May 2009
A minute of silence, please
By Jim Walsh

This morning in schools across the Lone Star State, children recited the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag and the pledge to the Texas flag, and then they observed one minute of silence. The minute of silence — not a “moment,” but a minute — is required by Texas Education Code Section 25.082(d). The statute says that “each student may, as the student chooses, reflect, pray, meditate, or engage in any other silent activity that is not likely to interfere with or distract another student.”

Now that sounds simple enough — 60 seconds of quiet in an otherwise busy and noisy day. But that 60-second quiet harbor sparked a lawsuit that produced a 23-page opinion from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. The case of Croft v. Governor of the State of Texas was decided on March 16. The court concluded that a minute of silent reflection — even when mandated by state law, even when it might be used for prayer — is constitutional.

The decision makes sense. The plaintiffs argued that this was yet another effort by the vast right-wing conspiracy to bring Jesus back into public school. They asserted that the primary effect of the law would be to “advance certain forms of mainstream Protestant Christian religion.”

Bullroar. The law allows all manner of prayer, whether to Jesus, Vishnu, Allah or the oak tree on the school playground. And it does not require prayer at all. It also allows “any other silent activity.”

We expect there are more than a few middle school kids who spend this quiet moment thinking about a video game, what’s for lunch or the cutie in the next row. Technically, the statute even would permit silent thoughts about how to cheat on the upcoming math test. It would be interesting to know who does better on math tests — the kids who pray to do well or the kids who use that minute to figure out ways to cheat.

The Texas Legislature did a good job of fashioning this law so that it would withstand the inevitable legal challenge. The plaintiffs argued that the Legislature was motivated by religious impulses. But the record showed that the bill’s author, Republican Sen. Jeff Wentworth, carefully constructed it to model a statute in Virginia that the 4th Circuit had approved.

The 5th Circuit had the good sense to make a distinction between the motivation of some legislators and the overall intent of the statute: “While there were references by some legislators to returning prayer to schools, the religious motives of some legislators should not deflect us from the secular purposes contained in the plain text of Section 25.082(d) and espoused by the Legislature to justify the 2003 Amendments.”

The decision makes sense educationally, also. We have been in public schools and we can report that they are noisy. Lockers slam. P.A. announcements are intrusive and overly loud. Classrooms are full of books dropping on the floor, the click of three-ring binders, the constant chatter of children and the desperate voice of the teacher trying to maintain order.

If the Dawg were in charge of public education, there would be one minute of silence every hour — at minimum. Our lives are far too noisy, full of verbal and visual clutter. “A minute of silence, please!” We are not sure it would do any good for the kids, but we are confident that it would help the adults.