Sixteen-year-old junior Matthew LaClair says he was shocked when history teacher David Paszkiewicz, who is also a Baptist preacher in town, spent the first week lecturing students more about Heaven and Hell than the colonies and Constitution. He said Paszkiewicz told students that if they didn't accept Jesus, "you belong in Hell." He also dismissed as unscientific the theories of evolution and the "Big Bang.".
Illinois Parents are upset about Penguins in New Your City's Central Park Zoo.
A picture book about two male penguins raising a baby penguin is getting a chilly reception among some parents who worry about the book's availability to children - and the reluctance of school administrators to restrict access to it. The concerns are the latest involving "And Tango Makes Three," the illustrated children's book based on a true story of two male penguins in New York City's Central Park Zoo that adopted a fertilized egg and raised the chick as their own. Complaining about the book's homosexual undertones, some parents of Shiloh Elementary School students believe the book - available to be checked out of the school's library in this 11,000-resident town 20 miles east of St. Louis - tackles topics their young children aren't ready to handle. Their request: Move the book to the library's regular shelves and restrict it to a section for mature issues, perhaps even requiring parental permission before their child can check it out.
Both of these examples demonstrate why ones personal beliefs need to be kept out of the public schools. Parents who believe homosexuality is sinful should not be forced to send their children to schools where books promoting a homosexual lifestyle are available to students. I also think it was unnecessary for the books author to make the penguins "gay". As everyone knows I disagree with censoring books, but I do think that parents; especially parents of very young children should be able to determine what is appropriate for their children to be exposed to. It's equally wrong that high school students should be forced to listen to their teacher rant about Christianity and that the non-Christian students in the classroom were told they are going to hell, because they didn't share their teachers beliefs.
