Prayer Time or Meditation Time in Schools

[John Kilduff]

When I was in high school, I remember having a school-wide "moment of silence" each morning. The bell would ring, then a minute or two later it would ring again, signalling the end of the moment of silence.

The quiet time could be used to meditate, close your eyes and relax, pray, or for whatever purposes the individual chose. It was a nice and special time that didn't last long but it did last long enough to clear some of the rush and clutter out of your mind and to feel a bit refreshed. If a student wished to pray silently they could do so without disturbing or influencing anyone else.

I think this was a good practice, and the cost in study time was negligible. I think it had a beneficial effect for nearly everyone.

I am sure many would object to a specific "prayer time" school-wide, but would any here object to a school-wide moment of silence on a daily basis?

Perhaps in a post to come later I will discuss prayer and its historical significance in pioneer schools, and my views on the subject, but for now I would just like to sound out this forum on the idea of a moment of silence.

Thanks for any responses and further thoughts.

[ShakeZula06]

Centrally planned education systems FTL

[John Kilduff]

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Centrally planned education systems FTL

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Well, the moment of silence can be utilized by both public and private schools. I've attended both and I will say that overall I liked the private school much better. The private school had actual spoken prayer at mealtimes, and some of the public schools, during certain years, had a moment of silence at the start of the second class period.

[ShakeZula06]

Your idea seems like a good one. The point of my comment was really just that a free market of education would be much better at mirroring the preference of it's consumers then a centrally planned one. This probably would be a norm in schools today if schools were not centrally planned by the government, but today you would have to go through thousands of pages of bureaucratic paperwork to make sure it doesn't violate any laws or the constitution.

[bobman0330]

My HS had this and I thought it was a complete waste of time. Why do I need to go to school to sit around not doing anything? Teach me something or let me talk to my friends.

[AlexM]

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My HS ... was a complete waste of time.

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FYP

[hmkpoker]

It seems pointless because that's what kids do anyway throughout most of the classes. Hell, I spent most of my English classes sitting there vegging out...and math...and science...and history...and art...and computers...and theology...and...wait, what was the point again?

[Kaj]

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Teach me something or let me talk to my friends.

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Taking a moment of silence to clear your thoughts or reflect or visualize or whatever WAS teaching you something. You just had a poor teacher or weren't taking note.

[John Kilduff]

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My HS had this and I thought it was a complete waste of time. Why do I need to go to school to sit around not doing anything? Teach me something or let me talk to my friends.

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Well, I suppose the moment of silence could also be used to mentally review lessons or to start the outline of a paper, or something like that. I guess it would not be everyone's cup of tea, though, as your experience shows.

[LooseCaller]

for the non-religious among us, this seems kind of like a school enforced timeout.