The thing is? Children look for weakness. I don't give a damn how long it's been hanging because what matters the most to me in the world? Not seeing my little girl, or the next child, hurt because children lack nuances.
I don't mean that as an insult but by putting up a picture of Jesus and not talking about religion they are creating a subtle hint that this is okay but since nothing else is presented as an opposing view, they get the hint that that is ALL that's okay.
One pointing DOES equal religion when that might be all they see and therefor, it's the ONLY religion they accept. It's up to parents to teach religion, not the schools to create hostility through subtle enforcement of one practice. And that is what it is. If it wasn't? They wouldn't be fighting so hard to keep it up in that location.
Put it in a church, hang it in a museum if it has significant historical value. But don't use it to subtlely manipulate things. If my child can't read a wiccan book in school - and most states do not allow bibles are such books even recreationally - then she shouldn't have to have any religious influence in that environment.
I don't teach my child ANY religion is bad. Nor would I teach her any race is bad. In fact she learns about all religions and has the freedom of choice, and if she choose right this moment to be christian? I would still have this stance. Because it is creating a message, whether intentional or not.
If you don't take to your child about sex but let them watch, say, Desperate Housewives, they are going to get a very definite picture of what sex is. It may not be a positive one. It may very well not be the one you want them to have but you have enforced that this is acceptable by offering no other options than this one answer. Same goes for religion. If the school is allowing for a religious icon on school grounds and yet no other religion can be taught/spoken about, then they are giving the illusion that this one thing is okay but nothing else. Children pick up on his. The absorb it and it becomes part of who they are.
Most, not all but most, parents don't raise their children to be racist either, even if they themselves are. But kids pick this up by the cues and signals we giev them.
This is one massive signal that children aren't likely to ignore and it's hard enough being a child who knows they are different, who accepts and embraces a rather outre way of life. But to see this enforcement that something else is okay, obvious and out in the open, and they have to hide who/what they are? Is devastating on a child. Just like a skin colour, and accent, or a hair colour or a dozen other things that children live with, love and enjoy and yet know that because it sets them apart, it has to be downplayed. Not because parents tell them so but because the signals are there from society, from the schools, from other students, that to not be harassed, not be assualted physically and verbally, to not be ostracized, they have to hide it.
Parents can't preach all they want about pride, and freedom and teach them well and proper. But they learn from everything. Takes a whole village to raise a child but you have the right to choose and shape that village as best you can.
no subject
I don't mean that as an insult but by putting up a picture of Jesus and not talking about religion they are creating a subtle hint that this is okay but since nothing else is presented as an opposing view, they get the hint that that is ALL that's okay.
One pointing DOES equal religion when that might be all they see and therefor, it's the ONLY religion they accept. It's up to parents to teach religion, not the schools to create hostility through subtle enforcement of one practice. And that is what it is. If it wasn't? They wouldn't be fighting so hard to keep it up in that location.
Put it in a church, hang it in a museum if it has significant historical value. But don't use it to subtlely manipulate things. If my child can't read a wiccan book in school - and most states do not allow bibles are such books even recreationally - then she shouldn't have to have any religious influence in that environment.
I don't teach my child ANY religion is bad. Nor would I teach her any race is bad. In fact she learns about all religions and has the freedom of choice, and if she choose right this moment to be christian? I would still have this stance. Because it is creating a message, whether intentional or not.
If you don't take to your child about sex but let them watch, say, Desperate Housewives, they are going to get a very definite picture of what sex is. It may not be a positive one. It may very well not be the one you want them to have but you have enforced that this is acceptable by offering no other options than this one answer. Same goes for religion. If the school is allowing for a religious icon on school grounds and yet no other religion can be taught/spoken about, then they are giving the illusion that this one thing is okay but nothing else. Children pick up on his. The absorb it and it becomes part of who they are.
Most, not all but most, parents don't raise their children to be racist either, even if they themselves are. But kids pick this up by the cues and signals we giev them.
This is one massive signal that children aren't likely to ignore and it's hard enough being a child who knows they are different, who accepts and embraces a rather outre way of life. But to see this enforcement that something else is okay, obvious and out in the open, and they have to hide who/what they are? Is devastating on a child. Just like a skin colour, and accent, or a hair colour or a dozen other things that children live with, love and enjoy and yet know that because it sets them apart, it has to be downplayed. Not because parents tell them so but because the signals are there from society, from the schools, from other students, that to not be harassed, not be assualted physically and verbally, to not be ostracized, they have to hide it.
Parents can't preach all they want about pride, and freedom and teach them well and proper. But they learn from everything. Takes a whole village to raise a child but you have the right to choose and shape that village as best you can.