Religion and Education

My initial thought about the moment of silence case was one of amazement. I think it is wild some of the things people try to draw up a case about. A moment of silence is just an expression for a period of silent deliberation. People can choose how and what they do during this time. Some ways people choose to aknowledge the moment of silence is through: prayer, reflection, meditation, or to just stand. Its just a good way to show respect in some cases and a great way to start a day. Personally, I do not agree that having a moment of silence is a form of religion. It is up to each individual how they plan on using that time. Usually a moment of silence only last for one to two minutes. I really think in some situations parents have too much say in what is going on in schools. They are coming up with lawsuits left and right. Education is far too important to be worried about how an indidvidual spends their moment of silence.
The Pledge of Allegiance is just pledging your loyalty to your nation (U.S.). Reciting the pledge of allegiance I think may be a little different because of all the different religions. In the case of Gobitas, they are in the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses, a group whose beliefs prohibit swearing loyalty to any power lesser than God, and who objected to policies in public schools requiring students to recite the Pledge. I had a student who was not allowed to say the pledge about three years ago. I didn’t know why and she didn’t either. All she said was that my parents told me not participate. To me that is a problem…her parents should have explained to her their reason in why they did not want her reciting the pledge. Their situation was so strict that I called them before we discussed particular subjects in class in which was part of the curriculum. Her parents did not object to that because we were not “worshipping” a particular thing. That was a different experience for me as 2nd year teacher when that happened. I didn’t want to say the wrong thing.
In both cases: A moment of silence and the reciting of the pledge is in my opinion just a sign of respect. Not a form of religion or asking that you worship a particular thing.