Slate Article about Staunton & the WRE program

I was quite surprised to open an article in Slate.com today and read the following:

"This week, the Staunton, Va., School Board met to consider changing its 60-year-old Weekday Religious Education program. The WRE is a released-time Christian educational program, in which students in first, second, and third grades in the public school system, leave regular classes on school time in order to attend 30 minutes of religious instruction each week..."

I was born and raised in Staunton, and I attended public school there through my senior year in high school. Strangely, I don't recall whether or not I ever had to leave regular school classes to attend these WRE sessions, but a friend of mine who also grew up in Staunton does remember this in elementary school, and he and I attended the same school at the same time, so I have to assume I was exposed to the WRE program. My friend recalls refusing to go to the sessions and how his teacher got mad at him and another friend of ours because she had to deal with them while everybody else was out of class "getting religion." I wish I had been that socially conscious as a 9-year-old, but I was not, suffice it to say.

My friend currently lives in Staunton (after many years in Seattle and elsewhere), and he remains outspoken on the issue (against WRE). He told me a moment ago via email that he's recently been interviewed by CNN and AP Wire, but neither has quoted him yet. I will quote him here though:

"The ironic aspect of this is that both sides really want to do the right thing. My side thinks let the educators do what they've been trained to do. Religion should be handled in the home and church. The other side really thinks they are saving souls."

And he went on to say in a subsequent email:

"Staunton is a confusing place in many ways.  Lately, it's been bumming me out. I don't know why people want to teach religion during school time.  I believe they've beaten the Constitutional issues by having it off school grounds and not letting teachers take the kids (WRE workers must come get them) and having kids sign a permission slip.  You also don't have to go.  I worry that it's hard on kids that age (maybe any age) to do something different so they get "put down" for not sharing the same view of Christianity.  The churches involved hold very fundamentalist views.  They are against Catholics and most other groups who differ from them. Sounds a lot like the Taliban, doesn't it?"

As you can see, he is very quotable. It is clear that they went to great lengths to beat the Constitutional issues, too, so they certainly can't claim they didn't know this was basically unconstitutional all along.

Having recently served as a volunteer English tutor at a public high school in San Francisco (Balboa High School) not far from where I live, I can tell you that this "Bible Belt" mentality would never work here, thank goodness, because the student population is way too diverse. I've been working with kids from every religious background imaginable, so one religion simply couldn't get away with trying to influence the children so directly during school time. The community would not stand for it, and rightly so.

I'm just so shocked that I don't even remember being shuttled to Christian "brain-washing" sessions as a kid. There is no good reason to allow this to take place during the school week. That's what Sunday school is for at church on Sunday. Plus, it should be up to the parents to introduce their children to the religion of their choice (or no religion at all), as they see fit. All of this seems so obvious to me, yet here we have the WRE still operating in Staunton, my "historic" hometown.

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