From Sacred to Profane

The observation of a minute of silence in public schools is certainly not a new idea (“Silence Is Still Golden,” Commentary, Dec. 16). I recall a teacher in one of my classes at Los Angeles’ Woodrow Wilson High School in 1946 having us observe a minute of silence at the start of every class.

Commenting on this recently to my female cousin, an 89-year-old retired Los Angeles city schools junior high school teacher, I told her that I recall the boys using the minute of silence to have a sexual fantasy. But I wondered what the girls used their minute of silence for. Without hesitation she answered, “They were comparing their busts to the busts of the other girls in the room.”

So, it seems that a minute of silence at the beginning of each class can indeed be useful.

Martin A. Brower

Corona del Mar