Gr8Kat, I’m very happy you were kidding. I got to “Sincerely, a Devout Christian” part and looked at your user name, date registered, and number of posts, and was thinking “1500 posts and she hasn’t been torn to bits by David B?” Then I read the part after that and breathed a sigh of relief.
On the moment of silence thing: My school has one, but it’s during homeroom (right after the pledge of allegiance) so we wouldn’t be learning anything. It’s only a minute long. In September I remember reading something about the Virginia chapter of the ACLU suing the state for their optional (i.e., the schools choose whether to have one or not) moment of silence. I don’t know what became of it, though.
Yes, the moment of silence is spent by the teacher yelling at the students to shut up. No one observes it, not in my school, anyway. I don’t really have a position on it; it seems to calm the fundies momentarily (I mean the ones who try to get prayer in school, not the fundie kids. They don’t notice the moment of silence, either.) and doesn’t blatantly violate any Constitutions I’m aware of.
Tolerance is exactly what I’m addressing here, W. Tolerance of the Constitutional separation of Church and State, and tolerance of the RIGHT, right mind you, of others not to be forced to participate in a religious ceremony not of their choosing.
Not to mention that I, for one, was extremely anxious to get on with the class…especially during finals!
A moment of silence is really just wasted, oppresive time to most people who don’t want to pray. Sure, 60 seconds is plenty of time to offer up a few quick thoughts to god/whatever, but it’s hardly time for me to get any substantial reading/work/sleep in, or anything that a damn atheist like me would want to do with it. Much less offer up slain goats to Chthuloid beings.
So, I guess teaching our children to be respectful of others’ religious wishes is a bad thing then? 60 seconds too much to give to your fellow man? Why bother with all the other nonsense that starts our day, like morning announcements, pledge of allegiance, etc., especially during finals week.
Tolerance and understanding from both sides (or the multi-sides) can go along way. 60 seconds of silence, not a religious ceremony. Make your wishes to diety, memorize the chart of the elements, do what you have to do, and stop making a mountain out of a molehill.
Why do you need that extra 60 seconds at all? Why does it have to be silence? Will God have trouble hearing you if people are talking?
If today’s school is anything like when I was in (I’m 29, hardly a geezer), there’s plenty of time during the day to pray. Homeroom, lunch, study hall…why does a specific minute have to be set aside for a moment of silence so you can pray?
And what about people whose religions don’t have 1-minute prayers? What about Muslims, who can’t sit silently at their desk and worship? Do you want to make sure that desk is facing Mecca so that they can pray properly? What about Wiccans, whose acts of worship often involve spontaneous dance or singing? Hell, what about charismatic Christians who don’t know once they start to pray if it’s going to stay silent?
The “minute of silence” smacks of “I have more important things to do with the regular off-minutes of my day than pray. Give me some time outside of my precious off-minutes to get this over with.” Sound awful respectful to me…
We offer children certain times in the day when they are free, withing the bounds of safty and parental permission, to do what they wish. All or part of this time may be used for praying, but it may also be used for other activities . We shall call these time “before school”, “after school”, “away from school”, “recess”, “lunch”, “breaks between classes”, and “vacations”. The school shall make no regulations about what religious activities you choose to partake in at these times.
Yeah, just try to sacrifice a small animal to the god/ess/deamon of your choice during recess and you’ll see there are rules, even if they aren’t written.
The essay was not bad, but it might be a bad idea to use a student’s real name as an example (the fundamentalist christian you talked about.) Other than that it sounds good.
adam
I was raised Southern Baptist, but did’nt believe unless I wanted something from god ( should I capitalize something I’m not sure exists?) but I prayed alot in school without the momemt of silence, i,e.:
" Please god don’t make me have to go to the chalkboard right now and thank you for turning on Vanessa’s highbeams!"
" Please god don’t smear the ink on my left arm and I promise to never cheat again!"
" Please god don’t let the new girl hear the rumor about my small johnson that Vanessa is spreading!"
" Thank you god for letting Vanessa’s shirt fall up in gym class!"
And so on, these prayers only take a few seconds each, and I’m sure are about as deep as the average school kid is going to go anyways…
" As long as there are tests, there will be prayer in schools." Cheesy Bumpersticker
