Associated Press – January 4, 2008
AUSTIN, Texas – Texas schoolchildren will continue to pray or meditate during a daily minute of silence after a federal court threw out a challenge to the state law.
The ruling issued Thursday stems from a complaint by a North Texas couple who say one of their children was told by an elementary school teacher to keep quiet because the minute is a “time for prayer.”
The complaint filed in 2006 by David and Shannon Croft names Gov. Rick Perry and the suburban Dallas school district the Crofts’ three children attend.
The 2003 law allows children to “reflect, pray, meditate or engage in any other silent activities” for one minute at the beginning of each school day.
U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn upheld the constitutionality of the law, concluding that “the primary effect of the statute is to institute a moment of silence, not to advance or inhibit religion.”
Dean Cook, the Crofts’ attorney, said he would read the opinion more closely and talk to the couple to decide whether to appeal.
“Obviously I’m disappointed with the opinion but I respect the judge and respect her opinion,” he said. “Hopefully someday, even if it is not us, the Supreme Court will take this up and decide in our favor.”
Perry said justice was served in the ruling. “Whether schoolchildren use their morning moment of silence to pray or to prepare for a pop quiz, tolerance and personal freedom are lessons that should be taught and exercised regardless of our environment,” the governor said.
Lisa Graybill, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, said even though Lynn found the language of the law neutral on religion, “we know that that intent (to put prayer back in school) is manifest in school districts across the state. We receive those kinds of complaints on a constant basis.”
“Judge Lynn clearly carefully examined the legislative history,” Graybill said. “We disagree with the outcome, but the judge herself said it’s a difficult and close question.”
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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posted January 7, 2008 at 4:23 pm
This issue teeters on the edge, but I would agree that there is nothing unconstitutional about it, provided the teachers are instructed to no longer declare that it is a time for prayer. It’s one thing to set aside a moment of reflection and say that praying is an activity one may choose to do during that time, but it’s another to have designated “prayer time” during school.
posted January 7, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Exactly so, Thelemite.
posted January 7, 2008 at 6:06 pm
It is a sticky situation…but leaving the word prayer out does make it a bit more tolerable. I used to teach 5 year olds. Try to get them to stand or sit for 1 minute, in silence!
posted January 7, 2008 at 7:04 pm
“…we know that that intent (to put prayer back in school) is manifest in school districts across the state. We receive those kinds of complaints on a constant basis.”
Well, of course, the problem with school prayer is that, in the old days, it was required, whether the student was atheist or Jewish or whatever. _Allowing_ prayer and _requiring_ prayer are two different things. (Though one minute hardly seems enough time for a very deep prayer, or certainly not meditation.)
God bless.
posted January 7, 2008 at 8:53 pm
We didn’t have kindergarten back in the 30′s in NJ public schools. I was five and half when I started lst grade. I remember we had quiet time before our class began. I don’t think it was more than two or three min. We all sat at our desks and were quiet. When I was in the 2nd. and 3rd. grade our teacher sat at her desk and said quiet time, and she read a stanza from either Proverbs or Psalms. I enjoyed it, nobody complained. In other words children need to slow down and then begin their studies. Each teacher did her own thing, and nobody complained. What a time to be a child!
posted January 7, 2008 at 9:58 pm
Henrietta,
That was a time when every child was most likely Christian, maybe Jewish. They wouldn’t have been bothered by either of those readings. These days though there are two many other religions to ever single one out.
The idea of a moment of silence wasn’t the problem. It was the teacher saying it was for prayer who was at fault.
I have to agree though that there is little point in doing one minute of anything with young elementary students. It takes longer than that for them to get quiet.
I have a spot in my room for the students to go for a moment when they get stressed out. It has a tape player with headphones and a wonderful Feng Shui CD I was given. They can do this for 5 minutes to calm down as long as that is what they are doing. Some need this more than others.
posted January 7, 2008 at 10:04 pm
No cry of foul here. I do think that young children need to be taught how to use the time. This does NOT NOT NOT mean they should be taught to pray. When I was in 6th grade and there was a moment of silence our teacher would put up a “significant” quote every morning. We were to begin the day copying the quote and writing a brief understanding of it. He suggested that if we had nothing else in our minds during the moment of silence, we could use it to think about the quote. It really did help. I think even little kids can handle something like that, though a minute is a very long time.
posted January 7, 2008 at 10:22 pm
You are right Ruairi, about our being close in religion back then. I practised taught 3rd. and 4th grade for a month in ’49, and when I told my classes to quiet down, they did. I taught children in sunday school in the ’7o’s and didn’t have a problem with attention with any of them. Something has happened in lack of authority with their parents and school teachers apparently in the last 30 yrs. Maybe it’s because the parents haven’t been consistantly with them and readily available to teach them to be respectful in relations with each other and others.
posted January 7, 2008 at 11:16 pm
I’m not going to look it up now but it’s my understanding it was Catholics who objected to prayer in school (or maybe who objected and had the clout to do something about it) because somehow it was always protestant prayers that got said.
posted January 8, 2008 at 1:47 pm
I really don’t have a problem with the 1 minute to “reflect, pray, meditate or engage in any other silent activities.” If some of the kids choose to pray, that’s fine and whether it’s 1 minute or 1 hour, the prayer doesn’t have to be “deep” to be effective. My comment is on what the teacher said and how it was handled by the parents and/or the school district. It seems that this matter couldn’ve been solved out of court by the school explaining to the teacher that this time was set aside for the kids to “reflect, pray, meditate or engage in any other silent activities” and not just for prayer. The teacher was wrong and she should’ve been corrected. The teacher should’ve been made to tell the parents that she was wrong and then ensured she didn’t use the same language again in her class. End of story!! It seems that something is missing from this article because I’m sure they parties had to get together to discuss the issue prior to this going to court. My take is that regardless of what the teacher said, this was an opportunity to change the law regarding the 1 minute so that regardless of what kids did during their 1 minute, they wouldn’t be allowed to pray.
posted January 8, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Having thought back, I distintly remember in 6th grade the whole class said the Lord’s Prayer every morning, in PUBLIC school and no one, thought anything unusual about. Of course, that was Kansas in the middle 50′s. Good thing times have changed….and that won’t happen anymore in a public school situation. (or shouldn’t anyway)
posted January 8, 2008 at 3:29 pm
“…so that regardless of what kids did during their 1 minute, they wouldn’t be allowed to pray…”
Where did you see that in the article? I suppose the Crofts wanted the law making the minute available declared invalid, thus disposing of the minute, but I saw nothing about kids not being allowed to pray quietly, just that they should not be told to use it to pray and of course than there should not be any organized prayer.
Surely we can all get behind those ideas.
posted January 8, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Henrietta,
You are so right about the behavior of children. I told the janitor cleaning my room today that it was amazing that there were no bloody heads in the trash because by the end of the day today thats what I felt like doing. Just ripping a few heads off, they wouldn’t miss them… they most certainly weren’t using them.
It just amazes me how rude these young children are. They are going to go no where in their lives if they keep this up. The worse ones I have are all girls. It doesn’t matter how many times you talk to the parents, the kids talk to the principal, timeouts, loss of recess or even superstitions. Days like to day make me want to find a new job. I can’t teach if all my time is spent on behavior issues. There is a lot more needed to be learned by these kids than meditation. They have no self control at all. They lie, steal, hurt each other and just are plain rude. One laughs in your face when your correcting her. And to top it off these are “church going religious families” talk about bullshit, but if I would be open about being Pagan, I would the one being run out of the school. Doesn’t even have to be a real reason, they would come up with one. Thats what it’s like for teachers. The kids can make up any lie they want and you can lose your job. I’ve seen it happen just recently. The kid had a history of trouble making, but it was the teacher who was fired.
Well sorry all for the rant it was that kind of day. I just feel sorry for the kids and for our society/taxpayers, cause we are going to end up supporting some of these because they will never learn what it takes to succeed in life. I find that so sad, but they make their own choices. Nothing I can do to force the knowledge in their head, all I can do is present it.
posted January 8, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Ruairi:
You had “one of those days”, and it sounds like some that I experienced, and I worked in a Catholic school…in the city. In the 10 years, in kindergarten, I experienced a few of the kinds of kids you mentioned…and they were 5!
Of course in the Catholic school, there was a lot of praying, but I certainly don’t want to see it in Public schools. The school knew I wasn’t Catholic, but would have been really upset to know that I didn’t consider myself “Christian.” There were a lot of assumptions that I was Christian…and I let them think so.
posted January 9, 2008 at 8:48 am
I think that a moment of silence…for however an individual wants to silently use it…..is great.
Government lead prayer is inappropriate. And, teachers attempting to chastise and/or bully children into praying is even more inappropriate.
Peace!