It's been a while since I've posted anything. I've been busy and dry on the material. Not a great combination for blogging.

Anyhow, Ally came down last weekend and I wanted to do a presentation on Hanukkah for my kids. It would be more a lesson in tolerance than cultural enrichment, since I've had problems with kids calling each other "jew." I wasn't sure how it would go over, seeing as I'm in the religious right's backyard here.

Ally would of course be doing the presentation, as I'm lacking in all kinds of religious background. The presentation would only be on Hanukkah -- not Judaism. I didn't know how it would go, but I didn't really care if Ally was up for it. I wanted to put a human face on Judaism. Their Baptist dogma might get challenged to a slight extent too.

We went in and I gave a ham-handed introduction to the different religions of the world. I asked them what they were all getting ready to celebrate and told them that there are other people who don't celebrate Christmas. That was my segway into identifying the different religions. The kids listed Catholics as one of the 'other' religions. They were baffled when I informed them that Catholics held the same basic beliefs as Baptists, Presbyterians, etc. I then listed other major world religions and vaguely pointed to regions of the world where they were practiced. At that point I passed it off to Ally, since my knowledge of religion was more than exhausted.

She told the story of the miracle of Hanukkah first. As she did, she lit a menorah. The kids actually shut up for once and looked on. She then told them about the foods commonly associated with Hanukkah, like latkes. Then it was on to the dreidel game. She explained what the symbols on a dreidel mean and the rules of the game. We then gave out dreidels to groups along with M&Ms. The kids were just excited to be gambling in class. They got a kick out of it. Some kids asked questions about being Jewish afterward. School was about over, so I had to rush kids out to the bus, etc. Overall, I thought it went great.

Then, that night, I saw a parent in a local restaurant who happened to be in the room when Ally gave her presentation. She said that "other" parents would be upset about us "preaching" religion in class. This was quite ironic, seeing as there are signs on the wall in my school that say "In God We Trust" with an American flag backdrop. I'm pretty sure that she was projecting her own feelings about the presentation onto other people, as she's said some pretty sketchy stuff in the past about anything ... different. If there were any more upset parents, I hoped they would come my way so I could set that straight. I haven't heard from any yet.

My kids, however, did have more input on it this week. On Monday my kids informed me that "Ms. Gold is going to hell" because she doesn't believe in God. I tried to explain that she just worshiped God a different way than she did, but it was no use. All I got was some regurgitated dogma from Sunday. Today the argument changed. One of my girls put forth the argument that Ally was going to hell because she worshiped a false idol. That false idol, according to my 6th grade girls, was "the guy with the fat stomach," also known as Buddha. I explained that Buddhism was a completely different religion and again said that Ally simply worships God a different way. Then came something about Jesus and I said, "Girls, want me to let you in on a secret? Jesus was Jewish." I got a 'nu-uh' from one girl and two other responded, in unison, with a 'sho was'. The girl in disbelief said that can't be because Jesus was black. She didn't see how he could be black and Jewish. I tied to explain, and I think it got through to her. She then asked if she was going to hell because she wasn't Jewish. I again said that nobody was since they both worshiped the same god in different ways. I got way off on a tangent with them at this point and had to reel the marlin that is my class back in.

After school the confused girl came in and said something about it and I finally got it through to her that Ally worships differently and might actually not be going to hell. I didn't even mention the fact that Jews don't believe in hell. That would have really thrown her for a loop.

In any case, they all said they want Ally to come back -- probably because they're so tired of mean ol' Mr. Hughes. They also thought I was Ally's dad at first.