this post was submitted on 13 Dec 2023
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Conservatives can't handle The Satanic Temple's harmless display in Iowa's Capitol (www.friendlyatheist.com)
submitted 11 months ago by Lanky_Pomegranate530@midwest.social to c/atheism@lemmy.world
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[–] rtxn@lemmy.world 96 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Like sending "In God We Trust" banners written in Arabic to Texas schools. They don't like getting done unto them as they do unto others.

[–] PrinceWith999Enemies@lemmy.world 25 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I’m curious about this one. I was amused when it was first done - I think I even donated to the cause, but it’s been awhile and I don’t remember. I don’t know if they ever got any of their signs posted, but I do remember people claiming that the law stated the schools had to post donated signs.

Obviously it’s a great loophole in a stupid law, and should equally cover Hindi, Chinese, or any other scary language. The law, as originally written, did not specify a language.

My question is whether it would similarly apply to a sign in English that read “In Allah we Trust.” Since Allah is literally the Arabic word for “god,” it’s semantically equivalent. If so, the same should hold true for similar words from other languages. You might argue that naming a specific god like Vishnu might not pass muster (although I think an argument could be made), but I think that “In Allah we trust” would be almost as defensible as having the entire text in Arabic.

[–] thefartographer@lemm.ee 34 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Working in a rather large school district and eventually getting to point where I have somewhat more understanding and information about the inner workings of public ed, I can tell you exactly what a lot of Texas schools decided to do after that law passed and then people started donating signs: we immediately put up any sign that met the requirements and then threw them all away at the end of that same day. We have better things to worry about than trollish legislation and the trolls who troll the trolls. At the end of every single day, our main questions are "did we keep the children safe and the parents informed," and "is our children learning?"

[–] PrinceWith999Enemies@lemmy.world 15 points 11 months ago (1 children)

That’s a fantastic answer and thank you.

[–] thefartographer@lemm.ee 14 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Thank you for your genuine curiosity. And if you can, support your local public ed. There are lots of ways to help out that don't even require spending a dime! Send your kids to public school, volunteer at book fairs, register as a substitute, go to your local town hall and ask hard-hitting questions about transparency and accountability (seriously, ask your local district for the wages of every employee classification, and then go to a town hall meeting and ask why there are so many people working at central office, why people like me who work there away from the children are getting paid more than some teachers, and ask how new positions they keep adding to an already top-heavy district are helping with employee satisfaction and retention), or even run for school board (except that last one is practically an unpaid job).

[–] PrinceWith999Enemies@lemmy.world 8 points 11 months ago

Thanks very much for this! It’s fantastic advice and I really appreciate it.

My mother was a teacher (and later a union leader) for her entire career, as was my partner’s mother, and as is our best friend. I even taught for a bit (university though - I’m really not a kids kind of person).

Still, I could not begin to imagine the job you folks do. I couldn’t teach in the kind of environments that some states are creating - hence my intentionally snarky but unintentionally insensitive question.

I could certainly do more to support education, though. I live in a fairly well off area with pretty solid public education (my property taxes are about $25k per year and if I’m reading the tables correctly our teachers’ salaries run from about $90k to start (BA + 30 credits) to about $160k (BA + 45 after 12 years)). It’s also a very liberal area - there is a negative probability of a moms for liberty type being elected dog catcher, much less to the school board. I don’t think I’m bringing very much to the table there.

However, I’m going to look into seeing if I can take some of your advice and apply it to other communities in my area. Again, thanks for the eye-opener!

[–] spacecowboy@sh.itjust.works 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Register as a substitute? Do you not require a degree in education to teach where you’re from?

[–] thefartographer@lemm.ee 6 points 11 months ago

Depending on the school district, you may or may not. Texas has recently started allowing districts to identify themselves as a "District of Innovation," which means allowing for alternative degrees when hiring specific types of teachers. That being said, substitutes are not teachers and are not subject to the same requirements; same goes for Instructional Assistants (IAs). Both are woefully underpaid servants for the type of work they do.