Response to Illinois’ Moment of Forced Silence

October 16, 2007

Now that Illinois has mandated a moment of silence in public school classrooms, you can hear the complaints loud and clear.

Will Okun, a Chicago school teacher, has a great response in The New York Times:

Boy, are our legislators busy. I teach in an overcrowded classroom with Xeroxed books, no computers and limited supplies in a city where the black male graduation rate hovers significantly below 50 percent. And they give us silence?

…

Instead of addressing the social conditions, funding shortfalls and inadequate schools that have caused the tragic state of education in America’s low-income communities, our legislators are instead promoting disguised prayer as their priority.

As one Illinois superintendent was quoted as saying, “We pray every day — that they [lawmakers] approve sending us our money.”

(Thanks to Joe for the link!)

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Bruce

Okun is exactly right. The forced “moment of silence” will do nothing for the teachers/kids, is merely a way for a bunch of “concerned” lawmakers to fool people into thinking that they are doing something to help schools, and is a back door for promoting prayer in schools.

The next time these lawmakers ask for a raise, I suggest their constituents respond by offering them a “moment of silence” instead. Seems to work well for the public school system. Don’t know why it won’t work well for the legislature as well.
Tina B.

Kudos goes to Bruce!
Darryl

You can extend this idea to our Federal Congress. While the war goes on, people in the millions go without healthcare, a medicare crisis looms, our schools are sucking, the cost of oil is going up, Wall Street is looting the country, and our Chief Executive is trampling our Constitution, what is happening on Capitol Hill? Healthcare for kids is going down in flames and non-binding resolutions about a 90-year-old massacre are being hotly debated.

Off the rails and heading south.

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