|
"You're either for him or against him"
If I were a high scool student and my math teacher said such a thing, I would feel attacked because, frankly, I am not for "him" and haven't ever been. This type of unsolicited advocacy of personal religious beliefs creates a hostile environment in the classroom. Despite teenagers' notorious rebelliousness and defiance, they are still young and impressionable, and are subject to fears about approval. Not being the direct type, I might have felt some sort of pressure to fake a christian outlook to try and pass. Either that or I would have responded by being sullenly resentful and sneaky. It might well have increased my feelings of being "different" and an outcast. Or perhaps I would have developed an aversion to math. High school students have enough problems already without having to deal with a religious perspective in their math class. Fervent christians can be surprisingly insensitive to the feelings of others when it comes to matters of faith, since their church sanctions and encourages proselytizing to an extreme degree. My experiences with christians (including a good deal of historical reading and research) have been overwhelmingly that christianity is not, at its root, a religion that teaches love. I believe the quote above illustrates that.
|