Never before has a moment of silence been
filled with so much controversy, so much fear. The question I had to ask is
what can it hurt? My second question was just how is it going? Local school
administrators have been anything but calm when discussing the recent passage
of the moment of silence bill. However there seems to be a lot of hesitation
about being quoted about anything.
Just in case you don’t know what is being
referred to here, an Illinois Senate bill went to effect October 11 after the
Illinois House of Representatives overrode a veto by Gov. Rod Blagojevich. The
new measure changed a single word it was ‘shall’ instead of ‘may’.
By the following Monday, many area schools were inserting 10-15 second ‘moments
of silence’ into their daily routines.
To find an answer to my second question
of what they did with this new gold mine of time, I captured a group of
teen-agers waiting at a bus stop and…after a firm promise of confidentiality,
they shared these comments: “I dunno what I do.
” (That was the most frequent comment.) A group consultation resulted in
the answer “Just chill, I guess.”
When asked if this was time taken away
from their studies, one boy said “If between classes, some kids even find
enough time to dip snuff or other stuff, you have enough time to say a freakin’ prayer.” Another said, “Why get in such an uproar
over a minute in which you can do whatever you want? You can always scope out the girl in front of
you.”
Grammar school children were somewhat
confused when I questioned them. They really didn’t know what I was talking
about until I mentioned that the ‘moment’ occurred right before the pledge of allegiance.
“Oh, that’s so we settle down before the pledge.” A ten-year-old replied. A
seven –year –old said “No one explained what I should do… so I think.”
Curious as to what the hullabaloo
was all about, I looked up Rep.William Davis, D-Homewood, who sponsored the
change. Davis said to the Journal Star that the bill offers students AND
teachers a moment to compose themselves before school day. Whether they
silently reflect on upcoming activities, pray or study is at the discretion of
each person.
Mary Carol Smith, a special education
teacher, gave this statement,“ I explain the law and
say they have one full minute before the pledge where people can pray, think,
or meditate on anything they want to. I also tell them they can pay attention
to how long a minute really is and if they don’t have any affiliation to prayer
or meditation, they can think about and have an attitude of gratitude. We
talked about things like choices, clean water, and all the freedoms we just
take for granted.”
You go Mary Carol!
So what is a moment? Depending if your
finger is jammed in a car door or your watching a beautiful sunset before it
disappears… it is something different for everyone.
My feeling is that we came and settled in
this country to find freedom, freedom to pray the way we choose and the freedom
NOT to pray. This bill offers both. The excuse many give is that it takes away
from precious learning time. Have we not realized yet that we are killing our
society by the frantic rushing we do to ourselves as well as to our children?
This is a moment to “just chill.”
As for the school superintendents, they
now will all have that moment to pray for the budget implementations they want
passed.
My question still remains intact “What can
it hurt?
”Why can’t a human being
choose what they
want to think about for one moment of their life ?