Religion in school

[crystalonyx]

Wait a minute-- kids can't pray out loud at lunch? That's a tad strict, I think.

I could understand if Voodoo worshippers couldn't kill animals at lunch....but praying out loud in a noisy lunchroom....I don't see the problem with that.

Yes, but what if you have a group of students who start doing it? Where do you draw the line once you allow it?

 

[wednesday]

Yes, but what if you have a group of students who start doing it? Where do you draw the line once you allow it?

So you're alllowing one religions worship, but not that of another? it should be all or nothing, and since religion can be considered offensive in some forms, removing religion all together would be more suitable to a multicultural learning environment.

 

[crystalonyx]

So you're alllowing one religions worship, but not that of another? it should be all or nothing, and since religion can be considered offensive in some forms, removing religion all together would be more suitable to a multicultural learning environment.

Where did I say I was allowing any religion in schools, I don't think any prayers should be spoken outloud, from any religion, only silently.

 

[wednesday]

Where did I say I was allowing any religion in schools, I don't think any prayers should be spoken outloud, from any religion, only silently.

My apologies it was the person you quoted, not you who said that, sorry. I agree with you, not that im offended by religion, i just think if people are so easily offended by my lack of religion that they shouldn't be able to pray either in public.

 

[sandandfoam]

My apologies it was the person you quoted, not you who said that, sorry. I agree with you, not that im offended by religion, i just think if people are so easily offended by my lack of religion that they shouldn't be able to pray either in public.

I agree. We live in a multicultural world. Religion is a private matter, it has no place in schools.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

My apologies it was the person you quoted, not you who said that, sorry. I agree with you, not that im offended by religion, i just think if people are so easily offended by my lack of religion that they shouldn't be able to pray either in public.

Personally, I think personal expression is generally a good thing, including religious expression like prayer. As long as it's not forced on anyone or done by the public institution itself, I don't see the problem.

I think that slaughtering chickens would affect other students, so I can understand why it should be prohibited. There are other "grey region" cases, though, where I'm not sure: what's the fundamental difference between Christian students praying in the cafeteria and Rastafarian students smoking sacramental ganja under a tree outside? What's the difference between the one student keeping a Bible in his backpack and the other one keeping a small bag of marijuana?

 

[wednesday]

Personally, I think personal expression is generally a good thing, including religious expression like prayer. As long as it's not forced on anyone or done by the public institution itself, I don't see the problem.

I think that slaughtering chickens would affect other students, so I can understand why it should be prohibited. There are other "grey region" cases, though, where I'm not sure: what's the fundamental difference between Christian students praying in the cafeteria and Rastafarian students smoking sacramental ganja under a tree outside? What's the difference between the one student keeping a Bible in his backpack and the other one keeping a small bag of marijuana?

What you say is true but i believe it should be tolerate all religions or no religions. Imagine explaining to a voodoo child that christians can do what they want but your religion is not accepted, thats what i was geeting at. Theres no harm in prayer, most people just don't want to hear what comes out of their mouths.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

What you say is true but i believe it should be tolerate all religions or no religions. Imagine explaining to a voodoo child that christians can do what they want but your religion is not accepted, thats what i was geeting at.

I think we should give reasonable accommodation to all religions. If some child actually did want to slaughter chickens on school property for religious reasons, this would need:

- safe storage for the live chickens
- a proper facility to actually perform the ritual sacrifice
- a way to clean up and safely dispose of what's left over
- (probably) inspections and approvals from the Health Department for all of this to ensure it was done safely and properly

I think that it's unreasonable to expect a public school to provide all this to a student.

OTOH, things like Christian prayer (which requires no more room or effort than the school would have provided anyhow) or Muslim prayer (which can use a classroom that just happens to be unoccupied at the time) take no more effort or expense at all.

To me, freedom of religion means that nobody will stop you from practicing your beliefs; it doesn't mean that a public school has to provide a chapel, temple, ritual sacrifice room, "Bible study time" or anything else to you.

 

[crystalonyx]

I think we should give reasonable accommodation to all religions. If some child actually did want to slaughter chickens on school property for religious reasons, this would need:

- safe storage for the live chickens
- a proper facility to actually perform the ritual sacrifice
- a way to clean up and safely dispose of what's left over
- (probably) inspections and approvals from the Health Department for all of this to ensure it was done safely and properly

I think that it's unreasonable to expect a public school to provide all this to a student.

OTOH, things like Christian prayer (which requires no more room or effort than the school would have provided anyhow) or Muslim prayer (which can use a classroom that just happens to be unoccupied at the time) take no more effort or expense at all.

To me, freedom of religion means that nobody will stop you from practicing your beliefs; it doesn't mean that a public school has to provide a chapel, temple, ritual sacrifice room, "Bible study time" or anything else to you.

It has nothing to do with accomodation, but everything to do with the fact that allowing prayer would lead the majority religion to quickly dominate the lunchroom, making students of other faiths feel uneasy.

Keep religious expression out of the public sector, and in churches or at home, where it belongs.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

It has nothing to do with accomodation, but everything to do with the fact that allowing prayer would lead the majority religion to quickly dominate the lunchroom, making students of other faiths feel uneasy.

And not saying grace before lunch would make many Christians uneasy, I would think.

Keep religious expression out of the public sector, and in churches or at home, where it belongs.

Since we don't generally limit expression in other ways in the public sector, why single out religion? I think the expression of political, philosophical, or (at least in a high school) musical ideas has just as much potential to create "unease" as religious ideas do. We don't limit them, so why limit religion?

 

[logician]

And not saying grace before lunch would make many Christians uneasy, I would think.


Since we don't generally limit expression in other ways in the public sector, why single out religion? I think the expression of political, philosophical, or (at least in a high school) musical ideas has just as much potential to create "unease" as religious ideas do. We don't limit them, so why limit religion?

Religion is by nature a private affair, so is politics to some extent, in any case nobody is generally campaigning during the lunch hour, if they did, I'm certain it would be nixed.