Moments Of Silence

It may not be a terribly hot-button issue these days, but we've been reading cases concerning school prayer in my Constitutional Law class, and I feel the need to comment.

The current state of the law is that while a moment of silence for "meditation" or "reflection" at the start of the school day may be permitted (or indeed mandated by the state), students cannot be told or even invited to use that time for prayer. The objective is to allow students a forum to pray at the beginning of the day while not running afoul of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

My question is why is it so important that students be given an opportunity to pray during the school day at all? It seems like prayer is such a separate and personal activity from public education that the two should not intersect in the least. If it's so important for you to pray, then wake up a few minutes earlier and say a few words before getting on the school bus in the morning. If public prayer is that important, find a few friends with whom you can share devotions in the halls before the opening bell. Can people really not go six and a half hours without a reference to religion? If not, maybe parochial school would be a better option.

As a religious person myself, I respect people's spirituality. But I also see spirituality as a personal activity, one which, out of respect for people's varying beliefs, should be conducted in an unobtrusive matter on one's own time. You are in school to learn, not to pray, and I don't think I'm asking too much by wanting to keep them separate.