Comments on: Let’s Take a Moment of Silence… I said TAKE IT!

By: Friendly Atheist » Moment of Forced Silence

Friendly Atheist » Moment of Forced Silence — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 02:21:15 +0000

[...] in March, the Illinois Senate approved a bill mandating a moment of silence in the state’s public [...]

By: TB

TB — Tue, 01 May 2007 17:18:49 +0000

Well, I just finished student teaching and you know what….the moment of silence isn’t even that. Most teachers have work for students to do when they come in (while they take attendance and listen to announcements ect.) So during our school’s moment of silence the kids simply kept working — the same way they would without a moment of silence. It is so meaningless to teachers and students.

By: AB

AB — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 17:49:10 +0000

It is my personal opinion that the Pledge of Allegiance lost its meaning years ago from incessant recitation; I don’t think most kids in school even listen as it’s being recited. At least, that is, until 9-11. And then I think it took on slight significance for a few months at the most. Unless your family is military, but whatever. I graduated high school in 1987, and I can’t recall ever having a prayer time in school, just the Pledge. My kids, though, have always had the “moment of silence”. They were told that they could pray silently or just sit there silently for 60 seconds. There were children of various faiths in class, and I think the only thing any of them objected to (along with their Christian classmates) was forced silence.

By: Siamang

Siamang — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 21:59:55 +0000

I’m with the posters above.

Now if only politicians would start meetings of government with silence instead of loud prayer, we’d be getting somewhere.

In fact… Can we silence politicans completely? Thanks!

By: MTran

MTran — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 19:26:24 +0000

I’m not bothered at all by a moment of silence in schools.

After spending many years with default responsibility for (sometimes rather nasty) crowd management at official government functions attended by surly members of the public, I really appreciate the positive effects of ritual silence.

By: Mike C

Mike C — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 15:40:59 +0000

I pretty much agree with Just Me. It’s a silly, stupid law, but why fight about it? If it’ll get the “prayer in school” crowd to finally shut up and talk about something important, so much the better. A moment of silence isn’t going to hurt anybody.

By: Just Me

Just Me — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 02:46:16 +0000

As an atheist I really don’t have a problem with a moment of silence. I would encourage my children to use that time to gather their thoughts on the whats ahead of them in the day or whatever else they care to think about in that time.

To me there should be, at least, some kind of compromise. I don’t want to be forced to pray, so why should I as an atheist, force others to not be able to pray *in silence*?

We in life have to pick our battles and this one in my opinion is not worth the effort.

By: Mike C

Mike C — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 02:18:40 +0000

I remember my senior year of high school (2002-2003) Illinois passed a law requiring the Pledge of Allegiance to be read every Monday morning.

I remember when that happened. I was a youth pastor at the time and we encouraged the kids in our youth group to abstain from saying the pledge on religious grounds. Some of them did, and got a lot of dirty looks from teachers and other students for it.

By: Jen

Jen — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 00:50:22 +0000

Jesus Christ. I remember my senior year of high school (2002-2003) Illinois passed a law requiring the Pledge of Allegiance to be read every Monday morning. I didn’t have first period classes, but one morning I went in early to use the library and suddenly, everyone is standing and I was sitting, still confused. The librarian glared at me, naturally. I thought it was completely insane and reactionary to 9-11. Before that, I hadn’t said the Pledge since grade school. This seems similiar, in forcing things on students who don’t want or need it. If I want a moment of silence, I will go somewhere besides a high school. If I want to say the Pledge, I will do so on my own time. And if I want to sneak mandatory prayer in, I will pass a stupid law.