THOU SHALT NOT TEACH
Educator cast out of religious school for Adam & Eve lesson
A discussion about Adam and Eve between city-paid teacher Nina Kossman (right) and third-graders at a private Muslim school has led to her expulsion. Kossman, who taught at the Razi School in Woodside, Queens, told kids the Bible story is a “myth” that Judaism, Christianity and Islam all share. Now Kossman has been exiled to a disciplinary “rubber room” f or helping “build up tolerance,” she told The Post.
An argument over Adam and Eve between a city-paid teacher and third-graders at a private Muslim school in Queens has landed the instructor in pedagogical purgatory, The Post has learned.
English teacher Nina Kossman claims that she committed sin of “telling the truth” and that it led to her expulsion from the Razi School in Woodside, which uses taxpayerfunded city Department of Education teachers in a federally mandated program for poor kids.
Kossman (inset) infuriated parents by telling their children that Adam is “not real.” She noted that Judaism, Christianity and Islam share the myth, thinking it would “help build up tolerance” for other faiths. She also inadvertently showed kids a classical painting of the first couple as imagined in the Garden of Eden — nude.
A group of angry parents showed up at the school the next day to complain that she “discussed Jews with them and showed them pictures of naked people,” Kossman said Imani Al-Amin, an assistant to the principal, told her.
“The parents were in shock — in a fury,” the assistant said, according to Kossman. “You have to understand that this is a different environment.”
Last week, Kossman was cast out of Razi and exiled to a DOE “rubber room,” a Queens office used for ed- ucators facing discipline. While she does nothing but menial paperwork, taxpayers foot her $90,000 salary.
Kossman’s troubles started as her third-graders assembled.
“It was a conversation between the children, but I was right there,” she recalled. “One girl was trying to say that girls are as important as boys because without women there would not be any men.”
The girl turned to Kossman: “Teacher, all people are born from a woman’s belly, right?”
Kossman agreed, but a boy chimed in, “One person was not born from a woman’s belly — Adam!”
Kossman replied, “It’s just a story, a myth. It’s not real.” The boy objected: “Adam is not a story! He is real!”
But Kossman said, “The story of Adam and Eve belongs to three religions — first Judaism, then Christianity, then Islam.”
She called up the Wikipedia page on Adam and Eve. Up popped the iconic painting of the nude couple by 17th-century artist Peter Paul Rubens.
“Ooh! Naked people!” kids cried. “We’re not allowed to look at naked people!”
Kossman said she covered the picture with her hands but read from the Wikipedia entry, which says Adam and Eve is a “creation myth.”
With kids still calling her wrong, Kossman said, “Well, it’s up to you to think that, but it happens to be true.”
An NYU Islamic Studies professor who did not want to be identified said, “Many religious people think that someone in the Scripture is actually an historical truth. To say it is a myth can be deemed offensive.”
The pre-K-to-12 Razi School charges tuition of $5,500 to $5,700 a year yet is entitled to use several DOE teachers because it is a Title I school, where at least 40 percent of students qualify for free lunch.
Razi touts a college-prep curriculum and also has a mosque where students pray about an hour a day.
Navy-blue uniforms are required. Boys wear dress shoes. Girls must don white headscarves completely covering their hair. Female staffers also wear hijabs, but Kossman was exempt. Two other DOE teachers in the school are men.
Kossman, who immigrated from Russia in 1973 and describes herself as nonreligious, said she had never before gotten into trouble.
Since 1991, the DOE has sent her to about 20 religious schools, mostly Catholic but also several yeshivas and one other Muslim school. She was assigned to Razi in September 2014.
She teaches English as a second language to students who speak Urdu, Bengali, Farsi and Arabic at home, and she uses fairy tales and literature in lessons.
DOE teachers assigned to nonpublic schools “don’t have any specific guidelines,” Kossman said.
“It’s generally understood that we should not talk about religion to students. I probably should have avoided talking about it.”
Al-Amin and Principal Ghassan Elcheikhali refused to comment, referring questions to the DOE, which said Kossman is under investigation.