Parents outraged after teacher says there's no Santa Claus
RICHARDSON, Texas (AP) - Guess what, kids? There's no such thing as Santa Claus! That's what a suburban Dallas music teacher told first-graders on Monday - and the school's been hearing from parents ever since.
The angry phone calls prompted the Richardson school district to issue a pro-Santa statement.The district announced that the offending teacher had heard from Santa Claus himself -- who assurred the teacher that "the spirit of the holidays is alive and well." And Santa asked the teacher to pass that message along to students.
A district spokesman says the teacher won't face any disciplinary action.
I'm sorry, but forcing a teacher to lie to students in order to cover up for parents' lies is just plain wrong in my book.
There is no Santa Claus in our household. It's not a religious thing, it's a truth thing.
I watch friends of mine go to such efforts to hide gifts from Santa and lying to their kids left, right and center.
I've seen kids seriously emotionally damaged by learning the truth, Santa Claus is just a story. I'm talking unable or unwilling to ever trust another word that comes out of the lying parent's mouth.
Don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying it's wrong for everyone to allow children to believe in Santa. Some parents do it quite well and there's no trauma when the children simply outgrow Santa.
But then there are the parents who don't carry it off well or children who are so gullible they don't catch the subtle "hints" that Santa's just pretend. When these kids find out they've been lied to, the trauma may never quite go away.
That's why, long before I ever had kids I knew I would tell them from the beginning, "Santa's just pretend. He's a nice story, but he's not real."
As a parent there are so many things I've done wrong. But I can safely say, I have never lied to my child. I've avoided the truth, exaggerated, spoken in code, simply told him he's too young. But I have never lied to him and he knows it.
This brings me to my new dilemma, JBP is old enough to have friends with parents who have raised their kids to believe in Santa. He has already told some of them there is no Santa, to much wailing and weeping (okay, mainly a little wimpering).
And you should see some of the accusatory looks I get from other parents when they learn I've never misled my son into believing in Santa. As if I'm depriving him of some childhood luxury. Yeah, the luxury of betrayal and distrust of a parental unit!
The thing is, JBP loves Santa stories just as much as the next kid. He just knows they're stories and accepts them as such.
Nimitz' Lady
1 comment:
Ah! I raised you right.
Ma
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