Your reading list

THE FRINGE

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Published: July 15, 1999

Earphones

There is a debate afoot over whether it is appropriate to include prayer in our daily school routine. Some argue that the Christian faction should not be allowed to impose its rites on scholars of non-Christian background.

It could be argued that in removing the Lord’s Prayer from opening ceremonies, education administrators are showing favoritism for parents who espouse other faiths or no faith at all. They would respond this is preferable to having the Christians impose their prayers on persons of other beliefs.

Read Also

A variety of Canadian currency bills, ranging from $5 to $50, lay flat on a table with several short stacks of loonies on top of them.

Agriculture needs to prepare for government spending cuts

As government makes necessary cuts to spending, what can be reduced or restructured in the budgets for agriculture?

In organizing a public school system, the easy route is to treat all students alike even though no two students are identical. This would support the notion of no prayers at morning assembly.

However, it is not a true Canadian compromise and cannot be allowed to continue.What we need to do is accommodate all factions. We should equip all students with padded earphones.

On the Christian channel the students would hear and participate in The Lord’s Prayer. The Muslims would intone: “There is no God but God and Mohammed is his prophet…” The Buddhists would pray to Lord Buddha and the Bahai to Baha’ullah.

The atheists would hear a statement about the need for understanding of people who get involved with religions.

As for the children of agnostics, perhaps they could listen to the song Mrs. Robinson.

This would be quite a cacophony for teachers standing at the front of the assembly room unless they too were also equipped with the appropriate earphones. It could be a broadening experience for them if the teachers were to listen to a different channel each day.

explore

Stories from our other publications