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Jewish World Review August 31, 2001 /12 Elul, 5761
http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
WHEN I hear that the courts are carving out a moment of silence for
Virginia's children, I respond with deep longing. I'm raising five kids, and
they're were more or less always home this summer, often with a circus of
friends.
The racket is perfectly proportioned to the boredom. Let me describe to
you what is happening right now, as I write this. First of all, the
television is, as always, on. Oldest son Hayes is making youngest son Sam
squeal, his volume dial set on ten. Baby Jane has a summer cold and is in
nonstop squall. Other children seem to be downloading Jah Rule rap songs and
playing them continuously, as they burn CDs for their friends.
A Federal Court has ruled that it is constitutional for Virginia's
schools, as they did during the last school year, to require a minute's
silence of all children, to "meditate, pray or engage in other silent
activity."
I am skeptical for this reason: I'm not sure kids are actually capable
of a moment of silence. But trying to give them one is a very, very good
idea.
Silence has always suggested a spiritual and intellectual state, a state
of readiness or contemplation. This moment of silence could obviously be
employed in a wide variety of ways.
This does not sound to me like it is an establishment of religion.
Rather, it sounds like the establishment of the impossible beauty of an
impossible silence in a world that roars continually. Perhaps a minute of
silence is the only part of the average school day that would constitute
education.
As long as no one is making the students pray, silence can
surely do no harm. One thing you will notice if you go to almost any school
is that teachers spend an inordinate amount of time enforcing quiet,
preventing or precluding communication among the students, not to mention
rude noises and teacher abuse.
Still, the school is an atmosphere of noise, not least because teachers
are continually hectoring children with information, until their cute little
ears overflow and their brains bulge. The idea that silence could serve an
educational function is counter-intuitive.
But education is a mode of communication, and there is no communication
without silence, which goes a long way to explaining why there was no
communication in my house this summer. There must be spaces between words or
there are no words. There must be lapses in the lecture or one ceases to
hear. There must be extinction or there is no becoming.
So as they reach in their minds toward G-d or toward
nothing at all, kids will be reaching into the heart of the matter. That
really can't violate the establishment clause.
And if Virginia successfully creates a moment of silence, I invite them
to bring it up here and drop it off at my
Silence
By Crispin Sartwell
JWR contributor Crispin Sartwell teaches philosophy at the Maryland Institute College of Art. His website is www.crispinsartwell.com. Comment by clicking here.
