Letter to the Editor

Opposing release time for religious instruction

To the Editor:   

I’m a happy Revere parent: my son is a senior; he’s thrived in the system since elementary school. My wife, the most sensible person I know, is a Revere graduate. I’m convinced that there is something wonderful there.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that I attended the last school board meeting, and Mark Twain was right (“In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards.”). I’ve reviewed the “Released Time for Religious Instruction” policy that the board adopted in April. The best I can say about that policy is that it’s magnificently, even monumentally, dumb: students can leave school during school hours on vehicles not operated to district standards for religious instruction by unlicensed instructors (preachers?) with unknown credentials using unreviewed curricula, while being served unregulated snacks by people unknown to the district? Would that same freedom apply to synagogues or temples? To Wiccans, Satan-worshippers, atheists or even – dare I say it – Presbyterians? If not, why not? This misbegotten policy lets the camel’s nose under the tent: before long, the rest of the camel, and the rest of the caravan, will follow. That’s not what the schools are for.

This nonsense needs to stop. We must do everything possible to disabuse the Revere system of this appalling notion. ∞

William K. Smith

Wheatley Spur