Power of propaganda, prayers and politics, again

A 1962 Supreme Court decision in Engel v. Vitale, ruled school organized prayer was a violation of the 

First Amendment and freedom of religion. That's when self-professed Christians conjured up removing God from school as the excuse for violations ranging from disrespectful mouthy kids and dress code violations, to drug use and teen pregnancy.

If you read the bible with little Johnny before he goes to school but he comes home acting like a brat with a potty mouth, that has nothing to do with God in the schools. If your child can't make it through one day in school without causing trouble, it's not because God is missing. It's because parents are missing.
Parents need to be involved in the lives of their children. Religious beliefs and morality come from home. Parents model respect; they teach their kids the difference between right and wrong.

If you believe you are a religious family you should be able to pray together in the morning, go to work and school, and gather later that day with the same religious beliefs. 

A child instilled with religious values isn't going to lose faith between PE and chemistry class because God missing in schools. Use some common sense.

Stop using God as an excuse for lack of parenting skills. When parents and other adults model bad habits and disrespect, God missing in school has nothing to do with the bad behavior of their children.

God Missing in Schools seems to be linked to corporal punishment

If more parents took the time to get to know their kids, they could build a relationship of trust and mutual respect. A child would feel safe asking a parent sensitive questions. Effective communication between parents and children is the key to building successful relationships.
Those parents who don't take time to be a real parent and punish children with physical, mental, or sexual abuse, need to take a break from the Neanderthal mentality. You do NOT need to to inflict physical and emotional pain on children for them to act appropriately.

Proper discipline doesn't need to involve physical violence

So what if you got beat when you were a kid and you 'turned out okay'? Each generation learns more and wants more for their children. If you can teach your children right from wrong without hitting, why wouldn't you?

• Parents who don't parent

If parents took the time to solve the overall problem, they could. It's called taking time to communicate. Let your kids know what you expect and why. Give them chores or other responsibilities at home. It helps with confidence and a good work ethic. Chores also reinforce a sense of belonging. Consequences for not doing chores need to be clear and immediately enforced. Tell them you're proud when they do something right instead of yelling when they do something wrong. It's called modeling. Give respect to get respect.

Most kids are far from perfect but they can learn how to treat others, to never bully anyone, never to make fun of those less fortunate or to think they're better than people who are different.
Too many kids are already damaged by the time they start school. Children exposed to violence or those who are victims of physical, mental, or sexual abuse often come to school with embedded hate and discrimination. Kids are not killing people or spewing hate on the Internet because we don't have 'God in schools'.

The idea of God Missing in Schools is an excuse.

Kids are messed up because too many parents plop their kids in front of the TV as the main babysitter. 

It's because too many kids see violence at home with men hitting women and parents hitting kids.

It's because of mental illness, nightmares and fear. 

And we look the other way. We make excuses.

Kids can pray at school. Kids can carry the Bible and read it during free time. The school security guard does not interrogate students in the hall or search through bags for religious books.

• Ronald Reagan picks special interest groups over mentally ill

James Holmes gunned down movie goers in Aurora, CO

killing 12 people including a 6-year-old girl.

Who speaks for children and their education?

Public schools were short-changed for years. Unable to provide proper testing to get treatment for at risk kids with mental problems, the neediest children tended to get in trouble for acting out. They'd be teased and bullied for their odd behavior. We shook our heads at those 'odd' kids who got bullied. Then the wrath of the consequences of untreated mental illness got too big to ignore. 
They started shooting.

• Expecting filet mignon at hot dog prices

When I left teaching a few years ago, I had so many students in each class I'd decide which class I'd babysit instead of teach. They got rote drills, worksheets and worthless material or a film related to content. It's the way I handled too many students. Every week I'd rotate a class to simply exist so I could do lesson planning, correct papers, give kids feedback and work one on one. Like many teachers, I still worked at least 2-3 hours on school work when I got home.

Teachers are not responsible for raising their students. Parents complain about kids getting in trouble for discipline problems in some classrooms. If they taught their kids to respect others, to be kind, and to behave appropriately, their kids wouldn't have discipline problems.

"We believe what the newspapers say but question what the Bible says." WTH are you talking about? And who? I believe some of what I read by credentialed journalists because their work is based on research and fact. I don't believe fake news shows like Fox News because it is propaganda more than news (fact checks show over half is not true).

Question the Bible? I would hope anything a person reads causes thinking and questioning. Otherwise we're a flock of sheep with no minds of our own. The Bible was literally written by the hand of men. It was roughly translated from difficult to understand archaic languages. Words and syllables were misinterpreted. Every translation caused more input from man. Taking the words and phrases literally is a violation of common sense. 

School shooters? Because God is not in school? You must be kidding. More likely, parents were not at home or in the lives of their kids.

First, most of these kids got guns from parents. People who own guns should be responsible and keep them locked up. If kids don't have access to guns, they can't shoot people. When a gun is used to shoot a room full of students, the gun owner should be charged for allowing a deadly weapon into the hands of an unstable child. If you can afford guns you can afford a gun safe. Lock it.

Second, there is a huge problem with lack of service and insufficient facilities for the mentally ill. The problem exists in schools and in general society. When President Reagan de-institutionalized the mentally ill he pleased special interest groups by saving  money previously spent on shelter for the mentally ill incapable of caring for themselves. While his rich buddies cheered his cutting of  the 'welfare state', they ignored his cutting of the safety net. 

Reagan's actions caused a huge influx to the homeless population. Mentally ill patients with no family ended up on the streets or in jail.  Many veterans suffering from mental illnesses (caused by fighting for our country) and kids timing out of foster care ended up homeless.

Due to taking from the needy and giving tax breaks to the upper end of the tax bracket, groups homes closed down or reduced the number of  available beds due to budget cuts. Reagan's action caused a vast number of our neediest citizens to suffer in the name of saving dollars.

As mental facilities became more scarce, instead of shifting money for treatment or shelter for those who couldn't care for themselves, the wealthy seemed committed to greed and the rest of us looked the other way. Again. 

The deplorable action in dealing with the large number of homeless people in overwhelmed communities seeks out victims to victimize them further.

Private homes, boarding houses, and people unqualified to care for the mentally ill took advantage of them. Many ended up in jail.

Some cities made it a a crime to lay on a park bench, sleep on the beach or feed a hungry person. Instead of helping those with mental illness we treated them like unwanted animals or moochers and lazy bums who needed to get a job. 

Most cities dismissed the inhumane treatment. As long as they could rid their towns of these social deviants, it didn't matter what happened to them. Chronically ill patients were handed a week's worth of meds and a one-way bus ticket to another city. Problem solved.
Those who survived and were physically able to express themselves probably felt angry and frustrated.  We pretended it was okay and ignored the consequences of such cruelty.

Public school budgets didn't cover services for mental illness for years.

Unable to provide proper testing to get treatment for at risk kids with mental problems, the neediest children tended to get in trouble for acting out. They'd be teased and bullied for their odd behavior. We shook our heads at those 'odd' kids who got bullied. Then the wrath of the consequences of untreated mental illness got too big to ignore. They started shooting.

Once again, the government saved money at the expense of children in desperate need of services. If we actually helped these kids and provided appropriate services in schools, some could have a chance to live a normal life. Many innocent lives could have been saved if kids received professional help. Maybe. Too many long lists of referrals for testing, therapy, counseling- sat on desks or stalled in budget talks.

The problem just gets worse. Congress continues to cut human services. But, mental illness doesn't go away.  It seems many politicians want public schools to fail. Why? To make money, of course. Privatize. No regulations. More dirty money.

The useless cry of taking God out of school has nothing to do with the reality of violence boiling over from raging mental illness. If you want to place blame, taking money out of schools would be more accurate. Forcing good teachers out of schools would also be closer to the truth.

Our choices, our priorities, our willingness to ignore the needs of children--that's what contributes to school violence.

When I started teaching 25 years ago we didn't have the same kind of problems we have in today's schools. We also didn't have God in public schools. What we did have was parental support. Parents were involved in their kid's lives. We had a reasonable number of students in each class with sufficient planning time and the tools needed to do our job.
We focused on teaching instead of jumping through hoops, wasting time giving worthless tests, and following ridiculous impossible mandates like No Child Left Behind.

The pay didn't keep up with inflation and expenses got higher. And more kids needed more help. Like many other teachers, I've paid for my share of school lunches, purchased food to send home with kids who had none, drove homeless students to food pantries, packed bags of food for the weekend, paid for bus fares, collected second hand coats- all the 'extras' many teachers do to help kids survive.

When you care about kids you deal with the reality that too many go without basic needs. Too many are neglected. The saddest part is knowing there are so many needy children who don't ever get the help they need.

I'm pretty sure that 'God in schools' isn't going to literally provide housing, clothes and food for needy children.

Again, these kids suffer because of adult choices. When politicians make the decisions not to cut vital services or not to fund nutrition programs, children suffer the consequences of that greed.

Teachers are so overpaid and get summers off.

That's a typical ignorant and incorrect statement. I'd love to see the worst complainers walk into a packed room filled with 35 (or more) high school kids and successfully run the class -- as in keep discipline under control, get kids to participate, interact, and be engaged in learning and see the relevance in content. THEN those anti-teacher people can talk about how 'easy' teaching is.

(Repeat for 3-4 different preps to teacher class 7 times a day). 

When I left teaching in a regular public classroom I worked with about 225 kids each day. God in school or not, trying to reach 225 children each day, correct their work, provide feedback, give individual instruction, and keep all of them on task? Umm, no. Maybe half.

As I recall in 25 years I think I had 2 summers off. I either had to work another job or take classes to renew certification to meet other requirements. 
Yet, the same people who preach about our 'out of control kids' are often the ones who support cutting funds for education and refuse to pay teachers what they deserve. Sending their kids to parochial school or home school only delays reality. 
There are some great teachers in public schools, but they aren't miracle workers or magicians.

Instead of blaming issues on others, we should realize our personal choices play a big role in consequences. There are no perfect parents or perfect teachers, but we could all make a better effort to help our own children.

Parents, board members, and others need to realize they can't simplify a complex issue. Placing blame on others or hiding behind religion won't solve anything.

Violating the rules of logic and simply spewing out information with no objective facts is the trademark of propaganda. Using key words to appeal to emotion often agitates readers before they have the chance to realize there is no substance in the claims.
It is happening in our country at the highest level. Politicians get followers so agitated they are ready to take action -- nearly any action.

Yes, commentary is opinion. But, it still should make sense. Instead of harping on the empty plan of putting God back in schools - whatever that means, let's start using some common sense.  There are many reasons for all the evil in society, the old God in schools claim is not one of them.