as a teacher, I am extremely uncomfortable with this.
BTW, why the schedule change?
If I’m understanding you correctly, agreed. I think part of my sympathy for Keiko comes from experience of dealing with students (thank goodness in higher ed we have FERPA) that try to argue their way out of a college education based on their religious beliefs. Sigh. If you don’t want to think critically, don’t go to college.
But, unlike in our world, the objective reality of the Wormhole Aliens vis-à-vis The Prophets is purely a matter of interpretation, not a matter of faith. Keiko does her students a disservice by only teaching one interpretation.
That said, my estimation may be colored by how much Vedek/Kai Winn sucks later on.
I think that’s really the problem. Knowing what we know about her now, it’s difficult not to see what she’s doing as politically motivated. That doesn’t lessen the truth of it, though.
Good. That means you’re paying attention. 
uf Keiko’s headband is so 1992. As in, I’m pretty sure my 9 year old self was wearing one in 1992 
Not a schedule change. Just the next episode in order. Hopefully the next season will be a little more stable. 
Hold on to it. Fashion should be rolling back around that way in a few centuries.
I’m pretty sure mine was striped, so it was better.
Yeah, Winn, your Emissary doesn’t have a soul? bullshit.
Yay Sisko speechifying!
“No, I don’t teach Bajoran spiritual beliefs. That’s your job. Mine is to open the children’s minds to… history, to literature, to mathematics, to science.”
“You are opening the children’s minds-- to blasphemy. And I cannot permit it to continue.”
- Keiko and Vedek Winn
(I’m reduced to quotes from memory-alpha, as my disk has crapped out 
too bad I like Kira’s bit with Sisko at the end of this episode)
I don’t think so. it’s Keiko’s job to teach the scientific facts of the wormhole. the religious interpretation of those facts is up to the children’s parents to teach.
And as much as I approved of her objection before, here she’s going specifically against the will of the Prophets. Sisko is the chosen Emissary. Another objective fact.
Agreed. As Keiko said earlier in the episode, religious beliefs are up to religious groups to teach, not to the equivalent of the public school. Besides which, given the diversity of children on the station(though there are a lot of Bajorans), there is no one right theology to teach, even among the Bajorans. Acknowledge that these beliefs are held, sure. But she’s teaching Federation science.
Whereas she’s admitted she sees Sisko in this role, so even if he’s objectively not, it’s against what she’s expressed to be her belief system.
But — and I stress, in this situation alone — the facts and the interpretation aren’t mutually exclusive. Denying that the Prophets are gods is just as much a matter of faith as believing that they are. This isn’t a hokey intelligent design argument — despite the clear metaphor for our world — it’s a teacher deciding to put forth her own viewpoint only, while denying the other interpretation altogether. The Prophets are virtually omnipotent and exist outside of space and time; it’s difficult to not consider them gods.
But the Federation is generally ecumenical in its teachings. Realistically, teaching about the Bajoran wormhole must include at least a footnote about the Prophets, even it’s nothing more than acknowledging that the Bajorans worship them as gods. Keiko had no interest in even doing that.
And don’t even get me started on her teachings about the Q.
okay, I love that Amazon Prime has DS9 available, but they’ve got to streamline their catalog. they have each season separately listed, and on the website, it’s even worse: one entry for standard, another for HD
LOL Badger maybe your anti-Keiko bias is showing? 
given that the students are all aware, or at least are presented as such, of the Bajoran beliefs about the wormhole, I don’t think that science class is where that would be taught. Maybe a philosophy course, or a quadrant-wide “world cultures” kind of course. But not science, and not as fact.
Yeah, it’s kind of a mess. Hopefully they’ll get it together soon enough.
Oh trust me, I’d gladly see her burn in the Fire Caves just as much as I would Winn.
given that the students are all aware, or at least are presented as such, of the Bajoran beliefs about the wormhole, I don’t think that science class is where that would be taught. Maybe a philosophy course, or a quadrant-wide “world cultures” kind of course. But not science, and not as fact.
But that’s my point. It is fact that they exist. It is fact that they are powerful beyond human imagination. It is fact that they exist outside of time and space. It’s just as much an interpretation to say that they’re not gods as it is to say that they are. Saying that one viewpoint is science while the other is not is doing a disservice to science.
hear hear!
(I really don’t get all the Keiko-hate)
Keiko doesn’t deny that they exist - she just won’t teach that they are Gods. one can fall back on the adage about magic or science, of course, but given the Federation’s general unease about religion, it’s fairly consistent with what we’ve seen in earlier series. If anything it’s a bit more sympathetic (which fits in DS9 as a series, too).
I still think though that the discussion about the religious dimension of the wormhole would not be appropriate to a multi-age science classroom. It’d be great for literature, or culture, or philosophy, or even some kind of religious doctrination class (run through the Bajoran temples).
She’s a shrew. A female character can be strong without being a bitca, but no one ever told her that. She never experiences any growth and only becomes more convinced of her own rectitude.
I find it funny which sides of this argument that we fall on.