Another Of Santa's Little Helpers

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I've always believed in Santa Claus and I guess I always will.

That's why this latest story about a first grade substitute teacher (this time in Pennsylvania) telling her students that there is no Santa Claus disappointed me:

Theresa Farrisi stood in for Schaeffer’s regular music teacher one day last week. One of her assignments was to read Clement C. Moore’s famous poem, “A Visit from Saint Nicholas” to a first-grade class at Lickdale Elementary School.

“The poem has great literary value, but it goes against my conscience to teach something which I know to be false to children, who are impressionable,” said Farrisi, 43, of Myerstown. “It’s a story. I taught it as a story. There’s no real person called Santa Claus living at the North Pole.”

Farrisi doesn’t believe in Santa Claus, and she doesn’t think anyone else should, either. She made her feelings clear to the classroom full of 6- and 7-year-olds, some of whom went home crying.

If the lesson plan assigned by the regular teacher was this disagreeable to the substitute, perhaps she should have asked an administrator to read the poem to the class or even declined the assignment.

This incident is very similar to one that occurred a few days ago to another substitute first grade teacher, that time down in Texas.

In spite of these two doubters, my belief in the jolly old elf remains unshaken. ---------------------------------See our latest posts right here.