Maybe I SHOULD have asked her ‘yes, what then?’

Recently I interviewed a teacher from a religious school in a predominantly Christian region of the country. She told me how she was there to enlighten the children, to raise awareness and stimulate critical thinking. Then she told me about a situation where one of her students refused to join in the class-discussion about a specific topic, and how the next day, both parents of the student came to school to talk to the administration about the ‘incident.’ Influential parents, they were, and of course the teacher was called into the meeting to justify her behavior.

‘So there I was,’ she said, ‘in front of these two parents, but I refused to take it. I reprimanded the student for resorting to higher powers, right in front of them. You know, we are all Christians here – but what if they had been Muslim?’