GAY GEISER-SANDOVAL -- Educationally Speaking

I grew up not too far geographically from where I live today, but the

people who lived in our county in the 1950s were very different. The

biggest difference was that almost everyone had the same economic status,

background and religion.

When I was in elementary school, the overwhelming religion was

mainstream Protestantism, with almost no tolerance among the student

population for anything else.

The one Jew, Jehovah Witness, and Mormon child in my grade were all

made to feel like social outcasts. They were not just isolated in

discussions of religion. Somehow, their religion defined them to such an

extent, in the eyes of my fellow classmates, that they weren’t allowed to

play or eat lunch with the Protestants.

Even then, I did not agree with the majority’s behavior, and became

the only friend to these kids, who would not even band together with each

other.

I hadn’t really thought much about the torture inflicted on those kids

during my own school days until this week. As I was driving a group of

high school kids at almost sunset, we learned that some of my passengers

were Muslim. Those students were celebrating Ramadan, so had not had

anything to eat or drink that day.

The rest of my passengers, who constituted a bevy of different

religions or are not religious, did not deride or shun the Muslims or

make fun of their religious practices. Instead, they wanted to know more

about it and began to compare customs with those of their own or other

religions that they were familiar with.

It was almost like a comparative religion class, with teenage

believers as the professors. Not one person suggested that theirs was the

only true religion, or that others in the car not of their faith would

surely go to hell.

These students were members of a public school on their way to a

school competition.

Obviously, the U.S. Constitution lays no restrictions on the

conversations that took place in the car that day, nor does it restrict

the ability of each student to say a prayer before the competition, which

I suspect happened more than once as the competition proceeded.

What would not be appropriate is for a teacher, principal or coach to

decide to lead a prayer according to his or her religious beliefs. It

would not even be appropriate for the person in charge to pick a student

to lead a group prayer, because members of the group have different ways

to pray and different thoughts on what is appropriate to pray for.

For those of you who are concerned that the lack of the ability to

have group prayer in school has led to the moral decay of students, I

wish you could have been with me in the car that day.

The respect that each student gave to their peers with respect to a

subject (religion) that tears nations apart has made me believe that the

current interpretation of the Supreme Court on school prayer is the right

one.

I’m sure those kids who were outcasts on the playground in my day

solely because of their religious beliefs would agree.

* GAY GEISER-SANDOVAL is a Costa Mesa resident. Her column runs

Tuesdays. She can be reached by e-mail at GGSesq@aol.com.