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ArtK78, on 2014-March-25, 11:13, said:
Ken:
My experience is different than yours.
When I was in second grade, my family moved from Woodbury, NJ, to Cherry Hill, NJ. Until we moved, I was the only Jewish kid in my entire elementary school. And I am talking about public school. We had prayer in the school every morning, and Christmas carols and Santa Claus in December. My mother did make it clear to my teachers and the Principal that we were Jewish and we did not believe in any of that "stuff." The result was, as a 5 year old, I had to explain to all of my classmates about Hanukkah. It didn't matter that I really didn't know much about Hanukkah - I was Jewish and I had to do that. Sort of like Kyle in South Park.
We moved to Cherry Hill in late February 1964 - when I was in second grade. Cherry Hill was a much more affluent community that was about 25-35% Jewish. Needless to say, my environment changed dramatically.
Interestingly, Woodbury continued to have prayer in its public schools until the last 10 years or so. Supreme Court - who cares?
My experience is different than yours.
When I was in second grade, my family moved from Woodbury, NJ, to Cherry Hill, NJ. Until we moved, I was the only Jewish kid in my entire elementary school. And I am talking about public school. We had prayer in the school every morning, and Christmas carols and Santa Claus in December. My mother did make it clear to my teachers and the Principal that we were Jewish and we did not believe in any of that "stuff." The result was, as a 5 year old, I had to explain to all of my classmates about Hanukkah. It didn't matter that I really didn't know much about Hanukkah - I was Jewish and I had to do that. Sort of like Kyle in South Park.
We moved to Cherry Hill in late February 1964 - when I was in second grade. Cherry Hill was a much more affluent community that was about 25-35% Jewish. Needless to say, my environment changed dramatically.
Interestingly, Woodbury continued to have prayer in its public schools until the last 10 years or so. Supreme Court - who cares?
Interesting. I'm trying to think of details. One that seemed odd at the time had to do with summer camp. Stan, who was Jewish, went to the YMCA camp rather than the Boy Sout Camp. Those were the two options then. I asked him about this because of the C in YMCA. Apparently the Y was more welcoming than the Scouts. Now I think it is officially the Y. Certainly the M part is gone, more women than men in the gym. And we no longer swim in the nude.
My wife tells me that I can be remarkably oblivious, so maybe you should not take my thoughts on this too seriously. I think "oblivious" is an underrated personality trait, but it sometimes does lead to thinking things are, or were, better than they are/were.
No doubt though that Christmas was the dominant holiday. As a kid in a Protestant family, it never crossed my mind that this might be a difficult issue in other families. I can well imagine we did carols at school. This is tricky. I like the music. With good will, good intentions, and some good sense, I think we can keep the music from all faiths w/o theological oppression.
And were there prayers at things like school assemblies? Yes, I think so. Certainly at high school graduation. By then I was well into my rejection of religion and I just suffered through it. We all had had a lot of practice at not listening to adults.
Bottom line, I may have overstated the lack of religious interaction in schools at least when we think of large events. In day to day life, I don't think it was much present. Lurking somewhere maybe, like a prowler. Or the NSA.
