Judaism, Transcendentalism, and Public Schools

Of course as a public school teacher I need the time to rant about how I educate students about ideologies that are not my own. It makes perfect sense to me, when this becomes my thought process:

In 1794 Thomas Paine wrote about Deism through his novel “The Age of Reason”. Unlike any author before him, he had scrutinized the Calvinist church and set a precedence that challenging aristocratic society and those who took to a corrupt religious social structure. This innate though that life is essentially born from good, and not the “infant damnation” that the Calvinists took to, was not so insightful as the Jewish faith had been in this thought for centuries.

As the thought manifests its way into another movement, it translates into the Unitarian Church, which believes that all the laws of G-d are understood innately through our conscience. Well, duh! Again, the Jews have long before used proof that gut feelings and human understanding of the laws could be adhered to. I mean, study a little Talmud or Gemara eh? Again, I am perplexed…

Due to the nature of my job, I slowly move into the Transcendentalist movement. The “Oversoul” being the euphoric sense of nature and that G-d is present in nature as well. Then, I think of Tu Beshvat and the celebration of the trees and land. I can’t help but want to turn to my students and be like, “Hey, your religions are evolving into what mine already is!” It’s so frustrating to be on the page everyone is moving towards, but they have no concept of my religion’s underlining themes and ideology.

Teaching in a public school is easy, rewarding, and above all the best decision I have made for myself. However, I have to say, sometimes things are a challenge. It seems that my biggest one, in terms of curriculum, is that I want to offer the students a bit more emmis (truth) then what they are getting. I know, separation of church and state. Yet why is it okay that winter break always lands on Christmas?

Stay true to the streets!

Yentapunker