I found this chapter to be very thought provoking. The "New School Prayer" poem that someone sent to Spring was extremely interesting. I feel like sometimes I can understand where this author is coming from in the sense that it is very difficult to be politcically correct these days. I mean I find myself tripping over my words sometimes because I am afraid of offending someone, but at the same time others are able to freely say that the 'white man' is oppressive and wrong. On many levels, especially throughout history, white anglo saxons have committed a lot of horrendous crimes in American history, but I don't feel like I should be afraid to be who I am or that I shouldn't be proud of the person I am simply because I am white. I feel that everyone should be celebrated for who they are no matter race, gender, beliefs or lifestyle. As long as what you do doesn't harm others then you should be free to do it, and no one should judge. I know that this may seem idealistic to say that no one should judge, but honestly that's how I feel. To get back to the New School Prayer though, I felt that the auther was lets just say somewhat ignorant and potentially offensive in what he said about people who choose to have different colored hair or the 'pregnant Senior Queen' this is a great example of how he should let these people chose to live how they please without comlaint or judgement. I do believe in separation of church and state for the very fact that to push your beliefs on others is wrong; I also believe that education is a way to end ignorance so to teach about different religions in school (even in public schools) is a great idea. I know in my high school I was never exposed to different religions which left me extremely ignorant. My only experience with being taught religion was at PSR (public school religion) which I went to every monday during the school year until eighth grade. PSR was a wonderful experience that taught me everything about being catholic from what traditions we hold most dear to why we practice our faith the way we do. I wish that every student would have to go to PSR, but instead of focusing on only one religion have each one hour session be about a different religion in a rotation or something.
On a separate note, the elimination of multicultural education frustrates me. According to Spring,
"some Republican conservatives were distressed by the demands of African Americans, Native Americans, and Mexican Americans for inclusion of their histoires and cultures in the school curriculum"
I'm sorry, but this is ridiculous American history is the history of a great many cultures and nations coming together so to exclude part of that history is not helping our students whatsoever. Just had to vent on that for a second...
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