Secularism in public schools
For those of you who haven't noticed, I usually find interesting things then use them as inspiration for some kind of rambling or rant of some sort on this blog, and usually they're more political than people like to read. That's ok, it's my rambling emporium, so I can ramble about whatever I want!
A Southern Baptist Convention held recently with the intent of deciding for that church, one of the most conservative Protestant churches in this country, whether or not they should homeschool children to protect them from a secular public school system. They question whether the school system in this country is too secular?
In principle, I tend to agree with them based on my own experiences. There were many opportunities to study "world religions" offered in my high school, where kids could learn about Islam, Hinduism, Judeaism, etc. What was absent was an opportunity to study Christianity, even in an academic sense. I got more of that when I was in college, but by and large the emphasis was on non-Christian religions. The idea being that since most of us are Christian, that we already know all we need to know and don't need to learn about it.
The truth is that regular church attendance, even the Christmas and Easter (C&E Christians) services are at all time lows according to every statistic I hear floating around or catch in magazines. Even if they go, kids are so eager to get out of church that they don't really learn anything. I didn't even though I was active in my church for most of my childhood. I knew about the same basic information about Christianity as I did about every other major world religion, and I think that holds true for the majority of kids in public schools today.
Thing is, there are a number of people in this world with such weak spines that they get offended about anything, particularly religion. The ACLU sued (unsuccessfully, btw) last month to get a miniscule cross removed from the bottom left corner of the Los Angeles city seal. A man named Michael Newdow thought that having his daughter recite "under God" was pushing Christianity on her unfairly and took his lawsuit, at the expense of the taxpayer, to the Supreme Court. There is constant controversy about prayer in school, display of the ten commandments in school, and other similar issues, with the majority of decisions leaning towards removing these icons from schools, and indeed, all public and government buildings. At the same time, symbols of Judeaism (such as the menorrah) and Islam (the star and crescent) are not receiving the same scrutiny. A suburb in New York state flatly rejected a proposal to build a nativity scene in front of the city hall building, but did allow menorrahs, Kwanzaa symbols, and the star and crescent to be displayed in the building at the same time.
Hypocritical? I think so. Anti-Christian bias? I think so too. Do I think kids should be kept home by concerned parents? No. They need to interact with other kids, because those social skills are fundamental to success in this country. Concerned parents should give their children a strong moral education at home and be sure they are active in their local churches and volunteer agencies. But denying them the exposure to the real world in order to shield them is a poor way to raise a child. Many Mormon families do this only to have their kids go buck wild when they get out for the first time, and the same is true for other religions that practice the same life experience restrictions.
Is the public school system secular? Yes, and the much misinterpretted "separation of Church and State" (which, btw, does NOT appear anywhere in the text of the U.S. Constitution) has been abused by liberals to attempt to remove all mention of spirituality from the public forum, but liberals with no spines and no concept are a subject for another blog.
Good night.
A Southern Baptist Convention held recently with the intent of deciding for that church, one of the most conservative Protestant churches in this country, whether or not they should homeschool children to protect them from a secular public school system. They question whether the school system in this country is too secular?
In principle, I tend to agree with them based on my own experiences. There were many opportunities to study "world religions" offered in my high school, where kids could learn about Islam, Hinduism, Judeaism, etc. What was absent was an opportunity to study Christianity, even in an academic sense. I got more of that when I was in college, but by and large the emphasis was on non-Christian religions. The idea being that since most of us are Christian, that we already know all we need to know and don't need to learn about it.
The truth is that regular church attendance, even the Christmas and Easter (C&E Christians) services are at all time lows according to every statistic I hear floating around or catch in magazines. Even if they go, kids are so eager to get out of church that they don't really learn anything. I didn't even though I was active in my church for most of my childhood. I knew about the same basic information about Christianity as I did about every other major world religion, and I think that holds true for the majority of kids in public schools today.
Thing is, there are a number of people in this world with such weak spines that they get offended about anything, particularly religion. The ACLU sued (unsuccessfully, btw) last month to get a miniscule cross removed from the bottom left corner of the Los Angeles city seal. A man named Michael Newdow thought that having his daughter recite "under God" was pushing Christianity on her unfairly and took his lawsuit, at the expense of the taxpayer, to the Supreme Court. There is constant controversy about prayer in school, display of the ten commandments in school, and other similar issues, with the majority of decisions leaning towards removing these icons from schools, and indeed, all public and government buildings. At the same time, symbols of Judeaism (such as the menorrah) and Islam (the star and crescent) are not receiving the same scrutiny. A suburb in New York state flatly rejected a proposal to build a nativity scene in front of the city hall building, but did allow menorrahs, Kwanzaa symbols, and the star and crescent to be displayed in the building at the same time.
Hypocritical? I think so. Anti-Christian bias? I think so too. Do I think kids should be kept home by concerned parents? No. They need to interact with other kids, because those social skills are fundamental to success in this country. Concerned parents should give their children a strong moral education at home and be sure they are active in their local churches and volunteer agencies. But denying them the exposure to the real world in order to shield them is a poor way to raise a child. Many Mormon families do this only to have their kids go buck wild when they get out for the first time, and the same is true for other religions that practice the same life experience restrictions.
Is the public school system secular? Yes, and the much misinterpretted "separation of Church and State" (which, btw, does NOT appear anywhere in the text of the U.S. Constitution) has been abused by liberals to attempt to remove all mention of spirituality from the public forum, but liberals with no spines and no concept are a subject for another blog.
Good night.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home