Laurie Higgins Responds to Friendly Atheist Teacher Mehta

Mehta's blog post in which he exposed Higgins' irresponsible and absurd claims has yielded a singularly incoherent babbling response. Is there any doubt that The Illinois Family In Italics Institute should be deeply embarrassed?

Here's the "open letter." Ick.

More like this

Just in case you were wondering whether weekly news magazines still serve any purpose, the answer is no.
It's like taunting the bull while standing in the middle of his field. It's just not smart.
Having trouble with a word puzzle? Suffering from writer's block?

"many teens are unduly influenced by emotion or the cult of personality and are therefore predisposed to look favorably on the ideas of teachers whom they find cool or charismatic or funny or kind or iconoclastic."

Ya, I'm going to make sure all my son's teachers are boring drones. http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0104807/ Wouldn't want him to enjoy school or anything.

By Rich Wilson (not verified) on 21 Aug 2009 #permalink

Rich, you misunderstood the "good" mizz Higgins. She probably has no problem with charismatic teachers that create cults of personality, as long as the ideas they peddle coincide with her own.

Isn't the phrase "pearl-clutching" tailor made for this woman? "Think of the children!" Bob-forbid they be exposed to multi-faceted worldviews, that could lead to a well rounded and intellectually articulate individual.

In the "And Let There Be Light" department:

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/groups/illinois-family-institute

http://www.examiner.com/x-21239-Oakland-Skepticism-Examiner~y2009m8d21-…

One of my favorites:
http://www.examiner.com/x-21239-Oakland-Skepticism-Examiner~y2009m8d21-…

And for the Southern Poverty Law Center's view:
http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2009/04/17/the-illinois-family-institute-…

Have fun, y'all. And Mehta might want to consider smacking the Higgie-toon with a civil rights violation lawsuit.

By mediajackal (not verified) on 22 Aug 2009 #permalink

Higgins response was neither "incoherent" or "babbling." She was straight forward and made sense.

I don't know Mehta but I've seen a lot of guys like him who like to "teach" and hang out around impressionable young teens to impress them with how cool and knowledgeable a teacher can be.. Pretty pathetic for a grown man but then our public education system is pretty pathetic, too.

The more I think about it, the more I like Higgins.

By Edward Willneff (not verified) on 05 Jan 2012 #permalink

Edward, did you just accuse my colleague, whom you admit you don't know, of illegal and despicable behavior?

Explain yourself Now. Your comment has 24 hours before I delete it unless you produce proof of your claim. (if I remember to come back to this, that is)