You have to applaud the courage of this history teacher in Kearny, New Jersey:
Among his remarks in open class were statements that a being must have created the universe, that the Christian Bible is the word of God, and that dinosaurs were aboard Noah’s ark. If you do not accept Jesus, he flatly proclaimed to his class, “you belong in hell.” Referring to a Muslim student who had been mentioned by name, he lamented what he saw as her inevitable fate should she not convert. In an attempt to promote biblical creationism, he also dismissed evolution and the Big Bang as non-scientific, arguing by contrast that the Bible is supported by what he calls confirmed biblical prophecies.
He’s just reciting standard fundagelical Christian doctrine, the same things a hundred million people believe, but usually keep quiet about, and now he’s going to be hounded and harassed for it. This teacher, David Paszkiewicz, is simply standing up for and representing good Christian values!
After taking the matter to the school administration, one of Paszkiewicz’s students, junior Matthew LaClair, requested a meeting with the teacher and the school principal. LaClair, a non-Christian, was requesting an apology and correction of false and anti-scientific statements. After two weeks, a meeting took place in the principal’s office, wherein Paszkiewicz denied making many of these comments, claiming that LaClair had taken his remarks out of context. Paszkiewicz specifically denied using the phrase, “you belong in hell.” He also asserted that he did nothing different in this class than he has been doing in fifteen years of teaching.
At the end of the meeting, LaClair revealed that he had recorded the remarks, and presented the principal with two compact discs. The teacher then declined to comment further without his union representative. However, he fired one last shot at the student, saying, “You got the big fish … you got the big Christian guy who is a teacher…!”
This is why good Christians must oppose science. If it hadn’t been for science, the devil-spawned technology of audio recording and CDs wouldn’t exist to entrap the devout. Although, actually…maybe Paszkiewicz should have confined his perfectly ordinary remarks to the four walls of his Baptist church, where they would have earned him applause rather than censure.
At least Mr Paszkiewicz can take comfort in the fact that he’s about to become a martyr. One of those living martyrs who will get to make the right-wing church circuit.
“Thou shalt not bear false witness…”
What are the exceptions?
What are the exceptions?
Well, obviously it’s OK to lie if you’re lying for JEEE-ZUS-AH.
He got the “big fish” by using his loaf, as we Brits say. I wonder if Mr Paszkiewicz appreciates the irony of the Biblical reference?
He’s lied more than once, and to the state examining authorities too. You have to pass the Praxis II subject test to teach history in New Jersey, so he’d have had to lie on the test too (i.e., he’d have had to answer questions with answers he obviously belives are wrong.) So chalk up another one for “bearing false witness.” Seriously, this moron gives historians and history teachers (already a pretty thankless profession, I can assure you) an even worse name than we already have. Most people think history is made up anyway, and now this fundamentalist wacko confirms it for them (one way or another.)
Most people think history is made up anyway
OK, pig-ignorant I’ve seen, but this is a new one on me.
What a complete goof. To have such an ego about oneself after being caught spouting such material to young people should be enough to get him out of the classroom.
And if people defend such a person I question their motivations and morality.
Hey, all of those commandments and stuff like that are “in house” rules. You don’t have to apply them to heathens! This poor man was just lying his head off for Jesus, so that makes it okay. See? So sad he got caught!
By the way, “true science”, as the fundies would have it, can’t disagree with the Bible. That’s why they lionize “true scientists” who merely parrot Bible verses as if they’re science facts. One of my favorites is Duane Gish, who thinks he’s the equal of Darwin. Check out the cover of one of his books here, where he goes face to face with Chuck himself.
Bastard. He makes my 7th and 8th grade science teachers look reasonable. I hope they nail him to the wall…
Figuratively speaking, heh.
Zeno:
This is actually true in a sense; neither of them presently have a functioning brain. :P
PZ, When you are done choosing a suitable symbol, you need to run a competition to select an appropriate award for students who stand up against stupidity. We need to celebrate these people – “LaClair: you have earned a ‘Pharyngula'”.
Sometimes it seems a shame that agnostics and atheists do not have something like hell to which we could consign the likes of Mr Paszkiewicz for all eternity.
Still, as P Z Myers wrote:
…and that is a reminder that, to some extent, Mr Paszkiewicz’s ilk live a sheltered life amongst amongst their fellow “fundagelicals”, in places where this outrageous bigotry is greeted with rapturous applause.
Having such deeply offensive behaviour recorded, chapter and verse, and exposed for what it is will probably not change their beliefs one iota. What it might do, though, is to help ensure that the majority of more moderate Christians keep them at arm’s length while metaphorically holding their noses to block out the stench of bigotry, humbug and hypocrisy that hovers around them. Sadly, that is probably the most that can be done to limit their influence.
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That “big fish” comment … was that pomposity? Martyrdom?
I almost feel sorry for the dopey bastard. He’ll lose his job, I suppose.
Fellow godders will claim he’s being fired for his religion, but what he’ll really be fired for is his willingness to force that religion on young people whom he assumed were helpless to do anything about it.
In short, a bully, and a very small one.
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A side thought here:
The moment is almost upon us when everybody will be able to record full-time audio and video of their surroundings and archive it in realtime on their home computers.
What effect do you suppose that will have, socially?
I’m imagining a drop-off in petty crime, for one thing. What self-protecting mugger would chance getting video’d in the act? But then again, is petty crime, petty aggression some sort of release valve, and might violent crime increase as the petty stuff is suppressed?
I can picture parents outfitting their kids with connectivity for their protection, but then misusing it for too-intrusive control of those same children.
I’m also thinking happily of the serious backpressure this will pose to official assholes like this teacher, cops, etc., but then again wondering how much longer I will have the “freedom” to flip off the driver of the car who cuts me off.
Could be some interesting social movements coming up.
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Sometimes I have to question whether someone who takes such obvious pleasure in the condemnation of others to eternal suffering is even fit to function in society, let alone be a teacher.
That “big fish” comment … was that pomposity? Martyrdom?
Immaturity. The “you’re all just picking on me” variety.
Weekly I escort patients at a Planned Parenthood clinic, shielding them from harassment by anti-abortion protesters. Those protesters are every bit as honest as Mr. Paszkiewicz. Many times every day they scream or try to hand out literature with claims that abortion causes breast cancer, cervical cancer, sterility, and “post abortion syndrome” and that it’s certain to destroy the relationship with the father. They’re shameless. I’ve requested from them the scientific literature that supports those claims. They’ve yet to furnish it. So I remind them weekly that I’m being entirely truthfiul to call them liars and violators of the ten commandments–are shameless liars. Many fundies of whatever persuasion– both protestant and Catholic–are professional liars. Incidentally the nearest Catholic church, which is three blocks away, ejects from their congregation anyone who’s had an abortion or is related to someone who’s had an abortion or works at Planned Parenthood. Whatever became of that old Christian adage “Love the sinner, hate the sin.”
Whenever I hear about some smugly arrogant Christian who proclaims to be able to know who can go to Heaven, and who has to go to Hell, nevermind that the Bible says “judge not, lest ye be judged,” and that Jesus supposedly said “Love thy neighbor” is the most important of the 10 Commandments, I feel warm and squishy inside, as though I had the mental equivalent of a bowel movement.
Sometimes it seems a shame that agnostics and atheists do not have something like hell to which we could consign the likes of Mr Paszkiewicz for all eternity.
Clap ’em in the laughingstocks; that will do for now.
For this guy, well, maybe we can just settle for misspelling and mispronouncing his name for ever and ever amen.
Paszkiewicz has forgotten this early exhortation, given to him freely without the threat of everlasting horror.
Ah, Tuter! How many times I tell you; be just what you is, not what you is not. People what are is the happiest lot.
He has forgotten the kind instructions of a childhood friend: a dear, doting lizard who was more human than he can imagine.
Ooohh! Mr. Wizard! Help me.
That’s way, way too close to home for me.
Ian Spedding:
Actually, we do. It’s called “death.”
Although it’s not quite as self-servingly discriminating as Hell is, because it happens to everyone regardless of what they believe.
You know, I’m in favor of allowing teachers to videotape their lessons withor without the consent of the students. I’d like to see what my presentations look like, and (frankly) all sorts of aberrant student behavior would be instantly documentable and could be shared with their parents.
I know that sounds Orwellian to those of you who haven’t taught in the public schools, but we routinely accept videotaping in the private sector and at points of sale. How would this be different?
BTW, the student in question who essentially called the bigoted Christianist to account would probably have been violating the policy of most public schools today by having some sort of personal electronic device operating in the classroom, a further irony….SH
“He also asserted that he did nothing different in this class than he has been doing in fifteen years of teaching.
At the end of the meeting, LaClair revealed that he had recorded the remarks, and presented the principal with two compact discs. The teacher then declined to comment further without his union representative.”
This makes me wonder how many other classes before LaClair had to go through this teacher’s proclamation of Dinos on Noah’s Ark, Hell for nonbelievers, and that evolution is wrong. Also makes me wonder if those classes actually got a good education of history or just simply a bunch of lies and half-truths that the teacher decided were correct.
The moment is almost upon us when everybody will be able to record full-time audio and video of their surroundings and archive it in realtime on their home computers.
What effect do you suppose that will have, socially?
Go read The Light of Other Days, and your questions will be answered!
“At least Mr Paszkiewicz can take comfort in the fact that he’s about to become a martyr. One of those living martyrs who will get to make the right-wing church circuit.”
I’ve heard of “white martyrdom” before. Could this be considered “green martyrdom”? (Assuming he gets honoraria from it.)
Science OR religion. Surely, there’s another choice!
I am currently reading the God Delusion, and while I wholeheartedly agree with Dawkins about the ‘chimera’ religion, I find myself wondering if we aren’t missing the point….regarding science. If we spend all our time trying to understand, disect and catagorize our existence…are we fully living? Or, are we just talking about living?
Just a thought…
This luni must be dust by now so fired should he have been.
Besides yeah he should be fired for his religion. If he is so far gone as to not even be capable of shutting up about his fundamentalistic convictions, then he himself should have taken some time off or resigned. Wasn`t America once a place of religious tolerance, where ku klux could live in harmony with white supremacists and minorities were made so tiny the rivaled comparison with ants?
@bibi: That is a ridiculous statement. The reason is that we are all the same (more or less). I think it is a crime against humanity to teach children about history, religion and whatnot and not give them a several year curriculum about human psychology as soon as they are eight – so they are equipped with the critical faculties to question how and why they are manipulated – part by their nature, part by nurture and part by group dynamics or society at large.
Bibi, the pleasure centers of a scientists are no less than those of a religious fanatic.
Children should learn the one truth as early as possible: that everything in this world, from love, war, hatred, religious fanaticism, religion, science etc, etc, is a about profit once it plays out on a social scale. Then they should be educated in what exactly is involved in our brain and evolution that created feelings of love, solidarity, hatred, anger etc. and accounts for our feelings and behavior on the scale of an individual.
lo,
I gotta say, man, I like your style. But beyond that, your satire sucks. No one here is claiming anything that you did, so you’re essentially satirizing a strawman.
bibi,
No one is against “living”, as you seem to imply. I personally have a problem with much of religion because it attempts to restrict the more rewarding aspects of life, and often goes so far as to teach us to be ashamed of those experiences (e.g., teaching that sex outside of monogamous relationships or marriage is fundamentally immoral). I also personally think that one of the more rewarding aspects of life is our ability to understand it, and as Dawkins himself has said, religion often teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world in order to make room for medieval fantasy.
Hey, maybe Senator Frist could analyze this video and determine whether or not the teacher has a functioning brain.
me getting bad flashback again.
Sometimes it seems a shame that agnostics and atheists do not have something like hell to which we could consign the likes of Mr Paszkiewicz for all eternity.
Hey, I’m agnostic. I’m still open to the possibility that this guy is going to spend all eternity in the exclusive company of his fellow fundies.
Whether or not this is heaven or hell is left as an exercise for the reader.
I concur. And desperately hope it is in fact a half-assed attempt at satire, rather than a half-assed set of genuine opinions.
So, Io, what precisely would you recommend in place of the attitudes you’re putting in our mouths? Be specific; we’re dying to hear your enlightened perspective.
Not strictly speaking on-topic, but I was just thinking how happy I am that my children are in school in Europe. The other day PZ was complaining about the mediocrity of American school science teaching. So imagine my delight when my 10 year old daughter told me that her biology class is now focussing on evolution.
Indeed, her teacher is telling the class not only about evolution but about two differnt explanations for it: Darwin’s and Lamarck’s (I believe this is callwed ‘teaching the controversy’), and inviting the wee ones to think of ways one could decide which of the two explanations is the better. (Most of the kids have sensibly suggested doing terrible things to small animals and then checking whether their offspring are similarly mutilated.)
On the other hand, there is religious instruction in state schools here, and indeed it is semi-compulsory. Not that anything like this American teacher would ever be tolerated in a German school — religious instruction here is all ‘Jesus said let’s be nice to each other’ and singing Kumbayah. And again compared with America, compulsory religious education seems to be quite effective at producing atheists/agnostics/apatheists, given that most adult Germans are thoroughly unchurched.
Recording that little speech and burning it to a pair of CDs to give to the principal is the sort of coup that gives you +2 Geek Cred for the rest of your days.
“You got the big fish … you got the big Christian guy who is a teacher…!”
I think this chap had a Messiah complex.
“If we spend all our time trying to understand, disect and catagorize our existence…are we fully living? Or, are we just talking about living?”
I think you need to clarify what you mean by ‘living’. I assume you don’t mean the eating breathing variety nor the enjoying your life variety. I’m guessing you mean; are we missing some ‘extra dimension’ to our existence ie a spiritual aspect. To which the answer is a simple and emphatic no.
He flat out calls the child a liar and then whines that he is being victimized by that child for producing evidence?
Obviously a man who counts on the fact that being an arrogant and obnoxious asshole is not a felony but putting a 2×4 up side his head is…
He flat out calls the child a liar and then whines that he is being victimized by that child for producing evidence?
Obviously a man who counts on the fact that being an arrogant and obnoxious asshole is not a felony but putting a 2×4 up side his head is…
Bibi, science isn’t about “fully living.” It is about what we can know about the world. Living involves much more than knowing: love, work, play, immersion in nature, and much else.
But religion isn’t about fully living, either. It’s about believing and acting on a mythology.
:0) to owlbear1
that comment deserved to be posted twice – quality! :0)
Not sure if it’s the same David Paszkiewicz, but my sense of irony really wants it to be him, moralizing about bullying behavior in schools:
“We all want to live in a world free from the oppression of those who exert tyrannical power over others. Indeed, we cry out for justice and mercy. We cry out for a world in which our children feel safe and respected, where they can learn, grow and live in peace, without looking over their shoulders to avoid the attacks of others.”
Complete hypocrisy at:
http://www.vision.org/jrnl/0408/bullyseye.html
When I was a Christian, the standard comeback to such obvious self-martyrdom was, “Get off the cross, we need the wood!” Usually when someone holyer-than-thou was making an ass of himself. I don’t much of that sort of outspoken moderate Christianity anymore.
Hank Fox, check out the MIT wearable computer lab
http://www.media.mit.edu/wearables/
– not just pervasive environmental recording, but computing power added! Borg & Transhumanism. Heh.
At least he isn’t a biology teacher.
Scott Hatfield wrote, “have been violating the policy of most public schools today by having some sort of personal electronic device operating in the classroom,….”
My thought exactly.
What do you bet that there won’t be a reminder to students that personal electronic devices are banned in the school?
Going out on a very shakey limb, if the administration really wants to ignore the problem, they can simply claim that the student illegally recorded school-owned copyritten material and discipline the student. I doubt it, but with today’s copyright laws and employer ownership laws I could see a case being made for it.
I suppose now’s a good time to plug David Brin’s ‘The Transparent Society’. It’s worth reading, and covers privacy and surveillance issues. It’s also on my shelf of books I think everyone should read.
Woah. Reviewing this, it’s rather a somber post for a topic which really should be celebrated, a liar getting his comeuppance.
Kudos to Matthew LeClair!
-Flex
Unfortunately, I suspect he will not be fired, probably not even severely disciplined. Why do elementary and high school teachers need tenure anyway? The union will most likely back him as a matter of standard procedure.
I’m guessing you mean; are we missing some ‘extra dimension’ to our existence ie a spiritual aspect. To which the answer is a simple and emphatic no. – James Orpin
For lack of a better word, yes, an extra dimension…or rather, that which we cannot see.
We humans have placed such a high value on our intellect, and possibly, we are mistaken. This intellectual pursuit could be leading us down the garden path. Disecting the minutia, the individual parts…instead of experiencing and accepting the ‘whole’. I reiterate, I am not religious. I live my life thinking outside the box. (it’s the way my brain works)
All of these replies to my statement are proof of my hypothesis…..people can only think in terms of science OR religion (spiritual). That was my point.
I am hopping that the species will evolve, (if it doesn’t destroy itself first) and I imagine, that evolution will involve a gigantic shift in perception (or conscious).
I can only speak for my area up here in NW PA, but I comb through all my son’s textbooks for even a minute reference to ID, etc.
The biology text is awesome and more detailed than my first university text, by far- not a hint of ID or anything related. History the same way. If anything, there is a very secular and frank slant on the Reformation and the catholic church.
Also, my son is sensitive to people who try to foist superstitious beliefs on him, but it has never happened in any way through a teacher.
I would say our school district is far more secular than what I hear about down in the “belt.”
The schoolboard is very careful also, but they know “we” are watching them.
“Then why did God plague us with the capacity to think? Mr. Brady, why do you constantly deny the one faculty of Man that sets us above the other animals? What other merit have we? The elephant is larger, the horse stronger and swifter, the butterfly far more beautiful, the mosquito more prolific — even the simple sponge is more durable.
“Or does a sponge think?”
— Henry Drummond, in Inherit the Wind (1960)
So you’re saying your soul doesn’t like science?
Back in my recording engineering days one of my specialties was doing enhancements of audio recordings for the legal profession, which involved a certain amount of working at pulling intelligibility out of surreptitious recordings like the one LaClair made. One little tidbit of information I brought away from that experience is that New Jersey is a “one-party” state, i.e., only one party to a conversation need consent to its being recorded for the recording to be in compliance with the state’s wiretapping laws.
I learned that while working on a very noisy tape that had to do with a rather notorious murder case in Pennsylvania; the person who made the recording had to get the person she wanted to record into New Jersey (they went to a restaurant there) for the recording to be admissible as evidence.
So, while the school could zark about their policies, if it were to come down to it, LaClair’s recording would probably be admissible in court.
As an old sound man, recording engineer and audio techie, I like this kid’s style.
So you’re saying your soul doesn’t like science?
Trick question, right? Funny.
I love science. Science reminds us that we are animals. ‘Clothed’ animals, who have donned the aforementioned to set ourselves apart. What has been the upshot of clothes? Clothes cover and hide our true selves. Religion made us wear clothes (Genesis) and what has become of us? Through the wearing of clothes, slowly and steadily, we have lost our ‘instinct’. What is instinct? Intelligence? Common sense? Whatever it is, one will be hard pressed to find it among…say…..politicians or religious figures. But, I digress.
I am enjoying this discussion, and perhaps it’s in the wrong thread, but I did want to respond to you, Stogoe
If we spend all our time trying to understand, disect and catagorize our existence…are we fully living? Or, are we just talking about living?”
That’s why Goddess made pot! Now start livin’, baby!
a higginbotham is a bit too cynical, or has been taken in by the anti-union propaganda machine. As a teacher and sometime union rep (well, we are actually a “professional association”) I can assure him that there is no automatic support for errant teachers. The union is duty bound to make sure that proper procedures are followed, all the t’s crossed and i’s dotted, even if the teacher is not a member, but beyond that there is no obligation to stand by teachers who are in the wrong. I know of several recent cases in my district when teachers were disciplined or removed.
The bigger problem arises when teachers stay within the letter of the law and contract, and exert subtle influence against real science. I see copies of “Icons” floating around our faculty room all the time. There are numerous YEC in the school, and until recently we had an evolution denier teaching second year biology (aka anatomy, for heaven’s sake. How do you teach that without evolution?) So this one big fish got himself gaffed, but the work goes on without him. The forces of darkness never rest.
Surely there’s something in school policies about not lying about student behaviour or _one’s own_ when it comes to questions of who did what to whom? This fellow clearly lied about what he said, what he was teaching. It’s surely nowhere on the history curriculum. And it wasn’t just a casual aside during question period; it was a speech — a disjointed, illogical spew that would make me count the class wasted. Why isn’t his competence in question? Or his ability to abide by policies?
As to recording everything, I understand that putting a recording device in motor vehicles cuts down on accidents and reduces maintenance costs and tire wear. I guess it curbs impatient zooming and braking. Cameras in public squares cut down on crime. And I can’t see how they invade privacy. If you’re in a public square, you are not in private: you are consenting to be observed and it’s always possible that you may be recorded.
In fact, after one too many “Candid camera” TV shows my rule for office decorum became, “Assume that it’s being recorded.”
Mr. Paszkiewicz is one of the most amazing men I have ever known. He will not lose his job (thankfully) because he is loved by students, the principal, and the Board of Education. I’ve listened to the audio (though I didn’t really need to since I knew the man very well for 4 years) and am completely aware of what should and should not be taught in public schools. He is a man to be admired. I should hope that this opinion of him should be taken into account since I grew up in Kearny, know the character of David Paszkiewicz, and that of Matthew Laclair.
And no, I am not Christian in any sense of the word.