To those who responded. Thanks for contributing your views. The arguments you make are well thought out and sensible, so much so that some have slipstreamed into the main current of our educational system, and have lately there become doctrine.

If I am, as some of you suspect, angling for the opportunity to convert young children with my version of a religion, then I would certainly be no better than a Wahhabi. I do not think I am a Wahhabi, and for my sake, I hope you are not one either. But I feel, that in an effort to protect all children from a Wahhabist type doctrine, no matter what religion is sponsoring it, society and the education department have stripped a large part of our being from our children.

You say ethics does not come from religion. And here I challenge you. For if not from religion, then from where do they come from? I encourage you to think this one out before you answer. Because if we were to create a secular environment that is to become a safe haven from all types of religions, then where does one go to acquire ethics: from books, from classwork, from ethic’s instructors? You say get them elsewhere: Church, Home. …………

My reply is “ok” Let’s try it. Let us create a secular environment where we stomp out anything that may lead to a religous reference. But wait….. We have tried that. So let us see where we stand. Are our educational institutions where we want them to be? Are our current schools the educational models we hoped they would be, or are they still works in progress? If I were to walk throught the halls of Christiana, Glasgow, or Newark High Schools, would I see a student body, that is healthy, happy, and eager to challenge the adult world for which they are preparing to step into?

No. that is not what anyone sees. They see hopelessness. they see struggling to keep from being bullied, they see boredom throughout all classes, They see disrespect to teachers and administrators and to the state police who monitor the halls. The only people who garnish respect, are those few teachers willing to break the “secular rules” and discuss those things that are important to young teens.

But walk through a Catholic school, where ironically almost every student HATES the religious training they undergo, and DESPISES the oppressive religious rules pertaining to dating, sex, and making out that they are supposed to obey. and there you see those students who are healthy, happy, and eager to make their place in the brave new world they are about to enter. So what’s the deal?

Secular schools full of losers and failures: versus religous schools full of enthusiasm and hopefulness. It is this reality that stands in stark contrast to your academic arguments on what is best for a child.

So how does one start the change? And here is where the simplicity of a silent prayer comes into effect. If for nothing else, it gives that skinny ninth grader a brief moment to close his eyes and pray his own prayer: “oh please,…… let me not get beaten up today.” He carries that hope throughout his day.

If one doesn’t pray, of course one is going to laugh at this example. But if one does pray, he will immediately understand the wisdom that comes from having silent prayer in school.