Posted on 04/02/2011 6:10:44 PM PDT by MacMattico
My daughter, who I will admit I often brag about on here, was in Jr. High All-county band this afternoon. The group was fantastic!
But that's not the best part. I got to see a couple of ultra liberal, atheist, elitist parents heads explode! The thing is it must have been all an act, because the kids are given the music in advance so that they can practice in their home district. They knew exactly what their kids would be singing.
They performed five songs, three of which were: The Heavens are Telling by Franz Joseph Haydn; Confitemini Domino by Greg Gilpin; and Witness arranged by Roger Emerson. They also performed a traditional brazillian folk song (awesome and in Potugese) and a version of Peter Piper that I have no idea how they kept up with each other, as the song was performed in a round and got faster and faster-- really good!
Anyway, this couple a few rows in front of us freaks out as this is religion in the public schools! But you could tell, they were really in a conundrum. The guest conductor was Brazillian, a Professor, wouldn't speaking up make them racist?! So they complained to other parents. Mostly they were told that this wasn't the time or place to make a scene, and they finally shut up when one parent, who is Jewish, told them " This is beautiful, complicated to sing music and that's what all-county is all about. The kids sang in Latin, Potuguese, and songs in this day and age many of them have never heard of. Get over yourselves."
Well, those parents vowed to "write a letter" and "speak with someone". So that is what the rest of us are going to do, and express how beautiful the concert was and how wonderful the music choice was!
Very well put. Thank you.
I don’t see where in our Constitution the Federal Government has the mandate to control education in the first place. IMHO we have nobody to blame but ourselves, because we have allowed the Federal government to usurp our powers.
I see vouchers as a solution.
I feel every parent should be given a voucher to give to the school of their choice. We could send our kids to schools which promoted our values. Mr. and Mrs. Atheist could send theirs to the Atheist school and should be quite content as well.
The only ones squawking should be the Teachers’ Unions because they will have lost control of our minds and money.
I can see the riots now!
What do you mean “IF”? All education is religious: it teaches some worldview or other with its accompanying metaphysics, including value systems.
Even the SCOTUS recognizes secular humanism as a religion. But beyond secular humanism, the schools are full of Mohammedan, Hindu, New Age, and other stuff that is promoted. Only Christianity is systematically excluded by our highly trained education professionals. Everything else is “diversity”. The solution is to shut down government schools.
A “religion” is a worldview, which always has an accompanying metaphysics. Atheism is a religion, and it is disingenuous to claim it is anything else.
A-Theism is not a religion.
But if you insist that it is, then give atheists all the tax breaks and other special considerations that other religionists get.
Any religion which in America has more than a few percent of adherents or that percentage in a particular region, or that has had a substantial impact on history or current events is “significant”. IOW, even if North Dakota has no Muslims, Islam has had a substantial effect on current events and should be studied — along with all the BAD, violent, savage, and otherwise nasty features of that religion. Same for ALL religions. No religion is a “religion of peace”.
Therefore...ALL government schools are First Amendment and freedom of conscience abominations. Even if school districts were the size of a suburban subdivision they would establish the religious, cultural, and political beliefs of some and trash the values of others.
As for vouchers:
I would support them **only** if they led to complete privatization and complete separation of school and state.
Vouchers could easily lead to the same problem that we have with colleges and universities:
** Government grants to universities come with **strings** ( Title IX for example).
** Tuition inflation as is seen in our colleges and universities. Once Pell Grants and loans are increase, the universities raise their tuition. This is followed by an increase in government subsidies and that is followed by even more increases in tuition.
I want a break from having to subsidize the teaching of our county's children how to think godlessly in their religiously NON-neutral government indoctrination camps ( misnamed “schools”).
In fact, since it is IMPOSSIBLE for any school to be religiously, culturally, or political neutral, I don't want my tax dollars **ESTABLISHING** anyone’s anointed worldview ( godless or God-centered)!
The solution is complete privatization of all education. Get government completely out of the education business! You pay for your kid. Teach them all the atheism you want. I'll take care of my family.
Nonsense. The music is our inheritance. It is benign. These people became upset because they believed they were supposed to be offended. No one reacted this way until the last decade.
I will disagree, most profoundly. All of our law, all that we are, is viewed through the prism of the Judeo-Christian ethic. That root is every bit as important, if not more important than our founding in federalism and individual liberty. Without that ethic, based in Christian charity, there is no room nor warrant for the religious freedoms experienced by those of other religions:
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. -John Adams
"We have staked the whole of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God." -James Madison "The Father of Our Constitution"
...Nor for those who claim no religion at all...
What is the quintessential breakdown, ongoing in our society, is this very same idea of multiculturalism, and the quasi-morality it engenders.
Where would music be if the West’s great conductors, many of whom were NOT Christians but frequently Jews, would only play secular music for their audiences? The impulse of this culturally ignorant couple is just another example of how liberalism makes everything worse.
“The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not mov’d with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils;
The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus.
Let no such man be trusted.”
The Merchant of Venice, Act V, scene i.
I disagree -we are, in spite of Zero’s assessment, a Christian-based nation who is tolerant of other religions or lack thereof. Singing Christmas carols, or performing Ava Maria, is simply an affirmation of our national identity - which, as one of 160 nations on earth, we are allowed to have.
A daughter of some friends of mine is in 7th grade honors choir at her public school, and they’re singing Antonio Lotti’s “Crucifixus” for their Spring concert. There is another religious piece on the program (gospel spiritual), as well as secular works.
The public school choirs sing sacred music all the time, and there’s no problem. People understand that this music is an important part of the common cultural and musical tradition.
Nobody goes to these concerts thinking the school is trying to preach a religious message.
I was wondering how they realistically did that! Great special effects!
I was wondering how they realistically did that! Great special effects!
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