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Strollerderby
For centuries, those of the Catholic faith have been using rosary beads to keep track of their prayers. A circular string of beads with a pendant crucifix, a rosary serves as a sort abacus for counting one’s daily devotions.
But according to officials at Fieldstone Secondary School in Haverstraw, New York, rosary beads also have another purpose: To signify a gang affiliation. And that, they say, is why 14-year-old Jason Laguna was threatened with suspension we he wore his to school. Continue reading »
Lakshmi Tatma is pretty much like any 4-year-old. She’s a little bossy around new friends, likes to pay games with her brother, is a total daddy’s girl and just recently started school. The difference is Lakshmi was born with two torsos and 8 limbs. Oh, and she’s been worshipped as a God since birth.
Unless you don’t expect your kid to go to college or they have their sights set on Jerry Falwell’s Liberty “University”, you might want to pay attention to the courses your kids’ high school offers. Some of them may not be accepted by the University of California as meeting the requirements needed in order to be eligible to apply for admission as an undergraduate. In other words, your kids may need to retake some classes in order to go to a California University.
I’ve always felt that the number one job of a parent, especially in the first dozen years or so of their lives, is to keep the kids alive. We don’t let them play in the middle of the street, we make sure they wear helmets, and we don’t let them eat laundry detergent (much). We teach them to blow on their soup, how to climb a tree safely, and perhaps even how to defend themselves if necessary. Everything we do is part and parcel of taking care of our kids and keeping them safe and secure and parents — good parents, anyway — take that charge very seriously. So why would any parent sit by and watch their child die?
On Tuesday, we heard about a Boston area boy who was apparently suspended for drawing a picture of Jesus on the cross after his teacher asked the class to draw something that reminded them of Christmas.
School administrators allegedly called the drawing violent, referred the boy to a psychiatrist, and suspended him from school, putting advocacy groups up in arms over religious freedom.
But there are two sides to every story, and this story’s other side just came out: It wasn’t Jesus on the cross, it was the boy himself.
These days, it seems, every where you turn, someone’s either trying to foist their religious beliefs on you or take yours away. Christians want to put up Christmas trees in city parks and buildings but don’t want to allow Jews, Wiccans, or Seinfeld fans to put up a menorah, Yule log, or Festivus pole. And the Atheists would rather not see any of it. Of course, it is important that the government not endorse one religion over the other and one place that the separation of church and state is critical is in the school system. But what about the separation of church and student?
A Massachusetts teacher told her class to draw something, so a kid drew a picture of Jesus. And now he’s been suspended from the school.
OK, let’s regroup here. Christmas is a holiday generally celebrated by Christians to celebrate the birth of Christ, and a picture of Jesus is bad because? Continue reading »
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