A Moment of Silence in the Public Schools

When I was in my formative years of elementary school the U.S. Supreme Court was enforcing the doctrine of Separation of Church and State by prohibiting mandatory prayer in the public schools. It never prevented Mrs. Whelpley--a member of the church I attended--from going right ahead with a mandatory prayer right after the Pledge of Allegiance every morning when I was in second grade. (And it confused the h@!! out of me as a budding Civil Libertitarian and student of the U.S. Supreme Court.)

Now I read that 11 states have a mandatory moment of silence in their public school classrooms. I LOVE the comment by the author of this blog which is published in the NY Times! He writes that he uses this time every day to pray that legislators will cast votes to give more money to public schools!

What about this idea? What if legislators required Public Schools to instead devote two minutes each morning to a variety of multifaith spiritual practices including a discussion of atheism! This would be a "teaching moment" for both cultural and religious diversity! (Plus a few of those Fundamentalist Christian educators--and lawmakers--might learn some Religious Tolerance and be required to "Think Outside The Book"!)