Back to school - Let's make it a good year

Now that school is back in, we can look forward to a couple of things happening - some good and some bad. Lets' cover the good stuff first because that's always more fun.

Joining the local PTO is a darn good idea for starters, but getting to know the school officials and teachers first hand is even better. Volunteer. There's nothing like being on the job to insure that the job gets done right. You can be certain that the "other guys" will be there (they always are) ...so recognizing that we should be there, too, isn't a difficult stretch to make.

At the level of little guys and gals, our grade schoolers, we can look forward to field trips and picnics and stage plays and holidays. And for our older kids, there'll be sporting events and dress-up dances. For all of these things, regardless of the age, in order to see them happen for the best that our kids can get, we need to encourage ourselves, we atheist parents and grandparents (...that's me) to get involved and be active participants. And at the top end of education, at the collage and university levels, I strongly encourage every young atheist adult to become attached to and active in his local campus atheist group. Moreover, if there is none, make one.

Just as for anything else that happens in our world, school events at all levels ought to be looked upon as proper focuses for atheist attention. If we'd like to keep our schools functioning as nice little secular institutions, just as they ought to be under the law, then we'd better take part in being there to be sure that that's the case.... always. Now, can I have an "A effin' men" to that brothers and sisters?

But now for the bad stuff... I suspect that at some point during the year we'll once again be reading about child abuse cases and about religiously bias intrusions of all types and about attempts by the ultra-conservative right wing religious fanatics to nose their way "somehow" into mucking-up our public schools. We might even have to deal with politically manipulated misdirected-spending. (Oh my... its another new school year.) Let's do our best to prevent these sorts of things this year but when they happen (and they will) let's be ready to pounce upon the perpetrators just as hard as we possibly can and say: (as Dawkins said about religious interferences into science,) "Enough is enough."