Prayer in Schools

I bet that got your attention.  You are probably either really for it or really against it.  Either way here is an interesting little story from across the pond for you.  This story talks about children who after a lesson on Islam were asked to pray to Allah.  Ummm what?  That would soooo never happen here.  Additionally, they were punished when the refused.  Can you believe that a school actually disciplined children for not wanting to recite something that was showing allegiance to a god they did not worship (never you mind that Allah and the Christian God are the same, from a historical and theological stand point anyway)?

I bet you’re wondering where I’m going…well I’m almost there :)  American schools do this ALL the time.  It is called the Pledge of Allegiance.  Does the phrase “one nation under God” sound familiar?  Hmmm??? Whose God do you think that little bit of wording is referring to?  The Christian God.  That isn’t mandatory, you say?  Oh really?? Every principal I’ve ever worked for told me to make the students say it through example or intimidation or whatnot.  Of course, I didn’t do it.  As a matter of fact I’d stand and be respectfully silent every morning as it was said.  The students finally got around to asking me why I didn’t say it and I said I had a variety of reasons.  The one I usually gave was that I once had a student from another country (in this case Canada) who at the end of one school year asked me what the pledge meant and why we said it every day.  I asked her why she’d done it all year long if she didn’t know and she said she’d been afraid not to because she thought it was mandatory.  She thought it was mandatory because in practice it is even if it isn’t in law.  Peer pressure at its best, people.  I explained what it was etc and told her she didn’t have to say it if she didn’t want to (boy would I get chewed out about that if it got back to our superintendent).  From that moment on I refused to be a part in the brainwashing/peer pressure culture of our school. 

All rambling aside, for those of you who were outraged that a child would be ‘forced’ to pray to Allah please take a moment to reflect on the Pledge of Allegiance.  How would you feel if it said “one nation under Allah” (Allah just means God, folks)  Would you be comfortable with your child being pressured to stand and say the pledge if it was rewritten to say Allah?  No?  Then why is it ok to pressure students to say the pledge now??