I am bewildered as to why Senate Bill 55 exists. SB 55 requires that the national motto In God We Trust "shall be displayed in each public school. The display shall be located in a prominent location within each public school. The display may take the form of a mounted plaque, student artwork, or any other appropriate form as determined by the school principal."
When I had the privilege to teach world literature classes, I taught a unit on the Bible. I frequently supplemented the textbook with the Garden of Eden, David and Goliath, and Saul on the Road to Damascus passages. When I taught The Grapes of Wrath, I spent a class period discussing how Steinbeck inverted the biblical account of the search for the promised land. I taught Flannery O'Connor stories every chance I got. I usually told students that O'Connor believed her "subject in fiction is the action of grace in territory largely held by the devil." It is difficult to teach literature with discussing grace, Christ figures, and a heavenly host of biblical archetypes and allusions.
Conservative and liberal students took my world lit, American lit, and AP lit classes. No conservative parent ever thanked me for exposing students to the Bible. They didn't show up at a parent-teacher conference and say that "the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” and we know that "it shall not return. . .void, but it shall accomplish that which [God] please[s]." Nothing close to that ever happened.
Nor did liberal parents contact Cory Heidelberger to have him charge into my classroom followed by an army of ACLU lawyers wielding 666 cease and desist orders. I expect a few students whom I bored to tears would have welcomed the intrusion, but nothing close to that ever happened either.
If the goal is to get students to see the phrase "In God We Trust," directing that principals place the motto in "a school entryway, cafeteria, or other common area where students are most likely to see the national motto display" means that the motto will become background noise like lunch menus, daily announcements, and posters reminding everyone to wear school colors on Friday. I can guarantee that students will pay more attention to lunch menus than they will the motto. I doubt the motto will remind them to say a table grace before they eat.
Finally, I'm willing to bet that most, if not all, of the legislation's sponsors complain about students being addicted to their phones. They should know that young'uns will be checking Snapchat or Instagram or texts from work on every trip through all common areas.
In short, God is not absent from public schools and SB 55 is an ineffective solution in search of a problem.
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