Good lord no. My years in public school were in Manhattan. 'Nuff said.
I vaguely remember a moment of silence or two when national tragedies struck (MLK, for example), but no actual prayer.
My daughters are in public school now and the most religious thing they are asked to do is say the Pledge. They leave out the “under God” part of their own accord.
I love the Roma-stealing-the-nail story, and I want to thank someone else for telling it for once.
Yup. Oklahoma, kindergarten through 4th grade from 1975-1980.
[ul]
[li]They said the Lord’s Prayer over the intercom every morning and we all had to recite along with it. [/li][li]We had to memorize a bible verse every week and recite it on Friday (luckily the school picked which one because we didn’t have a bible at home I could select from).[/li][li]In the cafeteria you weren’t allowed to begin eating until the monitor came to your table to say grace.[/li][/ul]
ETA - this was public school, btw
Before the SC decision, my public school started every day with the Pledge, some student reading 5 verses out of the Old Testament and the Lord’s Prayer. The Catholic kids left out the final phrase.
When that decision came down, I really liked the response our Presbyterian minister had: “Good! We won’t teach algebra and the public schools shouldn’t teach religion.” If (as he hoped) religion is important, the family should take the time to pray together at home. This is a whole lot more meaningful than being required to recite something aloud in what should be a secular setting.
They said the lord’s prayer over the loudspeaker in my public school, back in the early 60’s. Then they moved to a “moment of silence” where we had to stand up and bow our heads. Then we had to say the Plead of Allegiance, although they didn’t do a very good job a making sure everyone said all the words. By high school (early 70’s) they had dropped most of this stuff. Really, it was painfully obvious that someone in authority wanted to force us to do something, anything, with the word “God” in it but they were losing the battle. Thank God that’s over… for now.
In all those years there were numerous prayer groups that got together in the school. In the cafeteria, the library at lunch time and, of course, after school. A group of guys on my track team got together before meets to pray in the gym. Nobody bothered them. I am pretty sure anyone who says that prayer isn’t allowed in school has never actually been inside one.
Another Okie checking in. Had Lord’s Prayer in Kindergarten in mid-70s. We would circle up, hold hands, pray (look to see who is looking - snitch - then everyone says that you can only see who is looking by looking yourself and you get busted too). Don’t remember it after that much.
In high school, the football team had breakfast at a local church every Friday there was a home game (maybe more - don’t quite recall). You got free eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, pancakes etc. as a team before school. You then got a quick sermon and a prayer. I don’t know if it was required, but nobody who was a starter EVER missed (plus we liked the food).
I was just being a good little kid. She wanted a story of what Jesus meant to me. I gave her that in all sincerity. It just wasn’t the kind of Jesus story she wanted to hear.
I clearly remember watching this movie–this is just an excerpt but you may be startled by the content–in public elementary school during rainy days in the auditorium:
Can you believe it? I swear I am not dreaming this.
I remember that song – we sang it in Girl Scouts.
I was never forced to pray by anyone in school.
I do remember one time in Algebra II, when the teacher handed out 3 by 5" notecards and told us we could write whatever we wanted on it to use during the final. He told us that unfortunately, he didn’t think anything would help some of the students pass.
I asked, “What about the Prayer to St. Jude, the patron saint of hopeless causes?”
He agreed with me.
Same thing for me. Pennsylvania, 1963, first grade. We said the Lord’s Prayer before class every morning until the Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional.
California 1960-1973
Never in school or at a school-related function. Not even close.
No forced prayer, Massachussetts, 1970-83.
I am not really spiritual, either, so I never considered trying to lead any public prayers.
I think the schools I went to allowed the students to form their own bible-study-after-school clubs, on school property.
Not that I remember.
Rural Minnesota. Graduated high school in 2002.
Southern California, 1967-1980. Can recall an invocation at graduation but that’s it.
I don’t recall being forced to pray in school, or being stopped from praying in school. I do remember being grumpy about having to sing Christmas Carols in late elementary (4th through 6th grades, public school in Louisville, KY in the late 1970s). I enjoyed the “Jesus class” and asked my parents not to opt me out (they had offered the choice) in the small town Indiana public elementary in 3rd grade. That was a forum for me to be a showoff and smart alek mostly which was why I liked it… the teacher knew I wasn’t Christian and was astonishingly tolerant of all the stuff I came up with. I guess she thought it was cute =D
To be fair, the OP didn’t rhyme, either.