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    Forcing Religion in Public Schools is not Frowned on in Mississippi. I'm Shocked.

    By Ramona on Sun, 04/28/2013 - 7:54am | Politics, Religion
     

    So one day somebody at Northwest Rankin High School in Flowood, Mississippi came up with the idea to hold a series of mandatory Christian assemblies, where students would be required to watch a Christian video and listen to ministers (and fellow students) from the Pinelake Baptist Church preach to them about the importance of being a Christian. 

    Now, it isn't so much that someone in a public taxpayer-funded secular school came up with the idea...off-the-wall ideas are everywhere. It's that so many others thought the idea was a good one.  They thought it was such a good idea, in fact, that part of the plan was to station teachers and parents at the doors so that no kid could escape leave.  When some of the students tried to leave, according to the complaint, Officer White, the truancy officer, "harassed them and told them to sit down".  When some of them tried to go from their classrooms to the library instead, Officer White was on it.  They were herded to the assembly.

    The complaint says that over the three assemblies there were anywhere from 20 to 30 staff members in attendance, along with anywhere from five to 10 of the student church representatives' parents. So, in essence, (no, in fact) the kids in that public school were forced to listen to the preaching of a particular brand of a particular religion, and--get this--nobody in charge thought there was anything wrong with that.

    It wasn't a one-time fluke of a thing.  As noted, it happened at least three times, starting on April 9.  At least three times preachers were invited into a public school assembly and at least three times the students at Northwest Rankin were pulled out of their classes and required to attend.

    Finally, one of the kids taped a portion of the assembly and it found its way to the American Humanist Association.  Now it's a First Amendment issue, along with another chance at embarrassing a heretofore oblivious sorry mess of an American state--futile as that might be.

    Some of us will be shaking our heads over this, tsk tsking all over the place, but who wants to bet nothing much will happen here?  At most, they'll have to agree to stop holding Christian assemblies and that will give them a chance to scream about freedom of religion.  We'll be seeing those posters and tee shirts where God is sad about not being allowed in schools, and anybody who sees what happened at Northwest Rankin High School as a bad thing will be reminded that the lesson is an innocent one about Jesus' love so who but a liberal commie atheist would complain about that?
     


     Well, I would.  And I did.  And I will.  Because it isn't about God, it's about religion.  And because forcing any religion in public schools is frowned on in a country where freedoms are supposed to be cherished.  All across this free country laws upholding fundamentalist Christian values are being written in states where those groups have gained a foothold.  They're re-interpreting the constitution to read that while no national religion can be established, it's perfectly okay for states to have some wiggle room regarding somebody's idea of faith-based values.

    You might have seen that North Carolina was in the news last week over a state religion proposal by a couple of Tea Party legislators.  It was quashed the next day but there's something just weird about a headline that reads, "North Carolina Won't Establish State Religion."  (Alrighty then.  Next?)

    Apparently there's nothing mandatory about elected or even school officials being made to understand the reasons why certain clauses in our particular constitution came to be. 

    We should probably work on fixing that.

    Topics: 
    Politics
    Religion

    Comments

    It's no wonder so many parents are home-schooling their children.  Public education money, should be paid directly to the parents, who then can choose to associate and pool their resources with like minded parents; as long as the instruction meets public standards. When I was going to school,  I would have preferred not to have had to deal with ideological indoctrination; religious or nationalistic, both groups want the kids early on, when they are the most vulnerable and formative. Teaching them how to be good soldiers, for the cause.


    by Resistance on Mon, 04/29/2013 - 1:00am

    So you're all for the neo-Nazi parents homeschooling their kids?


    by Elusive Trope on Mon, 04/29/2013 - 7:14am

    In neo-nazism?  I would think that they already are. The key questions from a general society perspective would be 1) whether or not they are qualified to homeschool the basics or the Common Core as it is becoming known; and, 2) whether or not they teach violent activism.

     


    by EmmaZahn on Mon, 04/29/2013 - 11:36am

    Public schooling is essential to any society in so many ways, we can't just make up the rules and hope for the best.  Send public school money to the parents and hope they'll do the right thing?  Who administers the chaos that ensues?

    Our public education system will never be perfect but it doesn't help that there are so many factions looking to destroy it.  Basic education is a right in this country.  We pay taxes to ensure that every kid gets a reasonable chance at learning to their own capabilities.  We need to work at preserving that right and keeping it pure.  What happened in that Mississippi school hits most of us hard because it goes against the rights and protections those kids are entitled to.

    Every time something happens in a public school that veers from our basic education expectations, those who want to see public education abolished jump on it, trying to make the case for a quick death.

    Public schooling is more than simply sitting in a classroom.  Each school is a small society.  We learn that we're not all the same and the hope is that in those few years we'll learn how to accept differences and to live together.  We learn about dealing with challenges and even unfairness and we begin to understand our place in the world. 

    And for some kids it's a haven from their home life.  For some kids it's their only chance, however slim. I never want to see that taken away from them. 

     


    by Ramona on Mon, 04/29/2013 - 8:54am

    You raise many good points in your defense, but  can you tell me, what the subsidy is per student, State and Federal?   Would tutors per child or for a small group of students, cost less than current school costs? ......Are there not, many retired teachers, willing to work, into their retirement years, without the stress imposed with public school educations, large class sizes? ........ . Factoring in School district administration costs, maintenance, brick and mortar and all the other support systems, before a book is even cracked open, to teach.......  If you want your kids to go to the public school, that's your choice and your children can associate with any and many you may not prefer they hang out with...... If you want to send your kids to a church school, that should be your choice and then you might have some chance to intervene and protect your children, to help them avoid bad associations......... Education is important, but it is not the most important, aspect of giving our kids a chance......   Public education sounds great; but one size doesn't fit all, but everyone is forced to fund public education. If the law requires, every child must be educated; why doesn't private education, fit the need ? But to force everyone, to fund another's preference, is not freedom., no matter how noble sounding.


    by Resistance on Mon, 04/29/2013 - 10:46pm

    Church schools and private schools are common in this country.  Home schooling is becoming more and more common. Many parents choose to educate their children outside the public school system.  That's their choice and always has been.

    The public schools are taxpayer-funded and thus are free.  The others pay tuition.  Again, their choice.  But we created a public school system so that every child could be guaranteed a basic education based on universal guidelines.  The premise is based on fairness and equality and I venture that for all its flaws it's a much better system than most church schools offer.

    I went to a church school where the class monster was the son of a preacher-man.  He scared me and many others to death but we had no choice but to associate with him.  So much for that notion.

    It was a school, too, where the curriculum was loose, where four grades were in one classroom, where the minister-teacher-administrator was a modern-day Martin Luther who hated all Catholics and never missed a chance to let us know.  Since my dad was Catholic I had a hard time respecting him for that.

    The point is, this argument goes nowhere.  For every public school incident someone can come up with a private school equivalent.  It's not about you or me or that guy over there.  It's about what's best for the majority.  We pay for public education so that all kids can have a chance to be educated.  I would think as a nation we would be pretty proud of that.

     


    by Ramona on Tue, 04/30/2013 - 6:38am

    Public education is not free. Thats why I beleive every parent should get the"taxpayer funded money" if it's all about spreading the benefits delivered, by the collecting of  taxes, from both the rich and the middle class. All proceeds to support core education programs . Let the market place, determine which teachers are in high demand. Not 100K per year administrators...... Individual teachers might find; they can also teach from 10 year old text books,  instead of the perpetual changing of the text books for the benefit of some special interest group. .......  Weekly tests, like the IOWA test,  to determine the pace and the outcome, could be given at any large assembly hall or armory; rather than some yearly designed Taj Mahal school, with some dignataries name on it.  ....Deliver Education, 24/7 schooling by tutors, to work around the parents work time, rather than the other way aound. ....The teachers and the students would not be captive to the NEA with it's bureaucratic self preservation....... Secretary of Education is the only administrator we need to assure the core curriculum and if an invidual parent wants more LET THEM PAY FOR IT........  If the NFL, MLB, or the NBA, with their billions of dollars and publicly financed stadiums  wants to support, their future money making stars, let them pay for it....... School lunches could be supported, by the same group, that provides Meals on Wheels to our elderly. Both groups combined to form a larger coalition, to garner much needed funding. One administrator for both groups. Look at the money, middle class taxpayers would save. We dont need a sequester, we just need to think smarter and get rid of the wasteful programs.  


    by Resistance on Tue, 04/30/2013 - 4:02pm

    Maybe we should each get our share of infrastructure money, too, and build our own roads.  According to gov't specifications, of course.  We could be our own contractors and eliminate a whole lot of red tape and make it impossible for unions to form.  We could pay our sub-contractors whatever we wanted and. . .oh, never mind.

    I personally think public school teachers are underpaid and public schools should have more money to get the job done.  So we're at a stalemate on that point.

    But let's look at Meals on Wheels:  That program is being decimated everywhere because. . .guess why?. . .the money for that program is being cut.

    Since 1972 the Administration on Aging has provided federal funding for senior nutrition, and today volunteers from some 5,000 Meals On Wheels affiliates across the country distribute a million meals a day.

    But federal funding for senior nutrition has been reduced by budget cuts known as sequestration, meaning less food for old people here and elsewhere. The White House has said the cuts would mean 4 million fewer meals for seniors this year, while the Meals On Wheels Association of America put the loss at 19 million meals. In general, the federal government subsidizes only a portion of the cost of every meal, so whether individual seniors will stop receiving food really depends on the circumstances of whatever local agency serves them.

    Michele Daley, director of nutrition services at the Local Office on Aging, which serves Roanoke, Alleghany, Botetourt and Craig counties in Virginia, said the agency expects to receive $95,000 less in federal funds this year (it has an operating budget of $1 million). They're gradually reducing the number of people receiving daily meals from 650 to 600 as a result of the budget cuts. Already, the office has planned to stop handing out most emergency meals -- bags of shelf-stable items like canned beans distributed in advance of snowstorms and holidays. And they've instituted a waiting list.

    "We've never had a waiting list," Daley said. "This is the first time ever and it's a direct result of sequestration."

    I've veered from the original thought, I admit, but there are some programs that should be sacrosanct in a country as wealthy as ours.  Public education is one of them.  Meals on Wheels is another.  And welfare and food stamps--ditto.

     


    by Ramona on Tue, 04/30/2013 - 8:12pm

    People pooling their "infrastructure money" might have protected us from unscrupulous developers/contractors, buying the commissioners votes, on that new urban sprawl project. Putting money in only the developers and the commissioners pocket....... There are national standards that must be adhered to; in regards to Road design and safety, these require a review, before a permit can be issued. It's time we take back the power of OUR PURSE. We don't need no stinking, thieving politician or a group of politicians, with their own agenda, to rob us, to control us or deprive us.  if you want better schools in your state, have your citizens pass the collection plate. Federal Core level guidelines, RULE what is expected. and if the elementary things are not met, ALL Federal money will be withheld.


    by Resistance on Tue, 04/30/2013 - 8:44pm

     OT a little...I saw this the other day in Kos dairies that caught my eye.  It is a 4th grade science test in a S. Carolina Christian School.  It really makes you wonder about Fundalementalist Christians and their ignorance.  They insist that faith has to be taught as fact.   http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/04/26/1205102/-South-Carolina-Christian-School-Fourth-Grade-Science-Test      


    by trkingmomoe on Mon, 04/29/2013 - 2:36am

    That reads like an Onion spoof.  Is it really real?


    by Ramona on Mon, 04/29/2013 - 4:21pm

    I grew up with this stuff.

    I have written time and time again about poor sick women coming into my classroom and telling me that the end of the world is nigh.

    And then, later on, I would be left at school alone with the other Catholics (I am sure Jews were not allowed in the school anyway!) whilst Protestant kids went to some Protestant Catechism. haahah

    But the tests, the tests never skirted the obvious. Ever to my mind anyway!

    But it is up to parents to home school their children when they come home from fraudulent education.

    That is a fact!

    I don't think this piece linked by Momoe is Onion at all; although it should have been. hahahah

    I have been reading about the Texas Text/Test wars for years now; Texas being the home of millions of published text books.

    This is getting ridiculous.

    PARENTS BEWARE.

    But then again parents should always beware.

     


    by Richard Day on Mon, 04/29/2013 - 4:30pm

    Yes it is real.  There is a fellow that goes around and preaches this stuff.  He was on over the air TV a couple of years ago when my little grand childern was channel surfing.  They stopped to watch him because he was talking about dinosaurs with large visual aids with people riding them.   The kids thought this was great.  So we had to spend sometime at the library getting books about dinosaurs and they learned that not one book there showed that.  It didn't matter if anyone was there because science can tell how old the bones are.  The books did talk about carbon dating. These people believe the earth is only 6 thousand years old and God created it in 7 days.   Many home schooled childern are taught creationism as well as private school run by fundies.  


    by trkingmomoe on Mon, 04/29/2013 - 11:13pm