Every morning in my first period class one of my students stands for the pledge, but he does not salute or recite. We have discussed his beliefs, a Jehovah's Witness, and he simply tells me he accepts the way things work and he doesn't think it is unfair. He always says it wouldn't be right to make them not do it. To me, this is a lot of insight coming from a fourteen year old boy that many adults cannot see. This is the truth. We can't make everyone happy or be "fair" to all. Everyone is free to practice their own religion, but many are actually being punished. Everything many believe is being taken away to suit the minority. People believe it is unconstitutional to pray so they take that away and say simply to pray before school. Well, this is a contradiction. Is it o.k. not to pray, but wrong to pray? That is discrimination against religious beliefs too! The blog, Religion in Schools Debate Heats Up, refers to the moment of silence as being ruled unconstitutional. Why? Nothing in it forces a student to pray. Students can do anything during this period, but talk. It is an atheist's belief not to pray, but their beliefs should not punish others the same way they believe beliefs should not offend them! Life is a two way street.
As for science, how can we teach what a theory is if we are going to treat theories as law? Evolution is a theory, not a fact, and needs to be treated as such. To not give students a variety of approaches will hurt student's abilities to reason and choose. Using only one theory is just memorization, no thought. We are creating individuals, not robots, who are free to choose. If we are not teaching other theories, such as religion, to protect the rights of nonbelievers, etc., who is protecting the rights of believers to not have to listen to evolution? To teach only evolution would be to discriminate against the other theories. No matter what someone is hurt, but this seems to be o.k. with society as long as it is the Christian.
This is just my opinion so take it with a grain of salt. Why, in a country found on religion, do we have to pay to send students to religious private schools? Why not pay to send students to non religious private schools? Ha! I know the answer to this, but it is still funny to consider.
Here is a website that has lots of facts on school prayer, etc.
http://www.religioustolerance.org/ps_pray.htm
Calefati, Jessica. "Religion in Schools Debate Heats Up." On Education. January 22, 2009.
https://elearn.mtsu.edu/d2l/orgTools/ouHome/ouHome.asp?ou=1028647&contentURL=/lms/discussions/admin/forum_topics_list.d2l
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I agree that creationism should be taught if it is done through concepts and not done through beliefs. As for a moment of silence I would have to disagree. I'm all for student praying to themselves or even with friends but the instant a school system provides time for people to do that, regardless of what we call it, and then it begins to imply that the school follows a belief system.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting the links and sources along with your blog entry. :-)
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