The film didn't do an excellent job of
showing the opinions of both sides of
the argument, it focused more on the
side of the mom and her family than the
side of the school.
Annotations:
Grunberg, S. (Director) (1999). School prayer: A community at war [Theater].
The film portrayed the Christian viewpoint of the school as
somewhat uneducated and highly discriminatory, and didn't show the
pro sides to their argument. Some of the citizens of the town were
hateful and threatening like the video portrayed, but many of them
were not. It seemed that the video over highlighted the struggles of
the family in comparison to any others that might have occurred.
The film provided a greater amount of backstory
to the family, including following their lives at home
and describing the difficulties they faced going out
in the town. Other than interviewing members of
the other side of the debate, the film didn't show
any personal reasons for the debate on the side of
the people fighting to keep prayer in the schools.
Parent Conversation
The first thing I would do is to schedule the conference
that the parent wanted and we would discuss the issue and
hear her opinions.
We would try and figure out if there was a way for her child to have time
to himself to engage in personal prayer that didn't interfere with class
time and the school rules. As a teacher I would try my best to come up
with a solution that would please the parent, but at the same time
remind them of the illegal manner of prayer in schools.
To make the parent feel heard I would tell them that I would ask to
have a meeting with other teachers and members of the community to
discuss the issue and see what we could do. Even if it doesn't prove to
be effective, showing the effort will make the parent feel like I as a
teacher legitimately care about the issue at hand.
I would report back to the parent that while we cannot
make an exception for their child to have an official time
of prayer in school because it is illegal, they are free to engage in their own
personal prayer in school. I would hope that the parent
would appreciate my attempt and accept the school's
rule and I would leave the situation at that.
Annotations:
School prayer: A community at war. (2005). Retrieved from http://www.logtv.com/films/schoolprayer/