‘In God We Teach’: A Documentary June 2, 2012

‘In God We Teach’: A Documentary

By Hemant Mehta
June 2, 2012

In case you don’t remember the Matthew LaClair story, he was the high school student who recorded his history teacher proselytizing in the classroom — the story made a huge splash when the New York Times covered the controversy (and published the recordings).

Filmmaker Vic Losick made a documentary about the whole thing called “In God We Teach” and it’s now available for free online:

I haven’t had the chance to watch it yet, but I’m going to make the time to do so because this is such an important story. Losick interviewed both LaClair and his teacher (David Paszkiewicz), among others. He doesn’t take sides (so I’m told, anyway) and wants to tell a bigger story in which the events in Kearny, NJ played only one part. You can be the judge of whether or not he succeeded.

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  • Annie

    That was well worth an hour of my time.   At the 42 minute mark, Paszkiewicz talks about how the word of god trumps the Constitution.  I’m not sure how this is different from the idea that nations should follow Sharia Law?  The most interesting part of this film, to me, was the difference in the two students who objected to their teacher’s classroom discussions.  The film focused mainly on David LaClair, but towards the end (about the 50 minute mark) there was a student named Chad who protested his teacher’s “anti-religious” views and went to FOX news with the story.  A debate between David and Chad would be highly amusing, but unfair to Chad, who seemed poorly equipped to present his argument.

  • Luddite

    Wow. What an articulate, intelligent and courageous young person! I still fear my community knowing my atheism where my teaching awards and achievments would certainly be immediately and summarily dismissed. I would sincerely worry about maintaining my position. I wonder how Paszkiewicz would feel if he had children being taught a different religious (or non-religious) belief in a community where that was the predominant belief in the community.

  • Lokicleo

    Wow. Just…..wow.

  • Eleanor Pippitt

    One of the most interesting things for me was learning that Mrs. Pazkiewicz h

  • Cskins

    What an  egomaniac.  Speaking of DeGrasse-Tysons response to the issue, Paszkiewicz at the 40:30 mark says “I just rocked his world”.  Uh, no.  Unless the stupidity of Paszkeiwicz actually believing the ark carried dinosaurs equates to “rocking his world”.

  • Stlnger64

    Hey I had Mr. Paszkiewicz when I was in at that high school.  Though at that time I was a devout Christian.  Also, the town is Kearny not Kearney.  Everyone always spells it wrong for some reason. 

  • What I was thinking exactly.  He talks to a Christian audience, shows his (and their) ignorance of science and then claims the Neil DeGrasse-Tyson was threatened by him.

    His ego is unbelievable.  Ignorance is bliss, willing ignorance leaves nothing but ego.

  • Was going to mention this mark too. Simply amazing how ignorant he is. Also felt a bit sorry for his sheep class.

  • Are… Are people just naturally incompetent and unable to do their jobs normally and the people who actually make an effort are actually special somehow?

  • He used the term “culture wars” in the website for the documentary.

    Doesn’t that mean he’s already chosen theocracy in the issue?  I didn’t think anyone who wasn’t advocating theocracy in America used that term.