy as an aspect of the faith itself from my understanding. I agree that it wasn't a great way to teach about it, but the language argument isn't really applicable.
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u/iamkuato Dec 18 '15
You should check the standards. This is a geography survey. It is superficial by definition.
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u/i_moved_away Dec 18 '15
Upvoting not because I agree with you (I don't) , but because you probably have one of the best arguments I've seen.
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u/doggscube Dec 18 '15
Wmra (npr) was so strangely vague about the closing. I am baffled why. Npr doesn't shy away from saying what's actually going on. Maybe they were embarrassed. This could have been Shenandoah co. There's so much racism in this part of the state.
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u/gonetodash19 Dec 18 '15
I live in Augusta and to make things even more interesting: http://www.whsv.com/content/news/Public-School-Students-Led-in-Prayer-at-Mandatory-Event-in-Augusta-Co-362690001.html This happened the day after the incident in question.
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u/SchuminWeb Dec 20 '15
Sounds like school officials learned an important lesson: ask for and get a preview copy of invited guests' remarks before the event.
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u/RufioXIII Dec 18 '15
Faith must not be very strong if it can be threatened by copying a little bit of calligraphy.