Posted on 12/06/2001 2:50:38 PM PST by Dr. Octagon
Christmas is a fantastic holiday. It celebrates not only the life of the Messiah, but more particularly the story of His birth, in all its miraculous splendor. Christ was born on a particularly clear night, under the glow of new starlight:
"And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night."
"And the angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them…"
"The angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you tidings of great joy that will be for all the people."
"For unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord."
"You shall find the babe in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger…"
I first heard these words in kindergarten. They are paraphrased from The Bible itself, but I heard them as a five-year-old by way of The Charlie Brown Christmas Special. The basic theme of the special, a simply-drawn 25 minute cartoon, is that Christmas is a matter of faith and fellowship. Therein, beyond the tinsel and the toys, lies the spirit of the baby in the manger, who for thousands of years has blessed the world with his tiny hands.
The irony is that my kindergarten was in a public school. Two decades ago, the slow creep of militant atheists was less advanced than now, and some public schools were left untouched. So my teachers, plying their trade in an obscure small-town school district, were free to follow the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, and actually permit the free exercise of religion within their taxpayer-funded walls.
God Bless them for that.
Christianity and Judaism were accorded equal respect, and had other religions been practiced by students/parents, the same would have gone for them. It was a very fair and balanced situation, to borrow a phrase from the Fox News Channel.
My how things have changed.
These days, our nation´s official motto, "God Bless America", is labeled ‘divisive´. "One nation under God" is stricken from the Pledge of Allegiance, in the rare cases that the pledge is actually still said.
Teachers are told that any personal symbols of their faith, such as a Cross or a Star of David, must be hidden, obscured from view. Does State control of religious symbols evoke memories of any particular era?
I sincerely doubt that in 2001, when football players are told not to pray before games, a simple showing of The Charlie Brown Christmas Special, with its openly religious bent, would survive an ACLU challenge.
Do the morally relativistic and proactively atheistic opponents of all things Judeo-Christian truly fear Linus´ forty-second speech, reprised above?
Apparently so.
Is that as ridiculous as it seems?
Absolutely.
And enough is enough: it´s time for a change.
It´s time to recognize that parents are the true guardians of their own children, not the State.
It´s also time to diversify the school system. Every public school should, in effect, be a charter school, with local control over its curriculum, policies, and methods. Add to that parental control over which school their child attends, and presto, you have competition. The schools which are the most effective will draw the most business, and have the most student-dollars with which to pay teachers, buy supplies, and fund expansion. It´s your basic market-driven scenario, and is ultimately the salvation of the public schools.
I would recommend this be done with the following formula: take the entire K-12 Education Department budget, and divide it up on a per-student basis. Extend that per-student amount to parents via a tax credit, with the sole proviso that it go to each child´s education at a public, charter, or private school. No restrictions on the type of school, or the religious or secular nature thereof. Even as we need to trust parents to decide how to raise their own children, we need also to trust parents to decide how to educate their own children.
Some actually would seek out schools that focused on political correctness, and low standards, and enforced atheism. Not many, perhaps, but some.
Most would seek out schools which permitted free exercise of religion, and had high standards, good discipline, and caring-yet-structured teachers.
That latter model would do wonders for our nation.
And moreover, given his participation in a school-based Christmas play and penchant for quoting the Bible, I venture that Linus would agree.
Kidding, kidding, kidding.
If...govt. schools taught children...USSC requires EVOLUTION only---that ain't an IF---how about...is only taught our society would turn into communism?? How about an occult social workers/union label state---NAZIS!
Environmentalism is usually not based in science, it proposes a cohesive world view and an object of worship.
Eliminating Environmentalism's belief system from Public Schools would at least make the classroom neutral ground. Right now, Public Schooling is hostile to monotheism, and promotes the deification of the environment.
Give us a freaking break. I'm a Unitarian who hasn't been to church in over 20 years and I can see the hatred the government school establishment has toward religion. They may not promote atheism but they do try to undermine the faith parents wish to instill in their children.I suggest you take your "classy" and shove it up your upper west side subway. Say hi to Nadler for us.
There is just so much song and dance, shucking and jiving, wondering about this and that, pondering the truth of anything and everything , considering how everyone does it or reveling about how nice it is that someone doesn't have a freaking rational thought in their head that people will take.
The left is cooked. They are done. They can call themselves this and that, pretend to be Libertarians, constitutional conservatives or rainbow painted apes, but their day is over.
yes it is. it is also about morals.
read it again: tough
so, you support state funded schools. you want the state to have a say in the curriculum and not parents. you want those who do not use state supported schools to still pay for state sponsored schools.
sounds like you with the liberals on this issue. how many other issues are you with them as well...?
that is being done by my family, but it is a difficult battle when you are fighting a system.
to find the power, you follow the money. the money comes from the state, unfortunately. i can have some say in the schools, but to change the schools, the state has to change. a better solution is to get state funding out, although i could live with a voucher system.
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