could've been worse. they could have told them God doesn't exist either.

This is quite the dilemma. Destroy a child's "innocence"(?) now by teaching him not to be afraid of things he can't see in order to manipulate some behavioral control, or delude him for my own enjoyment and so when he figures it out he can feel betrayed by those he trusts most. Even played for a fool possibly.

Glad I don't have kids.So many tough choices to make.

FirstNationalBastard: I would think that Santa would be out of favor in today's "ZOMG PEDOFILES ARE EVERYEHRERE!!!1" culture. I mean, teaching children to sit on the lap of an old fat man that will give them things just for sitting on his lap... sounds kind of perverted to me.

Well, see...Santa Claus is OK because he's not real.
Though, there's a good chance that that guy with the fake beard in the mall is masturbating to the memory of all of those kids on his lap at night.

BravadoGT: It really isn't the place for the teacher to spill the beans. After all-there's got to be a Jewish kid or two in the class who can pull this detail, right?

I was gonna say, at seven years old the illusion isn't likely to last long anyway, just due to other kids (either in the class OR older kids on the bus or in the playground or whatever) who already know.

You can find similar outrage on parenting boards where people are trying to keep their kids completely ignorant of how babby is made, to the point that upper elementary kids don't know where babby comes from (ultra-religious Jewish boards are good for this) and some kid with SLIGHTLY more open parents or who just happened to overhear too much when his own parents talk about the new baby in their house, goes to school, and "says too much." ZOMG it's like the end of the world.

At some point, if you want control over how your kid finds out the truth, you gotta time it right so you're the one who spills the beans, but that very often means you have to do it sorta early.

doglover: Santa does exist. It's in the zeitgeist.

But does the force have a local maxima at the North Pole? That's the issue...

Isn't that, um, kind of the teacher's entire job? "Stripped of innocence" is just the negative connotation way of saying "more knowledgeable", that's pretty much the sole purpose of education.

Oh for fark's sake. 7-8 is the borderline age for kids learning Santa isn't real, but why the fark would a teacher think it's a good idea to spill the beans? I mean, WTF?

Let kids be kids for a while. They usually work out the myths amongst themselves anyway.

What a dick teacher.

I made sure my daughter knew that Santa wasn't real right from the beginning.

She's currently in rehab for smoking crack, she's had 2 abortions and she tried to kill me with a shovel two years ago.

At least Saint Nicholas was a real person...

FTFA..."It's outrageous that a teacher would strip a child of their innocence and try and demystify something,"

Jew here.

That time where gentiles learned the truth about Santa was awesome for me. I was all like, "I told you so!"

It was awesome.
Then they beat me at sports.

Wait, Satan isn't real?

doglover: Not this shiat again.

Santa does exist. It's in the zeitgeist. You can't just arbitrarily declare things non-existent because they're not what you expected.

Marie Curie might have thought radium was a harmless glowing metal. Didn't stop her cancer. Santa Claus is a cross cultural solstice deity, not a magic old man. He exists as much as love and justice, possibly more.

But you love dogs... You are just "differently tarded"

ZOMG...The War on Santa!

No parent in the history of man has ever told a child something he didn't already hear from a friend or figured out in their own. Parents aren't that smart.

I thought santa was a fun thing for kids at Xmas...my wife thought otherwise. Why are you lying to the kids? She gave me a few years, then told them Santa was a farking myth when I wasn't there.

/i need therapy now
//also sarcastic

vernonFL: [www.saviorsite.com image 640x410]

Good. Lets debunk some other Christmas myths while we're at it.

Really? Let's not. Jesus is the best farkin' thing about the whole religion. And the idea that a dude called Jesus lived and was an absolute hippy is really hard to call a myth, especially given the cultural impact that exists even today, with our year-counting system. Yeah, okay, maybe he wasn't the son of God. Maybe there is no God. Sure, I'll take that. But he was a nice guy, nicer'n me.

weave: Thankfully my parents were honest about Santa Claus being a myth from the beginning, while also teaching me about Jesus being the Son of God and even though I couldn't see any evidence that He is real, I must have faith that He is real and believe it with all my heart -- or I will burn in Hell for eternity.

My parents never told me the truth about Santa but 1st or 2nd grade I realized that the idea was too far fetched. Why the hell would this strange man bring gifts to every good kid on Earth. Why did he bring some kids presents that looked like toys from the land of misfit toys while other kids (including me) got hundreds of dollars worth of stuff from Santa.

I never grasped religion though, my parents never educated me on it even though they both came from religious families. Words from some of my friends as kids - "If you are good, when you die you will go to heaven. Everything that you want is there for you. If you are bad, you go to Hell"

Hrmm weird I didn't need religion or Santa to behave and never felt betrayed by manipulation. I feel that injecting these ideas does more harm than good for humanity.

Isn't 7 a bit old to still believe in Santa? I remember in 2nd grade making fun of someone for still believing in Santa Claus, cuz he was the only one in class who still did.

Anyone who believes in Santa at 7 should be evaluated for possible mental deficiency.

He's making a list.


He's checking it twice.

Oh come on. This is the true battle. You should respect other peoples' beliefs/myth-systems unless they don't coincide with your own The established principles of rational thought. What are you p-whipped "rationalists" thinking? If you feel so strongly that your rationalized view must necessarily be mappable back to the entire universe set...then...if you are feeling froggy, jump! Attack now! Why wait? You have the superior position. You are the one suggesting that human understanding of the human created concepts of logic and reason must should apply to the rest of the universe in theory. So why not start that anti-darkages war now? It could save us all a lot of trouble and confusion later.

Or, just sit there and make up excuses and realize you don't have the corner market on "reality" like you thought you did in freshman class.

Let's get this retarded Religion vs. Science war going once and for all. Maybe then the cockroaches will finally be able to make some serious unfettered progress.

Ed Finnerty: These comments are exactly why Santa doesn't bring you guys presents anymore.

I'm 25 and my mom still gives me a present from "Santa" every year just for the sake of tradition. :p

I read a thread on a messageboard a long time ago where the topic under discussion was when to tell kids that Santa wasn't real. I was stunned at how late some parents kept the illusion going. They had kids who were eleven, twelve years old who still bought into it. And I don't mean "had figured it out when they were six and didn't tell their parents that they knew better," I mean "were actually disappointed and started to cry when someone set them straight." I was astonished when my parents told me not to bring up the subject around my cousins - one was NINE at the time.

From what I can tell about these parents, it was a way to infantilize those kids for just as long as they possibly could. Most of them who debated the point about "letting kids be kids" were more about "letting adults pretend that their kids will be kids forever." Sooner or later, parents, they're gonna have to know.

Should a geography teacher lie about the North Pole? No, clearly not. But if not, then why do the parents lie? Here's why:

(Note: For the following, the voice of Death should be READ IN ALL CAPS WITH EXTRA SERIFS)

Death: Humans need fantasy to *be* human. To be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape.
Susan: With tooth fairies? Hogfathers?
Death: Yes. As practice, you have to start out learning to believe the little lies.
Susan: So we can believe the big ones?
Death: Yes. Justice, mercy, duty. That sort of thing.
Susan: They're not the same at all.
Death: You think so? Then take the universe and grind it down to the finest powder, and sieve it through the finest sieve, and then show me one atom of justice, one molecule of mercy. And yet, you try to act as if there is some ideal order in the world. As if there is some, some rightness in the universe, by which it may be judged.
Susan: But people have got to believe that, or what's the point?
Death: You need to believe in things that aren't true. How else can they become?

A whole classroom full of kids?

As opposed to the number who might see a random story in the New York Post, or the link on their homepage next to the picture of Santa Claus?

Sinto: Hobo Jr.: No parent in the history of man has ever told a child something he didn't already hear from a friend or figured out in their own. Parents aren't that smart.

Didn't your parents ever tell you they loved you more than life itself? Hopefully none of your friends told you that

You had some weird parents if they ever told you that. That sounds kind of nuts.

What a bumhug this teacher is

LazarusLong42: penthesilea: I told my son when he was quite young that it's fun to pretend that Santa is real, but it is *pretend*. Same for the easter bunny & tooth fairy. He still loved the tiny footprints and bit of gitter on his windowsill when the tooth fairy came by. He still would write letters to Santa and bake cookies for him on Christmas eve. You can have tradition without the lies.

My kid was also warned that it is very mean to go around telling kids that Santa isn't real.

Yay! I'm glad there are other parents like us out there.

Me three! And when my son (age 7) got grounded last week for smarting off, I reminded him that Santa might not be watching him, but I sure as hell am. It was really quite amazing how quickly he straightened up.