The other day I posted about a teacher in Tennesee who was proselytizing in a class on the Christian Bible, going so far as to tell students to “torture” Jewish people by writing and saying the name of G-d outside of prayer, because this is considered a horrific sign of disrespect to religious Jews. Below is an article about a West Virginia school that forces unwilling students, including Jewish students, to attend a proselytization class where they are forced to hear Christian prayers and encouraged to baptize on the spot. Students are essentially locked in against their will.
When I was an elementary school, our teachers decided that it would be a great idea at Christmas time to force every student to sing “Christ the Savior is born,”which of course is oppressive and insulting to children of other faiths. Three of we Jewish students refused, and explained to our teachers and the principal that this was something a Jewish person simply could not sing. The result was that we were punished for disobedience, forced to stand silently outside the assembly room, and threatened with additional punishments. We stood firm.
Our parents and our rabbi met with the school officials and explained why we could not sing these kinds of songs. The school people felt the solution was to have us sing the offensive lyrics, but add a Hanukkah song. Our parents and the rabbi explained that we didn’t want that, we didn’t want any religion in a schools, and while there were ways to teach children about different religions, this was not the way.
We graduated that elementary school, went on to a junior high with a Jewish principal, and that kind of nonsense ended for us. Two years later, in Abington School District v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203 (1963), the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that school sponsored Bible reading in public schools was unconstitutional. My young friends and I were right, as were our parents and our rabbi. The school boards of America were getting it all wrong and didn’t understand the First Amendment.
Sounds like they still don’t. Instead of teaching the Bible, schools ought to teach the Constitution.
Here is what the schools of America need to teach: the U.S. Constitution. First the teachers, administrators and politicians need to go back to school and learn what it says.
Thank you. When i was in first grade, they read David’s ps instead. I guess even before the Supremes you had an effect. Of course this was still offensive to religions other than the Judeo – christian religions. It of course still violated the Constitution.