Reply to How would you respond-- "are you an atheist?" from a student

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[quote=Anonymous]As an atheist, and a public school teacher, I have mixed feelings about this.

In general, I would say that discussion of a teacher's religious beliefs have no place in the public school classroom, and that teachers should redirect questions with an explanation that they prefer to keep that information private.  I don't have a problem if a student deduces a teacher's religious beliefs from their cultural practices, whether it's noticing that the teacher wears a cross, or has a Darwin fish on their car, or is consistently absent on Yom Kippur, but I don't think it should be a point of discussion.

However, I also recognize that there are schools in the country where the norm is for people from the dominant religion of the area, which is often but not always Christian, to be very open about their faith with students.  If a middle school student has 7 teachers, and 5 of them profess a certain to the class, then I think there is some power in teachers with other beliefs letting the students know their own beliefs.  I think it's easy for a student to assume that all atheists are . . . or all Muslims are . . . when they think they've never met them, and that having an adult they know and admire share their faith can be a powerful thing.  I absolutely don't think that a public school teacher ever has an obligation to share their beliefs, but I can understand the choice to do so in certain circumstances. 
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