>> What exactly is wrong with teaching kids not to kill, steal honor their parents, etc.? What exactly is your objection to the Ten Commandments aside from your obvious anti-religious bigotry. JLA<<
What indeed. But as a guide to moral goodness in *school*, it seems to me that the commandments as they stand will not be all that helpful. I have some suggestions for amending them. Lets consider them in order.
> 3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
> 4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of
> any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath,
> or that is in the water under the earth:
> 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the
> LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers
> upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that
> hate me;
Leaving aside the whole question of whether its appropriate to tell Hindu school children that they should not participate in their parents' religion, it seems to me that the construction and erection of idols, and their subsequent worship, is not much of a problem in the schools of American cities. Perhaps we can change this to something like "thou shalt not neglect to do thy homework."
> 6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my
> commandments.
> 7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the
> LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
This I approve of. Students should not say G*d-damn or J**** C****. But in my experience these are not the swear words of choice. In de rigeur cursing, the omnipotent and omniscient creator of the universe has been replaced by biological functions and parts of the anatomy. Personally I think that if we are going to be putting up signs with words that students are not supposed to say we should provide a more complete list. George Carlon's the-seven-words-you-can't-say-on-TV are an obvious place to start. (What were they again? Oh don't bother.)
> 8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
> 9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
> 10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou
> shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy
> manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger
> that is within thy gates:
> 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that
> in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed
> the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Taking a day off (as truedog suggested) is a good idea. But since the students will not actually be in school on the Sabbath (or its Christian equivalent), one wonders just how much this will improve their behaviour therein. The text also tells them to work hard during the rest of the week, however, and I'm all for that. (What they will make, of course, of sons, daughters, manservants, maidservants, cattle and strangers-within-the-gates is anyone's guess.) Perhaps this commandment should be changed to "thou shalt have a nice weekend".
> 12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the
> land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
I am very much in support of this commandments, having a teenage son. But wouldn't the schools prefer it if we changed this to 'honour thy teachers'?
> 13 Thou shalt not kill.
Well, until a few months ago I would have thought that this would go without saying. If only those Columbine students had read this commandment and known that they weren't supposed to kill their fellow students, things would have been different. So let's leave this one unchanged.
> 14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.
I assume that this is unnecessary in the elementary schools. A little more relevant by high school, though as I recall those who were getting laid in my high school (or claiming it, as I now think more likely) were not doing it with married people.
> 15 Thou shalt not steal.
Definitely a good idea to remind them of this one. Can we add cheating on tests?
> 16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
False accusation is not as serious a problem now as it was at the end of the second millennium BC (when I assume that this commandment was written). Today we are more concerned with other kinds of falsehoods, which could be prohibited, too, I suppose. Or better yet, lets rewrite this and command students to bring *true* accusations against one another. I mean, if we get them squealing on one another, it will be easier to weed out the trouble makers.
> 17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy
> neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his
> ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.
School children do not, in my experience have a problem with coveting houses, wives, manservants, maidservants, oxes, or asses. Johnny's Star-Wars Jar Jar Binx figurine, thankfully, falls in the last category—anything that is thy neighbour's. Hopefully, they will read that far.
Oh, by the way, how much is this going to cost? |
