Guidelines on School Prayer

* President Clinton’s statement, “The First Amendment does not require students to leave their religion at the schoolhouse door” (July 13), rings very true, but includes teachers as well.

My first response to those who ask my opinion about prayer in the public school is “Who says that there isn’t already prayer in school?” Before class begins each morning, I meet with other Christian teachers at our school to pray about our students, their needs and our ability to instruct them with wisdom, compassion and insight. Numerous times throughout the day I silently ask God for guidance (just as many students do when they take a test!).

In the days prior to the start of school in September, I take time to sit down at each student’s desk and pray for the child who will sit there in the coming year. I introduce myself to those students on the first day of school by telling about my family and pets, my education and training, my hobbies and favorites, and my faith in God. My faith cannot be separated from my identity. Sharing who I am not only helps the students to feel more comfortable with me as their teacher, but also gives them the freedom to share their own unique qualities, including their own faith, with my multicultural class.

Those who seek to mandate school prayer through a constitutional amendment deny the very rights our Founding Fathers guaranteed us in the First Amendment. America’s classrooms cry out for the clarification of these rights, as called for by Clinton. Making students and teachers pray in public school will not bring about the changes our society so desperately needs. We cannot federally force faith any more than we can legislate love.

Perhaps, if we people of faith spent more time on our knees in prayer, and placed more emphasis on living the kind of life God asks us to lead, our nation’s children would learn from our living examples of faith, hope and love.

PATRICIA ANN “PANN” BALTZ

Arcadia

* President Clinton’s announcement of the need for federal guidelines on religion in public schools is disappointing. There is only one purpose for such guidelines, and that is to weaken the protection we have against government-sanctioned religion. This political mistake only panders to the superstitious crowd that believes all of America’s problems will be solved by encouraging obeisance to a narrowly-defined Christian God between Algebra I and American History.

How ironic that the same bunch who blame too much government for all their woes are usually the ones who can’t wait for government to herd us all down the same Bible-based path. Now Clinton is only encouraging them by opening Pandora’s box in exchange for a few more votes. GREG LEE

Aliso Viejo