Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Cleaning Out the Curiosity Pile #2: Separation of Church and State
Continuing in my quest towards greater apartmental organization, I stumbled upon a khaki (or is that a color used only for clothing--if so, just insert the word "tan") piece of paper with the Underwood High School daily announcements printed on it. This is the daily bulletin from December 15. Traditionally, the Daily Bulletin is intended to supplement the morning announcements so that teachers can receive information which is not spoken over the loudspeaker. Since students, not just in my homeroom, but in every homeroom, are noisy during announcements, frequently this paper hascome to replace them, at least in those rooms whose teachers remember to pick them up. Normally I get mine after advisory because they generally aren't out for the day when I go sign in at the office around 7 in the morning.
In any case, the announcements themselves are boring...which is why I've never really posted about them before. Who cares about night school enrollment deadlines or class ring deposits? Ok...you might, but most of us don't. However, at the top of each day's bulletin there's a "Daily Word", an inspirational cliche to help teachers and students alike get through the day. Normally, these are pretty generic, but check out the one for December 15:
DAILY WORD: REGARDLESS OF YOUR ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS, SPEND TIME WITH GOD.
Don't take this as a critique of organized religion...but is this an appropriate thing to have on top of a school sponsored bulletin? It isn't a prayer per se, or even an assertion in favor of a particular religious philosophy (as it might have been if it said "Spend time with Jesus."), but something about it draws out the skeptic in me. I'm not sure who writes these things, but I'm definitely going to have to keep an eye out for similar ones in the future.
Continuing in my quest towards greater apartmental organization, I stumbled upon a khaki (or is that a color used only for clothing--if so, just insert the word "tan") piece of paper with the Underwood High School daily announcements printed on it. This is the daily bulletin from December 15. Traditionally, the Daily Bulletin is intended to supplement the morning announcements so that teachers can receive information which is not spoken over the loudspeaker. Since students, not just in my homeroom, but in every homeroom, are noisy during announcements, frequently this paper hascome to replace them, at least in those rooms whose teachers remember to pick them up. Normally I get mine after advisory because they generally aren't out for the day when I go sign in at the office around 7 in the morning.
In any case, the announcements themselves are boring...which is why I've never really posted about them before. Who cares about night school enrollment deadlines or class ring deposits? Ok...you might, but most of us don't. However, at the top of each day's bulletin there's a "Daily Word", an inspirational cliche to help teachers and students alike get through the day. Normally, these are pretty generic, but check out the one for December 15:
DAILY WORD: REGARDLESS OF YOUR ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS, SPEND TIME WITH GOD.
Don't take this as a critique of organized religion...but is this an appropriate thing to have on top of a school sponsored bulletin? It isn't a prayer per se, or even an assertion in favor of a particular religious philosophy (as it might have been if it said "Spend time with Jesus."), but something about it draws out the skeptic in me. I'm not sure who writes these things, but I'm definitely going to have to keep an eye out for similar ones in the future.
