I grew up in Alabama. I feel your pain. They used to have a Baptist preacher come to the football games and pray for the tea m before the games - over the loudspeaker. They would read a Bible quote over the intercom. As a Jewish person, I found it offensive.
My mom was a teacher and had to put up with all this bullshit.
At the end of her time as a teacher, she would do the most half-assed bulletin boards and just not engage with the administration’s stupidity.
Be there for you, find a dumb word, stick it on the board, point to it if anyone asks, let it fade into oblivion like the other well intended nonsense.
Those are good choices that would be hard for anyone to argue with. However, if you choose “woke”, I think you’ll spend too much of the school year explaining over and over what it means.
LOL this reminds me of the time I went to a pagan camping weekend. I told colleagues I was going camping but not the rest, because there were some pretty conservative Christians working there who would no doubt think pagan = Satanism.
I met two colleagues at the camp ground . None of us had any idea the others were coming.
As an alternative, pick a word that means something to you, discuss it with your pupils, show them how it connects to issues in the wider world and also doesn’t have to conflict with their faith. There may well be almost certainly are kids in your class(es) who are eager to hear that and don’t know it yet.
I’d be happy to record a guided audio meditation that is completely God free if you want to do something similar to the book but without Jesus being involved.
Will your students be inspired or roll their eyes at your attempt to be hip if you choose “woke”? Because that’s the new version of “awareness”, so it’s more appropriate for teens, and would sidestep the whole religion-speak nicely.
I humbly suggest ‘skepticism’ given the current “fake news” environment. You’ll conform with their little program, but stand the chance of subversively instilling better critical thinking skills in your students this year.
Like @noahdjango, I’m also a cradle atheist. Shit like this really burns my chaps. If you didn’t already have 20 years in (oh, sweet FSM, 'tis a shame they didn’t wait another 5 to pull this), I’d suggest filing a grievance with your union, because trying to force this religious exercise on you is a violation of your civil rights, and preempts any shenanigans they might try in retaliation. The only appropriate place for religion in public schools is in social studies and only if you’re comparing a bunch of them.
Regardless of what you decide, best of luck to you!
i’ve been talking it over with my mom and my wife. my wife likes compassion and my mom likes persistence. i’m going to have to decide tomorrow because my school will be holding a “retreat” monday morning to share our words with each other.
i used that word in a sentence addressing a class which held a student whose dad had been killed by police in a church parking lot at the start of the year. “i am woke to the inequities we face in our world.” at the time they were both amazed and captivated by my correct use of the term but i also know how quickly youth vernacular fades into the past and i will likely not select that word but it was one of the 9 words that came closest to my heart as i was considering.
If you still want any input… and the choice comes down to compassion vs persistence…
Let me toss in a vote for compassion. Compassion is never misplaced in any circumstance I can imagine. Persistence is great (especially when she nevertheless does it, dontchaknow), but it’s also a morally neutral word. Pests can be persistent. A cough can be persistent. Mirages can be persistent. Fuckups can be persistent. Evil can be persistent.
as torn as i am between them i have to make a choice and i choose . . .
persistence.
the people who know me know my compassion and my empathy, and the kids figure it out pretty quickly. for many reasons, persistence needs to be my watchword for the year.
. None of us had any idea the others were coming.