Religion in public schools. Those four words bring the best and worst out in people. But what does it really mean? Whose religion and how much of it? What is religion? What is acceptable and what is not? New York Times recently carried an article about religion in school.
The executive, legislative and judicial branches give most of the power to the local schools to make these kinds of decisions. So in essence it is up to us as a community to make these decisions. We are the fourth estate.
I went to my daughter’s holiday program at her new school yesterday. She got a ribbon for participating in a school project. She seems to like her new teacher, school and students. So I have a bit of trust in the school.
The program was mostly about awarding the 100+ ribbons (individual!) and a few songs the third graders sung. They were all x-mas songs. And I mean x-mas not really Christmas songs, except Silent Night in German. Rudolph, Felic Navidad, and a song about a “toy catalog?” sung in discordant but cute, childish voices. All explicitly referring to Christmas.
But no other “religion” or holiday was mentioned. Not even a picture on the wall or small gesture. I assume that there is a large majority of Christians in the school. But how many might object just a little? Christian who believe in the First Amendment and don’t want the state to endorse a particular religion might also object? I felt uncomfortable because someone else might feel offended and rightfully so. However, I’m personally not going to file a lawsuit.
Is there other solutions?
What kept going through my head is there must be other more tactful and sensitive songs the school could teacher our children. What about song solely about winter or the New Year’s Day? Or some of the major religions just to know that the school isn’t endorsing one particular religion?
We need to talk about this in our own communities and come up with our solutions. Please leave a comment or email so we can start to publish this information. Together we can gather better information.
This story is also in Kearny on the Web. Check out this site it has similar principles to this one. Perhaps we can be better.
