southernhybrid

I agree. I think your instructor's response is even more shocking than the classroom teacher's use of prayer. Damn.

What about the dean of education. Is she/he approachable?

I wouldn't mention my plan to omit the prayer to the classroom teacher. I just wouldn't do it. If she asked why, I'd say calmly, "I support the separation of church and state and can't condone teacher led prayer. I hope you will respect my feelings on this and not make it an issue between us."

If the children asked, I might just say that not everyone prays before lunch so out of respect for people's differences you are going to allow those that want to, to pray to silently to themselves.

Btw, I think that Mississippi has been in legal trouble many times over the years on this very issue. The state has been told to stop this practice but obviously it's hard to enforce when the citizens of the state continue to condone the practice. Perhaps as the state becomes a lot more diverse, things will change. If demagraphics there follow the pattern of most of the other Southern states, that time is coming soon.

On a brighter note, I read in the AJC this morning that the latest Gallop poll results reveal that religiosity is at an all time low in the US. That's good news.

hezekiah jones

[Post deleted. Apparently I was responding to either sarcasm or Devil's Advocacy.]

Toto

Not religiosity, just the opinion of "organized religion".

Organized religion slips in survey

However, the dip is being attributed to the Catholic pedophile scandal. There is no signficant dip in "belief in God, willingness to state a religious preference, membership in a church, weekly church attendance, a belief that religion is very important in life, and a belief that religion answers problems."

I have mixed feelings about this. It is clearly illegal, but I can just see the headlines on Jay Sekolow's fundraising letters - Secular Humanists won't let kids say grace!

Jayjay

Nobody disagrees with the illegality of religious conditioning. My point is that prayer in kindergarten neither breaks nor makes one's religious preference: if the kids are indoctrinated at home, removing the prayer won't change that, and if they aren't indoctrinated at home they might think the prayer is silly but won't be magically converted. Especially if there is no prayer but just a "moment of silence", which I advocated as one alternative course of action in this particular case. Besides the point why I think that's even an alternative to not having a prayer at all is because I think it might help undo the programming. It's more like "moment of thinking about the pointlessness of saying grace before eating".

More like "perceived non-severity". As a general rule, the state should not impose religious views on people. However, having been raised in a society where that happens anyway, I can tell that it's not the end of the world. Much less so when we're not talking about general rules but rather what one individual should do in this particular instance, and it's not even prayer that I'm suggesting but highlighting the absence of prayer. I am not in favour of state issuing moments of silence either, but if a teacher wants to use that to make point about silliness of prayer, then by all means she/he can do it.

If a freethinker takes out prayer, and says they can say grace silently to themselves if they want to, I think that's hardly "consenting to religious training by the state".

That was said in conjunction with my suspicions why the "moment of silence" might not work, not as a justification for it. The only reason why I think that moment of silence is an alternative to no prayer at all is because I think it might help undo the programming and teach kids to think. I am not convinced if it's a plausible course of action, but I do think that whatever lets kids figure out that they don't need to bless their food in order to eat is at least worth considering.

Radorth

If it's illegal, Christians should not do it, unless it is clearly opposed to one of God's commandments. There is no commandment for kids to pray in school.

They fake it anyway.

Rad

Krieger

Well, considering that the teacher admitted that she is knowingly breaking the law every day then she needs to be punished. I think she should be fired - and even that would be getting off to easy IMO.

Never

If I were in your shoes, I have to confess that I would just take in a tape recorder and tape it for future reference without the teacher's knowledge. When you're in a position to use it, you can consider if you want to. I figure it's better to have it and decide you don't want to use it than to wish later you had done it.
As to the day you are supposed to teach, I would simply state that since I am starting my career, I don't want to risk it by engaging in illegal activities, therefore I will not lead the prayer. No need to get in to a philosophical debate when you are the student and the teacher has obviously made up her mind and will be grading you and you'll be dependent on her recommendations.
JMO