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Man, at least that teacher didn't cause them to go berserk and kill her for telling them Santa Claus is not real. It reminds me of this Chick Tract called "Fairy Tales?" about a boy named Harry Garner who has been told that Santa is not real along with the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny, and then gets enraged and kills some kid who told him that, before he gets arrested, tried, condemned to death, and executed. And all the while some people try telling Harry that Jesus is real and Santa Claus isn't, but Harry claims Jesus is not real. Man, Jack Chick has failed in his research about Santa Claus, which is based off of St. Nicholas, because Jack believes that saints like Nicholas "are actually pagan idols and devils whom people worship". Even Zasada has made a review on this logicless "Fairy Tales?" tract too.

Is this a slow news week, or something?

who thought this was actually relevant to anyone at all?

What a bastardly teacher. First San Francisco wages war on the Happy Meal, now this? IS NO CHILDHOOD JOY SACRED ANYMORE?!

But on topic, it really ain't the teacher's place to do that. Let the kids enjoy the magic for a few years, honestly.

Why is this news?

Hahahahaha, nice. These parents are dumbasses. They shouldn't be telling their kids bullshit in the first place.

"A TEACHER ruined Christmas for a class full of second-graders when she told them that there is no Santa Claus during a lesson about the North Pole."

Should have told them that the holiday is about Jesus Christ, not Santa Claus. That would've really ruined their Christmas.

edited 3rd Dec '11 6:58:25 PM by kashchei

Parents actually have to go through a lot of effort to convince their children of Santa's existence. If they get lazy and have the father or a relative dress up for Christmas, the gig is pretty much immediately up. Also, seeing Santa at multiple shopping centers, or even at just one shopping center is pretty telling. And even then, it's likely a classmate or friend will break the news early anyway.

OP: Wait a minute, I always assumed that the whole Santa Claus being real was a joke from movies and TV, there is actually a "culture" of doing that with kids??

Thank you. This needs to be said more often.

Not quite. Christmas, in practice, incorporates many elements of Paganism.

[this is obviously the most major news story of the week! We must stop this childhood ruining man!]

^^ It's the mass for Christ. I don't care how you choose to practice it, or what pagan holidays it supplanted, that's what it nominally is.

@ Blue

In many place I think, the concept of Santa Claus is to get kids to behave and that if they do good on it, they will get presents from him on Christmas Day. If they are bad, they get either nothing or a lump of coal. That's how I remember it.

But it works with parents as well. They don't have to push responsibility to some fairytale living on the pole.

I really don't get why do parents tell kids Santa is real - make believe works without this deception as well. (It did for me and tons of other children.)

Aaaand? I knew Santa wasn't real by the second grade.

"The evil educator" made my day.

It made my mother happy to think I still believed in Santa when I was a wee tyke because she always thought kids were pushed into acting grown-up too fast.

Even if the kids don't believe anymore they can pretend to believe or want to believe, even try to believe. Maybe think deep down that even though they saw Dad stuff their stockings one year that maybe Santa might stop by the next year.

Kids are impressionable, trusting little shits so having an adult, a teacher, just come out and say it seems kind of callous...

edited 4th Dec '11 1:15:58 AM by Bur

Bah. Don't ruin the magic for kids? It is this kind of attitude that leads children to grow up into flat earth creationists. Let them know the truth as early as possible.

That sounds like it's filled with straw. How the heck does thinking Santa is real for a few years = flat earth creationist?

It's the thinking behind it. To be encouraged to believe in something despite all evidence to the contrary.

The funny thing is that St. Nicholas was an actual person.

I can't speak for anyone else, but when I was that age, I benefited from frankness. It really confused me whenever an adult told me something they knew full well was bullshit—I was old enough to realize that adults might be wrong, but not old enough to realize that they might lie to me, so I was stuck between believing bullshit ("There really is a ghost haunting the school, and it really did bake us cookies for Halloween!"), or believing that the bullshitting adults were idiots ("Someone in a ghost costume left us cookies, and the teacher was dumb enough to mistake him for an actual ghost.")

Come to think of it, I have no idea what I thought of the Santa myth. I guess I didn't really think anyone was fooled by it.

edited 4th Dec '11 3:15:51 AM by feotakahari

Santa Claus was killed in the aftermath of the Exxon-Valdez oil spill.

So really, there hasn't been a Santa since 1989.

edited 4th Dec '11 3:33:06 AM by ElderAtropos

Please, I always knew Santa wasn't real, same with the Easter Bunny. It just wasn't logical (though for the thing with malls Santa's I think most kids rationalize it by acknowledging it isn't Santa, it's a stand in because the real one lives far away and doesn't have time). I just played along with it because I didn't want to disappoint my parents. I knew someone who didn't find out until they were like in the fifth grade and they freaking cried. It was pathetic.

I don't really see any problem with telling kids to believe in Santa Claus, it's more out of fun than anything else, anyways. I mean my mom still says stuff like 'maybe Santa will get you this!' even we both know there isn't a Santa.

America actually buys into Santa a lot though, like there's GPS trackers of him, and military base reports about Santa flying over and such, and there's a special mail address for him.

Don't be silly! Everybody knows that Santa Claus is not a person, is a title! The current Santa Claus is Jim Henson (of course, just like all the other Santas, he had to pretend his own death). The next one will be John Lasseter

edited 4th Dec '11 5:41:54 AM by Anthony_H

...What the dick is wrong with the world today!!

I can understand how perpetuating the Santa mythos can be seen as a bad thing by some people. That said, this teacher did a dick move.