I've been working on getting my thought on this one straight for about two weeks now (thus, the lack of posts... You get two, two, two eps in one for Lost on Thursday!) and I was asked by Larry to track down some facts... So I did and here's the first Rant in a Quite a while....
...................well, that was yucky! I wrote and wrote and wrote and well, didn't like what I put down............ so here's my rant......
I really hate poetry emails! Hate 'em! Usually because they fall into a couple of general categories. 1) God loves you and I love you and here's a poem I plagiarised off the Internet that tells you so. If you love anyone else, you'll send this email to everyone! 2) I've been wronged and I'm going to let everyone know about it by writing poetry. I'm sure that will change the minds of the people that wronged me and make things right again. 3) I'm a victim of teenage angst and felt compelled to put my anger and wrath into a poem that I'm really proud of, or finally.... 4) I got an e-mail from someone who fell into these categories and felt it was my civic duty to pass this message along, regardless of whether or not I looked up the plausibility of said message or that there are actually facts involved.
Whew! Glad to get that off my chest!
Anyway, I received an email from my cousin's son about two weeks ago... He's a great kid. Really he is, but this message fell into category 4 and was a derivation of category 3. Someone, somewhere, wrote a poem about the trials and tribulation of a Christian teenager trying to regain the right to pray in school. Problem is, you can't regain something you have never lost.
Now being former teacher, I immediately started rolling my eyes and remembered my frequent comment to students about to receive a nice long Algebra test and looking up as if to ask for divine intervention... "You are welcome to pray to whatever God you choose, but I don't think he going to be any help with solving quadratic equations." That was my stance. Pray all you want... who knows, it might really help, but I doubt it. You saying a prayer in my class is fine by me. First Amendment says so and I decided that before I start ranting, I would run it by Larry. He's been through the AG seminary and I thought that he would probably verify my position.... I was wrong. I'll let him deliver his take if he wants, but that got me thinking that maybe I should check my facts.
What I found was that I was mostly correct. A student's right to pray, or right to not pray, in school, during school hours, is protected under the Establishment Clause. In this same manner, a school is not allowed to tell you how, when, where, or if you can pray since in doing so would "respect an establishment of religion or prohibit the free exercise thereof". Therefore, during lunch, getting ready to bat or shoot a free throw, or just before that big Algebra test, pray all you want! Nobody can stop you! And if they try, well, contact your local ACLU office, they will be glad to help you file the appropriate papers! Check it out!
I was surprised that there seems to be two areas where you, as a student, may not be allowed to pray. And maybe is the key word. First is graduation and this is the grey area. Graduating top of your class and feel that a prayer is appropriate for your speech? Go ahead and write it up, but you might want to check the School Boards policies. If there is a policy that all speeches be secular in nature, the school can ask you to remove the prayer, but if not, you are good to go. Second, and to me a big surprise was Sports events and the pre-game ceremonies. It was my understanding that student led prayers before the game were OK, but I was wrong. In 2000, the SCOTUS decided that when a student is allowed by the school district to use the Public Announcement system to lead a prayer, the school is sanctioning the prayer. This is not allowed. Wanna get around it? Stand in a huddle on the sidelines with your friends and pray out loud, no one can stop you. Get your fellow athletes in an group, kneeling on the sidelines and you, not the coach, lead a prayer. You'll be fine.
Want more info on what is and is not allowed in the way of Prayer in Schools? Check out this article written by the ACLU (yeah, that ACLU) and a lot of mainstream and non-mainstream religions (from Baptists and Lutherans to Mormans and Scientology!). It covers topics like Teaching Religion (which is allowed!) to See you at the Pole to Dress codes. Great article!
So... Before you send me another "Poem to ease your heart" email, please consider a few things... Is the original source reliable? Am I sure what they are saying is accurate? Did I even check? I don't mind at all if you feel the message is real and important, just take a few minutes, do your homework and we'll all fell better about it.
Start the flames!
p.s. I originally had all my sources listed in the post, but decided against listing them for the sake of space. If replies warrant, I will be glad to post the links to my findings so they can be scrutinized.
...................well, that was yucky! I wrote and wrote and wrote and well, didn't like what I put down............ so here's my rant......
I really hate poetry emails! Hate 'em! Usually because they fall into a couple of general categories. 1) God loves you and I love you and here's a poem I plagiarised off the Internet that tells you so. If you love anyone else, you'll send this email to everyone! 2) I've been wronged and I'm going to let everyone know about it by writing poetry. I'm sure that will change the minds of the people that wronged me and make things right again. 3) I'm a victim of teenage angst and felt compelled to put my anger and wrath into a poem that I'm really proud of, or finally.... 4) I got an e-mail from someone who fell into these categories and felt it was my civic duty to pass this message along, regardless of whether or not I looked up the plausibility of said message or that there are actually facts involved.
Whew! Glad to get that off my chest!
Anyway, I received an email from my cousin's son about two weeks ago... He's a great kid. Really he is, but this message fell into category 4 and was a derivation of category 3. Someone, somewhere, wrote a poem about the trials and tribulation of a Christian teenager trying to regain the right to pray in school. Problem is, you can't regain something you have never lost.
Now being former teacher, I immediately started rolling my eyes and remembered my frequent comment to students about to receive a nice long Algebra test and looking up as if to ask for divine intervention... "You are welcome to pray to whatever God you choose, but I don't think he going to be any help with solving quadratic equations." That was my stance. Pray all you want... who knows, it might really help, but I doubt it. You saying a prayer in my class is fine by me. First Amendment says so and I decided that before I start ranting, I would run it by Larry. He's been through the AG seminary and I thought that he would probably verify my position.... I was wrong. I'll let him deliver his take if he wants, but that got me thinking that maybe I should check my facts.
What I found was that I was mostly correct. A student's right to pray, or right to not pray, in school, during school hours, is protected under the Establishment Clause. In this same manner, a school is not allowed to tell you how, when, where, or if you can pray since in doing so would "respect an establishment of religion or prohibit the free exercise thereof". Therefore, during lunch, getting ready to bat or shoot a free throw, or just before that big Algebra test, pray all you want! Nobody can stop you! And if they try, well, contact your local ACLU office, they will be glad to help you file the appropriate papers! Check it out!
I was surprised that there seems to be two areas where you, as a student, may not be allowed to pray. And maybe is the key word. First is graduation and this is the grey area. Graduating top of your class and feel that a prayer is appropriate for your speech? Go ahead and write it up, but you might want to check the School Boards policies. If there is a policy that all speeches be secular in nature, the school can ask you to remove the prayer, but if not, you are good to go. Second, and to me a big surprise was Sports events and the pre-game ceremonies. It was my understanding that student led prayers before the game were OK, but I was wrong. In 2000, the SCOTUS decided that when a student is allowed by the school district to use the Public Announcement system to lead a prayer, the school is sanctioning the prayer. This is not allowed. Wanna get around it? Stand in a huddle on the sidelines with your friends and pray out loud, no one can stop you. Get your fellow athletes in an group, kneeling on the sidelines and you, not the coach, lead a prayer. You'll be fine.
Want more info on what is and is not allowed in the way of Prayer in Schools? Check out this article written by the ACLU (yeah, that ACLU) and a lot of mainstream and non-mainstream religions (from Baptists and Lutherans to Mormans and Scientology!). It covers topics like Teaching Religion (which is allowed!) to See you at the Pole to Dress codes. Great article!
So... Before you send me another "Poem to ease your heart" email, please consider a few things... Is the original source reliable? Am I sure what they are saying is accurate? Did I even check? I don't mind at all if you feel the message is real and important, just take a few minutes, do your homework and we'll all fell better about it.
Start the flames!
p.s. I originally had all my sources listed in the post, but decided against listing them for the sake of space. If replies warrant, I will be glad to post the links to my findings so they can be scrutinized.
Comments
A very interesting post. I hate those e-mails like that also. I love to get personal e-mails but I hate when people send me all sorts of junk. Poetry is a very special thing to me but not so called poetry that is other people's attempt to convince me of their agendas, even if I agree with it. I can not believe that some people are still send out the "Free M&Ms" e-mail.
I would like to see your documentation on religion and schools. It would help me to better understand what is and is not really legal and being said. I appreciate your help in pointing me to it.
I read the ACLU's site. I found it very interesting but not sure I really buy it from them. If that is true, I would say that the problem is schools are not abiding by the law. I know of several kids that have been silenced by schools.
Good thought provoking blog.
Many Christian student groups meet and pray together in school cafeterias during lunch time. That's their right. I think it would be very interesting, though, if large groups of students started unfolding prayer rugs in cafeterias during lunch time, knelt facing Mecca, and started to pray together in Arabic. How do you think THAT would be received in most communities?
Unfortunatley,
every person conflicted with deep emotion (happy or sad) thinks him or herself a poet, much to my chagrin.
Poetry can legitbe used to do
So all you Emmaline Grangerfords out there, keep right on writing trash poetry all you like. But don't send it to me. (E.G. is a character in Huck Finn, though I may have spelled her name wrong.)
And by the way, I can be a Christian even if I do not forward your fluffy, pink, tampon poetry to everyone I know.
(By the way, Brain, I am Larry Litle's friend, Chris. Enjoyed the rant.)
I like poetry, even some bad poetry is refreshing (it reminds you what good poetry really is). But the rant wasn't necessarily about the poem, it was first about the DAMN EMAIL it came in and second about the Misinformation about Prayer in Schools.