Propaganda

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prop·a·gan·da/ˌpräpəˈgandə/
Noun:

1. Information, esp. of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.
2. The dissemination of such information as a political strategy.

From: Google.

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I saw this on Facebook and couldn’t resist commenting on it there, and now find myself compelled to bring it to the blogosphere too.

Lying.  That's what it really is.  “This one prohibits reading of the bible within it’s walls” is a flat out lie.  Public schools are not allowed to require or in any way promote the reading of any religious text, but we are also not allowed to prohibit a student from reading the Bible (or any other religious writings) during their free time.  I’ve had students that brought a Bible or the Book of Mormon to class and read it during our free reading time and some of our students carry it with them to lunch.  Nobody tells them to put it away, hide it in their locker or not bring it to school.  This is one thing some people have a hard time understanding (or intentionally misrepresent) – there is a huge difference between prohibition and not promoting.

They also leave out the fact that schools deal with children and prisons deal with adults.  Also consider the fact that public schools are institutes of academic education and prisons are supposed to be rehabilitative organizations.  Religious instruction strictly falls under the responsibility of parents and is completely different than encouraging adults to seek spiritual guidance as a form of rehabilitation.

Public schools need to be out of the religion business, neither promoting nor discouraging a parent and child’s spirituality at times it does not disrupt the educational goals (student’s cannot start quoting scriptures in the middle of math class, but I’ve also had to stop them from reading “Twilight” while I’m trying to teach).