Teachers are likely to win the right to wear religious clothing such as turbans, yarmulkes, crosses and headscarves in public schools when the Oregon Legislature meets in February, elected officials say. Oregon's prohibition on allowing teachers to exercise their faith by covering their heads or wearing other religious garb dates to a shameful anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant period in state history and is overdue to be changed, House Speaker Dave Hunt, D-Gladstone, said Monday.
Having emigrated to Oregon from the uber-Christian, holier-than-thou Great State of Texas not so very long ago, I'd hope that I'd left this sort of controversy behind. I understand that Oregon's prohibition on religious garb in the classroom may not have positive origins, but that doesn't mean that in this day and age that it's not a good idea. When last I checked, our public schools were about educating children, not indoctrinating them. Why anyone would thing that allowing religious garb in Oregon's classrooms is a good idea is beyond me.
I'm not anti-religion; Hell, I'm a Buddhist...though you couldn't often tell by the way I act at times. Religion, when not bastardized and co-opted in the pursuit of legitimizing a political agenda, is and can be a perfectly good thing. Like anything else, though, there is a time and a place for religion...and a public school classroom is neither. When it comes to the business of educating our children, it's difficult to see how promoting or advancing religion, even obliquely, furthers this endeavor. Children deserve to learn their 3 R's in an academic environment free of ANY sort of religious influence. If students choose to engage in religious activities outside of school hours, then more power to them. Children should be able and allowed to pursue whatever spiritual pursuits interest and move them...but school should be for learning, and issues of religious dogma can only muddy the waters and complicate the process. Ultimately, religion seems to be about adults trying to convince child of their ultimate and unquestioned superiority of their imaginary friend. That's all well and good outside of a public school, but our education tax dollars are supposed to EDUCATE children, not finance forcing religion on them.
If a parent wants a child to have a religiously-oriented education, there are plenty of private and parochial schools available to meet this need. When last I checked, though, the separation of Church and State was still a basic tenet of the American political system. Sadly, the effort to revisit Oregon's ban on religious garb in public school classrooms is just another attempt use taxpayer dollars to support the advancement and promotion of religion.
How about we focus on the curriculum being taught and providing the resources to ensure that our children go out into the world with an education that prepares them for success. Is our children learning? Not when adults are busy trying to force their imaginary friends on them.
WE DESERVE BETTER.
