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Originally Posted by OBXNana
Our daughter is a second grade teacher. She has two students that leave the room during the Pledge. All holiday parties have been stopped. If I were to guess after reading this article, a student saw the girl bow her head to pray, went home and told their parents, and the parents complained to the principal or school board. In the case of the school where our daughter teaches, a representative from the school would have called the parents of the student to discuss options for the student to pray. They would not have gone to the 6 year old and embarrassed her. This is simply speculation on my part and something I could see happen in our local school district. This scenario is not uncommon.
Extreme, yes, but the sign of the times. Johnny can't read or do math, but Mom and Dad complain to the school because Johnny was sitting beside someone at lunch that prayed to their God.
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Back in 1978 /1980 we noticed a distinct "change of course" in our own children's elementary school..........up until about that time period, all the parents, grandparents and general public enjoyed the once yearly Christmas Musical where "winter type songs", perhaps one or two carols, etc. were sung by the various grades.....K to 6. They all loved getting dressed up in their new Polly Flinders prairie girl dresses and high leather cowgirl boots (the style at the moment in Vermont) and the boys got to wear a good shirt for a change......it was a very joyful event to attend. The kids also sang the dreidel song as well as others, along with their Jewish friends.
The musical director was talented and did a great job.
Then one Indian family moved into town and complained.
The Christmas musical was cancelled and no longer presented, to the sadness of all. Now, I have great Indian friends; they are wonderful people, but this one family protested and an entire community changed.
The next school year, we all noticed that although a Christmas show was no longer allowed, there was a parade from the school down to Main Street by all the children........why? To celebrate the Aztec God of the Sun? Strange but true.
Our town was settled by French and Irish settlers. Basically a Catholic town as well as Episcopalian, Protestant, Methodist, Baptist and one synagogue. NO AZTECS THAT I'VE RUN ACROSS.....AS OF YET.
People began getting paranoid about the new teachers in town....and the strange bans against Christmas. My daughter's sixth grade teacher asked to borrow my astrology books (I have nothing at all against astrology) but she organized the kids in rows according to their sun signs. What? Public School.
Then in high school we, and others, were shocked when our son's history teacher was teaching about the Catholic inquisition and torture, etc. We all saw the kids' papers........so if religion should not be in schools, why teach that? We were never taught that in public school and my husband was never taught that in Catholic school.
I could actually write a book about grades K through 12 in Vermont.
After our kids went away to college.........our daughter's anthropology professor told her that America was NOT the great melting pot. From my own immigrant grandparents' experiences, it certainly was. They all assimilated to the best of their ability into the American society; especially their children (my parents, etc.) America was a dream come true. Their chosen land. They truly did not get any special treatment back in 1890 or 1907 prior to the two world wars.
Now, we have to change our ways for the new folks. Or, that's how it appears. If you live long enough, you can see the changes as they evolved.
Also, as an "aside", we were raised in the city and walked all over town, as children, without being assaulted, molested or murdered.......times were different then when people did have some "rules".