Teacher Tells Kids: Santa’s Not Real
Alert NORAD: Santa has been taken down by the substitute teacher at the Blackshaw Lane Primary School in Royton, England. The mean Ms. Grinch told her classroom of seven-year-olds that Father Christmas is a big fat fake.
And parents are complaining about campus security guards stepping in as substitute teachers? The sub told the kids “it’s your parents who leave out presents on Christmas Day,” when the class started to get out of control during a discussion about Christmas.
Because this substitute apparently needs a refresher course in how to deal with children, here’s a quick lesson. First rule of Santa: Don’t talk about Santa (unless you know kids’ beliefs). Second rule of Santa: you know how this goes people.
Kids will eventually learn the big guy doesn’t exist, and parents everywhere will lose their best-valued fall/winter behavior modification method. Most parents hope for later rather than sooner, and they hope the magic dies accidentally – not via a callous adult who decides she needs to shock some kids. If the kids were being rowdy, whatever happened to the good old-fashioned, “Santa’s watching?”
Perhaps I’m just cranky because I remember my Santa dreams being dashed by a teacher too. Lying in the bed in the nurse’s office because of a stomach ache, I could clearly hear all the goings on in the main office – linked to our nurse’s station via a narrow, open hallway. The gym teacher, father of one of my classmates, was so busy checking his mailbox that he never noticed me lying there while he talked up what he had to do to get things ready for his kids on Christmas morning . . . including his massive production to make Santa “seem real.” Wouldn’t you know it – I was seven too.
Do you think adults have the right to throw this one at kids?
Image: PBase.com
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Anon, it doesnt say that the kids specifically asked the sub about santa. it said they were having a rowdy discussion about him. and to calm them down the sub decided to tell a group of seven year olds that santa wasnt real.
it doesnt matter whether or not you “do” santa. and none of those parents responded to this by saying “oh crap, now i cant lie to my kids to get them to behave!”. it wasnt about using santa to make kids good for these parents. its that the magic of christmas was killed by this sub, who had no right to tell the children that.
now when my daughter asks me if Santa is real, i will tell her what my mom told me. i was like 9 or 10, and i didnt think that santa was real, but then i wasnt ready to just write him off. Anyways, she said that Santa was once a real person. and even though he isnt alive anymore, he is still alive in the spirit of christmas. So when people talk about Santa, that’s what they mean. I always loved that, explanation. and i bet she doesnt even remember telling me. but i will never forget it.
actually, Santa was a real person. Look into your history. Here’s a quick link on just a simple search: http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=167 so the man doesnt exist today – but he did, we celebrate the history of many people – why cant we celebrate this one?
Sherry, the problem is that “not ruining it for someone else” requires actively participating in the lie. When other’s ask your child what they got from Santa, you have to pretend they got something from Santa. If a kid asks the substitute questions about Santa, she has to buy into it. Its very difficult to be a non-Santa family and never, ever tell another child that you don’t believe in Santa.
I personally liken it to a religious belief. It is considered acceptable for a child or adult to tell another child what their religious beliefs are. We are tolerant of those differences. I think the best approach is simply to say “I don’t believe in Santa.” It’s not a definitive statement, like “Santa isn’t real.” Its a matter about which people can disagree. It may be that that causes some kids to stop believing, but I hardly think anyone could find fault with that.
Do Santa or don’t do Santa. No one cares what you personally decide to do, nor do they care what your opinion is about the “Santa Lie.” When someone ruins it for someone else’s family that is a totally different thing and this substitute was totally out of line.
We don’t do Santa either. I have a lot of problems with the behavior modification aspect of it and how it wasn’t amusing or funny when I was a child for strangers to tell me to be good or whatever. I disliked it immensely–especially the part of a strange man sneaking into my house at night. And the pictures! How many kids do not scream?
We talk to our son about Santa and we told him the story of St. Nicholas on St. Nick’s Day (our very Catholic families always celebrated St. Nick’s Day as well) and I hope that he would be kind enough to never tell some other child that Santa wasn’t real but no. We don’t do Santa.
If, as a parent, you are relying on one day a year, and one (of many) fictional characters to teach your children gratitude, that’s a sad statement.
I loved the magic of Santa as a child, and that magic didn’t preclude me from also being gracious AND loving to GIVE gifts, as well. I think some folks out there have confused honesty with stripping childhood of magic and fun.
What’s wrong with you people? Go out and rent “Miracle on 34th Street” and remember that your children will grow up and face “truth” and reality soon enough. I promise.
I have to say, I’m surprised to see so much negativity toward the Santa idea in the comments here. For me, Santa was one of the best parts of my childhood Christmases. I have a twin brother, and we shared a room until the age of 9, and we conspired every year to try to stay awake until Santa came, concoting all kinds of schemes to keep the other one up. I remember vividly the memorable year when Santa brought the whole family a VCR (that would have been 1982, so it was a big deal). My parents played along, to the point that my father has still never admitted that Santa had handwriting that was somehow very similar to my dad’s distinctive writing (how I eventually figured out Santa wasn’t real, but it still took me awhile longer because of my dad’s denials). I guess I remain charmed by my experiences, and I don’t think I am at all ungrateful or without trust in people. And I probably would have been much more hurt and betrayed had some random sub broken the news to me in class before I was ready to hear it.
No harm done, after all he isn’t real.
My parents always told me no Santa, no Tooth Fairy, etc. That didn’t take away the fun of pretending. I had and still have a vivid imagination, and I loved Narnia, Lord of the Rings, and Oz as a kid. I think it’s healthier for kids to know where presents really come from–it teaches gratitude.
good, adults shouldn’t lie to children. its terrible that so many adults make an exception for santa. i feel so much pressure to lie to my kid and pretend there is a santa just so other parents aren’t mad at me, but i just won’t do it.
my trust in adults was seriously undermined when i found out there was no santa.
Oh jeez, that’s just mean. Isn’t it supposed to be some older cousin or sibling that ruins it for you? An adult purposely doing it ruins the tradition of that fateful, magic killing day.