It is clear that the best choice is to not have prayer at all.
On Mon, 12 May 1997, Robert Squires wrote:
> At 02:30 / 12-05-97 +0000, Ian Dorion wrote:
> >
> >(Ian 5/11) The problem with, "The Government shall not require any person
> to join
> >in prayer or other religious activity, initiate or designate school
> prayerss,
> >discriminate against religion, or deny equal access to a benefit on
> account of
> >religion." is that classmates of children who don't participate will
> generally
> >beat the hell out of the student that does not join in. On this, I have
> first hand
> >knowledge, being a Scotch 'Protestant' (actually atheist) in an Italian
> Catholic
> >neighborhood. I have also heard of a Lutheran family in a Mississippi
> Baptist town
> >with the same problem very recently.
> >
> >This is one problem I think we are all going to have to fight.
>
> SQUIRES
> Great point. This is one of the problems with "voluntary prayer" that
> they'll never overcome. What can they do about peer pressure in the
> classroom? It's true that some kids who don't join in will later be
> ridiculed. In some places, maybe those who DO join in will be ridiculed.
> Either way it's wrong - and certainly has no place in public schools. Peer
> pressure is one of the strongest forces in young kid's lives, so in reality
> there is no such thing as "voluntary prayer" in a school - since peer
> pressure is always exerting force.
>
>
> Robert Squires
> r-squires@worldnet.att.net
>