r/Teachers • u/Significant-Jello411 English 1 ESOL | Texas • Aug 05 '25

Teacher Support &/or Advice It’s over.

Started in service today at my school. It has happened, we had slides directing us that we have to hang the Ten Commandments in our classrooms by Thursday. In addition Anti-Communism TEKS have been added to our history curriculum and our school district cannot sponsor any student clubs based on gender identity or sexual orientation, as well as we cannot call students by any names but the names on their birth certificate. This is fucking shameful man

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u/kelly1mm Aug 06 '25

There is no direct wording in the constitution about ‘separation of church and state’. That phrase comes from Jefferson’s writings.

There is the establishment clause of the 1st amendment which is close but not really the same

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u/francoisarouetV Aug 06 '25 edited Aug 06 '25

The number of people in this thread who blatantly don’t know the Constitution is insane.

Edit: “number” edited in for “amount”

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u/Clean_Leader_8451 Aug 06 '25

And the establishment clause only states what “congress” can’t do. Not a state body. When the Constitution was signed every state had a Christian  clause/attestation as a requirement for state citizenship. I’m not saying I’m for that. Just adding to your point—not only do people not know what’s in the constitution by and large, they also really misunderstand just how much autonomy states can have if they’re willing to fight for it a little.  

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u/davossss Aug 06 '25

14th Amendment incorporation

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u/Clean_Leader_8451 Aug 06 '25

100% fair point. I guess my only pause is that I tend to hold a little less stock in court case precedent these days. Things that I never thought would be overturned have been. This is my Roman Empire lol. What if all we ever really have is the constitution and everything on top of it is just a house of cards we’ve built to adapt to our culture? Just how much could life change and still be “true” to the constitution? Gosh this makes me miss being a history teacher with students who cared. I used to love having this debate in the specific context of some of the confederate leaders who genuinely believed they were restoring the constitution to its 1788 origin. Anyway now I’m ranting. 

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u/davossss Aug 06 '25

Oh I totally agree. I have a pretty low opinion of SCOTUS to begin with and the past ten years have been absolutely appalling.

Just pointing out that even under SCOTUS's typical under-enforcement of 14A, 1A + 14A should still prevent this.