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Religious items being sold in the school bookstore - your thoughts?

Aunt Spiker

Aunt Spiker

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So, our daughter is 6 - in the 1st grade. In the morning, sometimes, I let her go to the school bookstore in their library to buy pencils, erasers and little things like that. Nothing wow. Sometimes they sell little toys or jewelry.

Yesterday she bought a purple plastic cross on a necklace.

What are your thoughts?
What would be your reaction?
 
Aunt Spiker said:
So, our daughter is 6 - in the 1st grade. In the morning, sometimes, I let her go to the school bookstore in their library to buy pencils, erasers and little things like that. Nothing wow. Sometimes they sell little toys or jewelry.

Yesterday she bought a purple plastic cross on a necklace.

What are your thoughts?
What would be your reaction?
Click to expand...

Well, it's just a little purple plastic cross on a necklace...

If I were genuinely concerned about a separation of church/state issue here, I'd probably make a trip down to the bookstore to see what else they had...Then, if it still bothered me--regardless if there were other items or not, I would write a letter to bookstore management and ask them to address your concerns. No response? Kick it up the line. You're entitled to have your concerns addressed.
 
Aunt Spiker said:
So, our daughter is 6 - in the 1st grade. In the morning, sometimes, I let her go to the school bookstore in their library to buy pencils, erasers and little things like that. Nothing wow. Sometimes they sell little toys or jewelry.

Yesterday she bought a purple plastic cross on a necklace.

What are your thoughts?
What would be your reaction?
Click to expand...

Don't see anything to get worked up over. If someone is pushing them on the kids or something I'd start to complain but since they're just there for purchase no harm no foul.
 
Selling religious symbols in a public school is not exactly ideal in my book.

But I don't see the harm as long as everyone respects it.

I just hope the store is ready to start selling Hijabs, Sihk daggers and Kunkumams :2razz:
 
Jetboogieman said:
Selling religious symbols in a public school is not exactly ideal in my book.

But I don't see the harm as long as everyone respects it.

I just hope the store is ready to start selling Hijabs, Sihk daggers and Kunkumams :2razz:
Click to expand...

What about swastikas for Hindus?
 
Aunt Spiker said:
So, our daughter is 6 - in the 1st grade. In the morning, sometimes, I let her go to the school bookstore in their library to buy pencils, erasers and little things like that. Nothing wow. Sometimes they sell little toys or jewelry.

Yesterday she bought a purple plastic cross on a necklace.

What are your thoughts?
What would be your reaction?
Click to expand...

i wouldn't care.
 
Though I am not religious and don't readily encourage mychildren ot believe anything - I was still raised in a religious family and I was instilled with a crisp respect for religious symbols, their meanings.

I don't believe any religious symbol is for casual use or display - if you wear it then you should believe in it and know what it represents.

My daughter did tell me that "It's the cross that jesus died on for our sins" (obviously learning that from my parents and sister) - but something with *that* connection shouldn't be shown or especially sold in a school as a meaningless plasticy trinket.

Oddly - I'm bothered with the school's casual lack of respect and concern for the meaning of it more than I'm bothered by the fact that my daughter wanted to have it.

It is a religious symbol - has heavy meaning - and It's disrespectful to a fault to peddle it with the erasers and pencils as if it's a toss-away unimportant object.

Now - that's strange coming from me . . . lol
 
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Not a big deal, I'm just assuming she bought it because it was pretty. When I was 6 I didn't have any money or allowance at all, and I brought lunch from home so I didn't have any spare lunch money to spend on anything either.
 
I'd be more concerned if they were peddling "an Inconvenient Truth"
 
I'd be genuinely surprised they sold toys and jewelry at a public school. Hell, I'm surprised they allow the sale of junk food in schools these days, it's nuts.

Aside from that general surprise, the fact that some of the jewelry was Christian religious symbols wouldn't surprise me further. I mean, what aspect of culture do they not infiltrate? As long as it wasn't something more than just some random trinkets, I'd probably not care after that. If there was more to it, I might inquire.

On the other hand, my wife could very well get worked up about it and grill the school about it. She would initially say she wouldn't, then I'd get a call while at work and she'd tell me she couldn't contain herself and had to go give them a piece of her mind. If they treated her well and did something about it, she might be OK after a while. If not, she may try to gain support for opposition and/or insist we take her out of that school. She'd likely harbor a grudge against them forever. I would nod my head and fix her a drink.
 
It could be worse. She could've signed a contract to be a suicide-bomber.
 
I respect the attitude that these symbols be respected. Sounds like your daughter knows the story.

I don't see how this is in any way a separation of church and state issue. If kids were forced to buy them, that would be a different story but it doesn't sound like they are.

This nonsense about removing the 10 commandments from court buildings, and the like, is preposterous. Nothing violating church and state with that display. Some people probably want to replace it with Das Kapital, no doubt.
 
Aunt Spiker said:
So, our daughter is 6 - in the 1st grade. In the morning, sometimes, I let her go to the school bookstore in their library to buy pencils, erasers and little things like that. Nothing wow. Sometimes they sell little toys or jewelry.

Yesterday she bought a purple plastic cross on a necklace.

What are your thoughts?
What would be your reaction?
Click to expand...

It absolutely should not be in the book store as a sellable item.
 
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