Letters to the editor: On prayer in school, homeschooling
Prayer in school? Leave students’ religious needs to parents
I’m curious as to how the prayer mandate for public and charter schools will be implemented. Will students be required to pray loudly so that the teacher can grade them on it? What if a student does not wish to pray? Will the student be punished? What if teachers do not wish to pray? Will they lose their jobs? Who will choose the prayers? Will a Christian prayer be required? Will a Hail Mary suffice? The rosary? Will students have to kneel and bow their heads?
Any student can already pray silently at any time, (and probably do before an exam) so why are we asking students to display their religious beliefs? Freedom of religion does not mean freedom of the state to force religious practices on the people. It means that the state cannot stop individuals from freely choosing their own religious practices. It means not forcing children to follow a state-ordered religion. Students have been through a difficult few years because of a pandemic when their educational needs were not met. Oklahoma has an obligation to meet those needs, and to leave students’ religious needs to their parents.
— Virginia Ann Dell, Oklahoma City
If I had school-age children, I would homeschool them
I have to agree with those who home school. Getting a tax credit is the first step in government thinking it has to have accountability in those who receive a homeschooling tax credit. It does not matter what kind of tax credit one gets, there is always the requirement that one submit documentation or reason to justify the tax credit. That documentation will come in one form or another when one submits their income tax return. Government cannot provide any sort of tax credit without getting some sort of justification for that tax credit.
For instance, one has to prove that they installed a new home air conditioning system to receive any tax credit for that installation on their income tax forms. Therefore, it is only reasonable to expect that if you home school, and you submit the request for the home school tax credit, the government is eventually going to step in and require you to show your curriculum for the home schooling you are providing to your children and how you are spending the money you received a tax credit on. Then there is always the possibility that government will step in and require you to submit a curriculum anyway so it can say whether you are complying with the requirements of educating your children.
I have a degree in math and physics, and I think I could teach my children if I had children who were school age. And I have a problem with the way they teach math now in that it is not necessary to get the exact correct answer to a problem. For instance, if they had done their math correctly, they would have known that those tiles on the space shuttle would have been susceptible to coming off, and maybe the space shuttle that burned up in the reentry would not have burned up. Anything that is critical to the end result of a project must have the math done correctly and the correct answer derived. Correct answers to the math on the retention of the tiles on the space shuttle would have shown that the tiles would have been subject to damage since they were glued on, and that any loss of tiles meant that the shuttle would have burned up. And sure enough, that happened.
Although I do not have children who are young in the public schools, if I did, I would homeschool them. However, I do have grandchildren who are going to be entering schools soon, and I worry they are going to be indoctrinated by the left.
— Andre Snodgrass, Norman
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoman readers shared letters on prayer in school, homeschooling
