My "Would-Have-Been" Alma Mater

I went to Dover High School. My mother and all her siblings graduated from Dover High. My cousins graduated from DHS, as well. But I did not. In the latter part of my sophomore year, my father made a decision that changed my life forever. He took me out of public school and placed me in a private Christian School. That was over twenty years ago.

Today, I read that Cal Thomas urged parents to make a choice just like my father did for me and for my brother: "Religious parents should exercise the opportunity that has always been theirs. They should remove their children from state schools with their "instruction manuals" for turning them into secular liberals, and place them in private schools — or home school them — where they will be taught the truth, according to their parents’ beliefs."

I remember the ideological/theological struggles I had with some of the reading assignments I was given in my English Literature class. I felt the social pressure of "secularization" and I knew that I was in a battle to defend my beliefs, my culture, and even my identity. It was a great relief to enter a private educational setting, with smaller class sizes, and teachers that I could respect. It was the right choice for me.

Below is the article written by my favorite columnist, Cal Thomas. I quoted it in its entirety from this website: Anniston Star Opinion

INSIGHT

It’s time to leave public schools


By Cal Thomas


12-28-2005

The decision by U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III to bar the teaching of "intelligent design" in the Dover, Pa., public school district on grounds it is a thinly veiled effort to introduce a religious view of the world’s origins is welcome for at least two reasons.

First, it exposes the sham attempt to take through the back door what proponents have no chance of getting through the front door. Judge Jones rebuked advocates of "intelligent design," saying they repeatedly lied about their true intentions. He noted many of them had said publicly that their intent was to introduce into the schools a biblical account of creation. Judge Jones properly wondered how people who claim to have such astrong religious convictions could lie, thus violating prohibitions in the Book they proclaim as their source of truth and standard for living.

Culture has long passed by advocates of intelligent design, school prayer and numerous other beliefs and practices that were once tolerated, even promoted, in public education. People who think they can reclaim the past have been watching too many repeats of "Leave it to Beaver" on cable television. Those days are not coming back anytime soon, if at all.

Culture, including the culture of education, now opposes what it once promoted or at least tolerated. The secular left, which resists censorship in all its forms when it comes to sex, library books and assigned materials that teach the "evils" of capitalism and "evil America," is happy to censor any belief that can be tagged "religious."

This leads to the second reason for welcoming Judge Jones’ ruling. It should awaken religious conservatives to the futility of trying to make a secular state reflect their beliefs. Too many people have wasted too much time and money since the 1960s, when prayer and Bible reading were outlawed in public schools, trying to get these and a lot of other things restored. The modern secular state should not be expected to teach Genesis 1, or any other book of the Bible, or any other religious text.

That the state once did such things, or at least did not undermine what parents taught their children, is irrelevant. The culture in which we now live no longer reflects the beliefs of our grandparents’ generation. For better, or for worse (and a strong case can be made that things are much worse), people who cling to the beliefs of previous generations have been given another chance to do what they should have been doing all along.

Religious parents should exercise the opportunity that has always been theirs. They should remove their children from state schools with their "instruction manuals" for turning them into secular liberals, and place them in private schools — or home school them — where they will be taught the truth, according to their parents’ beliefs.

Court rulings such as this should persuade parents who’ve been waffling to take their kids and join the growing exodus from state schools into educational environments more conducive to their beliefs.


Cal Thomas’ column is distributed by Tribune Media Services.