Posted on 12/24/2007 6:18:30 AM PST by wintertime
When high school freshman Dawn Sherman learned that Illinois had a new law requiring public schools to provide a moment of silence each day for "reflection and student prayer," she was outraged.
Not because the law meant lost learning time in her honors math class -- which would be 15 seconds shorter -- but because "it was clear that we're supposed to sit and pray, or sit and watch other people pray," said Dawn, who is an atheist.
Along with her father, Rob, the Buffalo Grove High student has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the law, which some Illinois school boards have raced to embrace and others have defied.
"I don't go to school to talk to God," she said. "I'm in school to learn."
The debate reflects a long-standing national fight over school prayer. The Supreme Court in 1962 ruled that official sponsorship or endorsement of prayer in schools is a violation of the 1st Amendment. Over time, state lawmakers found they were allowed to require moments of silence as long as students were not forced or encouraged to pray.
But there were limits: In the mid-1980s, an Alabama mandatory "moment of silence" law was found unconstitutional by the high court because "there was a clear legislative record that they were trying to advocate getting prayer back into schools," said Charles C. Haynes, a senior scholar at the First Amendment Center in Washington.
(snip)
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia also require such moments of quiet in the classroom. In more than 20 other states, teachers are allowed to decide whether they want such a classroom time-out.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Funny thing about the majority of "pro-gov't school types" on this board...for every nasty post, rude comment and hateful innuendo here, we let it go with stride.
I defend my profession, yes I do, especially when I ask, like I am about to do now, for concrete evidence of your information.
Could you please provide me with a link or a study linking loss of faith from a "government school" vs a home school situation?
Merry Christmas to you and yours, and remember Who is the reason.:)
She could spend the 15 seconds picking her nose! /s
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Exactly! Atheistic Marxism!
And,,,there are armies of so-called Christian teachers willing to support, aid, and abet the Marxist agenda for a paycheck. What is this teaching all the students, both Christian and non-Christian? It is teaching that so-called Christians are wimps! It is teaching that they are prostitutes for a paycheck, and sly sneaks for trying to hide in a grain of salty Christianity in the curriculum once in a while.
Geeze! If Christ spits lukewarm Christians out of His mouth, is it any wonder non-Christians do as well? Is it any wonder that 85% of the kids from Christian homes spit Christianity out of their mouth within 2 years of graduating from their Marxist indoctrination camps?
It is my opinion, that so-called Christian teachers are actually making the job for true missionaries harder. Their lukewarm, sneaky, prostituting behavior that they model to American kids in school must all be unlearned. Why? Because Example isn’t the best teacher, it is the only teacher. What sort of example for Christianity are these teachers setting?
Sounds like she hasn't learned much about getting along with her fellow citizens. She wasn't forced to pray, nor did she have to watch anyone else pray. She could have closed her eyes and spent that measly 15 seconds going over in her mind, what was coming up in her first class. Just think, she'd have been that much MORE ahead of those religious wing-nuts in her Honors class, because she'd have had some quiet time to study while they were (presumably) praying.
What a twit.
Interesting statement.
What would be even more interesting would be if you, glide625, could point to some posts that attack anti-public school advocates. Show us a post or two where Christian home schoolers, on this site, are called wicked, sinners, child-abusers, naive, dumb, evil, greedy, stupid, etc. I bet I can show you about 50 or more pages where Christian public school teachers are called those things.
No public school teacher or advocate is going to slam anyone for wanting to homeschool their children, at least not in the way that public school parents and teachers get slammed.
I teach where I teach because I believe it is the right place for me right now. Not because I'm cooperating with the atheists, not because I'm greedy, but because I am where I am supposed to be.
In Virginia, we also have the 'moment of silence.' Every morning, the kids and teachers pause to reflect. Sometimes the principal mentions something for the students to reflect upon, sometimes she doesn't.
It would be nice if the vitriol heaped upon Christian school teachers would just stop - especially the attacks coming from people that would not want the same words directed back towards them.
Merry Christmas to you and yours. May the New Year bring you peace and prosperity.
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Why should the religious be relegated to a 15 second ghetto? Why are lukewarm Christians cooperating with this?
SuzieQ, I don’t think you get it.
Government schools and the First Amendment and government schools are utterly incompatible! Government schools are a freedom of conscience nightmare!
It is the government schools that must be shut down.
Merry Chrtistmas!
Agreed. I’m just wondering if it’s really her or her father that’s behind the suit, that’s all.
Because, according to the 9th circuit court, that's not an unconstitutional establishment of religion.
</sarc>
Can you provide the link for that?
I wonder if she couldn’t just sit and pick her nose for FIFTEEN SECONDS and let the rest go? But NO, if it offends Miss Atheist and her Always-Winter-Never-Christmas dad, well then, it’s gotta go. Whiney minorities ALWAYS rule.
?
Atheisim: the stupid religion.
Marathoner, I think it is quite interesting that we both had the same vision of how she could spend that 15 sec. hardihar. deep thinking going on here at FR.
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Atheism is the religion of the government schools. 180 days a year, 6 to 7 hours a day, for 12 years.
Believers are relegated to a 15 second ghetto.
Solution: Close down the government schools! They are a First Amendment and freedom of conscience nightmare!
The same to you and yours!
Maybe I have had too much Egg Nog, or perhaps since I am attempting to do something crazy like spend quality time with my family I have completely lost where exactly it says that 85% of the children loose faith after being in government schools.
What I do see, is a well-written letter that rehashes most of the same arguments I hear on this board, and very little in the way of actual evidence, but rather a chance to vent.
Come to think of it, ALL religions are banned in schools, Buddists, Muslims, Christianity, etc. I really don’t see many folks who are not Christian coming to my school in S. Georgia and try to expouse anything but and live, but hey, I live in the shore ‘nuff Bible belt.
Anyway, I still am not convinced that what is there has any proof of children leaving the faith. I challenge you to show it to me, or give me something more substantial.
Merry Christmas! I am off to see my extended family, for Christmas and read Luke 2:1-10.:)
Anytime that you are in the company of someone like Dawn Sherman and they do the tiniest thing for which you can say, “Thank you”, change your response to “Bless you or Bless you, Child of God”.
It drives them right out of their mind to be in the company of a believer. They will avoid your presence as if you had just been sprayed by a skunk making both of your lices much easier.
Merry Christmas
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