What people are saying:

• Facebook User: Are you concerned about gender confusion? There’s much bigger ‘confusions’ to be concerned about than Lifewise.
  • Secular Education Association: Facebook User Deflection doesn’t change the issue. It just tells us exactly where you’re coming from, bigot.
• Facebook User: I’m pretty sure I saw my teachers at the grocery store and didn’t think “oh no, I need to show her my homework!”
  • Secular Education Association: Facebook User Seeing your teacher at Kroger isn’t remotely the same as your teacher also working with a religious program that recruits students from your school during the school day. That distinction really isn’t difficult.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User it’s in the same vein as, “math on Mondays, tech on Tuesdays, god on Wednesdays….?, library Thursdays and PE on Fridays. You don’t think that looks a lot like intertwining religion and public education?
• Facebook User: Secular is all I had to read. Perhaps the name should be changed to Atheist.
  • Secular Education Association: Facebook User Now why would that be? Do you not know what secular means? We have MANY deeply faithful Christians here at SEA — Christians who understand that separation of church and state protects religious freedom for believers and nonbelievers alike.

    Secular does not mean atheist. It means the government doesn’t get to pick a religion — including atheism. Separation of church and state protects Christians from atheists taking over public institutions just as much as it protects atheists from Christians doing the same.

    That’s literally the whole point: public schools belong to everyone.

  • Facebook User: Facebook User If you want your kids to learn about your faith, take them to church.
• Facebook User: Should be after or before school not during!
• Facebook User: I don’t see why there’s a need for students to attend any sort of religious schooling during the school day, or be affiliated in any way with the schools. Why can’t it be on a weekend or after school? Like it’s *always* been.

  If you want your child to have an education crafted around religion. Home school, or send them to a private school.

  • Facebook User: Facebook User you’re right, there isn’t a need.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User if they choose to spend lunch and recess one day a week at Lifewise, why do you care? They are not missing any academics to go. At least not in our schools.
• Facebook User: Whose version of which religion? I’ve worked in many religious institutions where the “teachers” were so ignorant of not only their religions’ histories but also the Bible in a cultural, historical context. This is just grooming.
• Facebook User:  you guys are so ridiculous. You guys own the public schools. Your parents want to take their kids out and teach them the Bible that is their prerogative. The education of the children is the responsibility of the parents not the school. Life wise is entirely an elective and not part of the school system. You teach the religion of secular humanism every day in the public schools. We’re sick of it. If you don’t like life wise, don’t send your kids. Stop trying to dictate what other people do with their kids.
  • Secular Education Association: Facebook User Parents absolutely have the right to teach their children the Bible, take them to church, homeschool them, enroll them in private religious school, or participate in a lawful release-time program.

    What they do not get to do is redefine the public school day around their religious choices and then tell every other family to simply accept the consequences. NOPE.

    Public schools do not ‘belong’ to secular people. They belong to the entire public — Christians, Jews, Muslims, atheists, agnostics and everyone else. That is precisely why the school itself is supposed to remain religiously neutral.

    And no, teaching math, science, history and literacy without religious doctrine is not ‘the religion of secular humanism.’ Religious neutrality is not a competing religion. 🙄

    The question has never been whether you may teach your child Christianity. Of course you may! The question is what happens when a private religious organization removes children during the public-school day, reshapes schedules and opportunities for everyone left behind, and increasingly depends on public-school cooperation to operate.

    Your parental rights are real. So are ours.

  • Facebook User: Secular Education Association So as long as it your beliefs then it is cool, but if you disagree, then it is a problem…
  • Secular Education Association: Facebook User No, Brian. Some of us share those beliefs. We still understand they don’t belong embedded in the public-school day.

    That’s the part you’re missing. This isn’t “our beliefs are acceptable and yours aren’t.” It’s the exact opposite. Christians, Jews, Muslims, atheists, agnostics and everyone else get the same religious freedom precisely because the public school doesn’t get to pick a religion to accommodate, promote, or privilege.

    You’re free to practice your faith. You’re not entitled to restructure everyone else’s school day around it.
    We get it. Equality can feel like discrimination when you mistake privilege for a right.

  • Facebook User: Secular Education Association. http://www.NeedGod.com
  • Facebook User: Facebook User say it louder!
• Facebook User: We have a retired Perry teacher moonlighting for LW. 🤮 she used to be my favorite too.
• Facebook User: Enough trauma happens in churches. Enough trauma happens in school. Kids should not have their mental health tampered with and at such young ages. Neuroscience shows how bad this is for a developing brain.
  • Secular Education Association: Facebook User YES. And that harm doesn’t only fall on the children who leave for religious instruction. It can affect the kids who stay behind too — watching their class split apart, losing normal instructional time, being treated as the “other” group, or feeling pressured to participate just to belong. Kids should not be carrying the social consequences of adults inserting religion into the middle of their school day.
• Facebook User: You know what I would propose? That schools have a formal curriculum for that time slot for the students not attending Lifewise that is Lifeskills. That would be financial education centered around all of the skills that you need to be financially successful such as understanding financing, auto purchasing, real estate purchasing, budgeting, banking, tax processes and limited investing.

  Like religion, preparing your child for life in the real world should be part of being a competent parent, but is also neglected in many homes.

  My many years in the financial industry constantly reminded me how ill prepared many of our young people are and make bad decisions with lasting consequences .

  This would give families options and a choice between theology which may or may not match their personal belief and financial literacy which is universal.

  • Secular Education Association: Facebook User We absolutely agree on the need for financial literacy. But there is already regularly scheduled public-school instruction happening during this time. Students who do not participate in religious release time should not have their education interrupted, reduced, or replaced simply because other students leave the building.

    If a district believes financial literacy needs more instructional time, great — give it to ALL students. It shouldn’t become a holding activity for the kids who stay behind. Nothing should become a holding activity. Period.

  • Facebook User: Secular Education Association I understand your position. The purpose behind my comment is to provide a viable alternative in school systems that have already adopted the Lifewise program through persuasion with school boards. The thought being that if there were a viable elective alternative, that may appeal to more parents than theological instruction.
  • Secular Education Association: Facebook User We totally understand what you’re trying to solve, and agree that students who remain at school deserve something meaningful.

    Our concern is that creating a special alternative for nonparticipants can unintentionally normalize the underlying arrangement. Financial literacy is valuable enough to be offered because students need it — not because some classmates leave campus for religious instruction.

    Otherwise we risk building two parallel tracks into the public-school day: religious instruction for one group, and a substitute activity for everyone else. We’d rather see districts protect the regular instructional program for all students and add worthwhile electives because they benefit all students, independently of LifeWise.

  • Facebook User: Secular Education Association does that include keeping muslim kids in class instead of going to out to pray several times a day?
  • Secular Education Association: Facebook User Muslim students have the same individual religious-freedom rights as every other student. A child quietly stepping aside for a few minutes to pray is not remotely equivalent to an outside religious organization removing groups of students from public school for instruction.

    And no, Muslim children are not routinely leaving class ‘several times a day.’ Prayer times vary, and only some fall during the school day depending on the season.

    You can take the Islamophobia somewhere else.

  • Facebook User: Facebook User this.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User it’s just taking even more kids out of the classroom at a time when we have plummeting rankings in education across the country. I’m not sure the answer is “less science, math, and reading”
• Facebook User: Isn’t that the point of this program insinuating itself into the public school day? And this is just the start.
  • Secular Education Association: Facebook User BINGO. Unfortunately, we agree.
• Facebook User: It is the parent’s responsibility to teach religion, morals, and manners to their child.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User All the divorced and remarried And divorced and remarried and divorced and remarried Christians don’t know that
• Facebook User: Excellent points
• Facebook User: So how’s she gonna treat the kids who aren’t Christian.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User awfully
  • Facebook User: Facebook User she intends to convert or ostracize them.
  • Secular Education Association: Facebook User This is exactly why keeping personal religious belief separate from a teacher’s public-school role matters. Teachers are absolutely entitled to their faith, but students shouldn’t be put in a position where they’re wondering whether being Christian, Jewish, Muslim, atheist, agnostic, or anything else will affect how their teacher sees or treats them. In most cases, kids don’t need to know a teacher’s religious affiliation at all. The classroom should feel equally theirs, regardless of what they believe.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User exactly. Social pressure to convert children. I was one of those children.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User I was the perennial misfit, so my atheism was the cherry on top.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User good for you! I was full on evangelical Christian nationalist until my mid 20s and I started to deconstruct. Now I regularly speak out against my former church and how abusive evangelical religion is.
  • Facebook User: Secular Education Association Yes. when I came into a public school as a music teacher that had always had a Christmas Carols program, I was insistent that I wasn’t going to do that. That we could do a concert drawn from the curriculum that was either completely non-holiday, or we could do an inclusive program that drew on the various traditions and holidays celebrated within our community, but we were not going to prioritize one. I think most of the school decided I must be Jewish, because otherwise, why would I object? Nope. Not Jewish, raised Christian-but aware that my job isn’t to teach religion, and doing a Christmas program of traditional Christmas Carols, which are all religious in nature, is doing exactly that. After fighting that battle, when I moved to a new school again, I explained that I do my concert in November so everyone “can enjoy their own holiday traditions” in December…and have done it that way ever since.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User that comment me sick. I have never ever treated my kids differently and we have students who speak 14 different languages who are Protestant, Catholic, Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim, atheist- you name it. I don’t treat kids who go to my church any different than my other students and I don’t know any other teachers who do either. What an awful thing to say.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User That is actually sad. I am agnostic leaning towards atheist and I would not try to ruin the holidays for children. You can have an inclusive concert with music from all holidays within that time frame. My Jewish 3rd grade teacher made Easter Bunny prints and gave each student in her class a small Easter basket. In addition, whether we like it or not, religion has played a huge role in western culture’s music and art. So has Islam. So has Judaism. Indigenous Americans cannot separate their music from religion either. We need not push religion,, but we also need not ignore it to the detriment of our students and the communities that we teach in.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User how nice for you. You do realize that your experience doesn’t mean that’s the case for everyone, right. Makes ME sick that you aren’t willing to question anything outside your own little bubble of bullshit.
  • Facebook User: Secular Education Association this is a ridiculous expectation. That same teacher may run into students at church. It’s no different. The only kids participating in this program, do so voluntarily and with permission. The program isn’t “pulling kids” out to indoctrinate them against their wills. And it’s an option held by any religion that wants to make those accommodations available. Very common for the LDS churches to place facilities next to high schools for that purpose where I live. Your entire proposal of this being an issue is no different than a flagrant personal attack. Pure discrimination against any teacher that practices religion outside of school. “I worry how she treats the non Christians.” Do you also worry how the Jew, Buddhist, Muslim, Mormon, or 7th Day Adventist (etc.) treats the “others”???
• Facebook User: I would be concerned that she is including her unscientific perspective in her public school lessons, as well.
• Facebook User: What if you went to same church and she was sunday school teacher 🤔
• Facebook User: When they get on the bus. It’s not rocket science.
  • Facebook User: They sometimes stay after school for things like this.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User yes, kids are smarter than SEA gives them credit for…
• Facebook User: Religious education belongs in homes and churches. Public Edio’s about teaching actual facts and skills
• Facebook User: Why can’t Lifewise have these encounters in the evening not interrupting the school day? Young Life and other church youth groups either meet at a church, someone’s home or a totally neutral location!
• Facebook User: How about the teachers that tend bar on the weekend? That’s really confusing…
  • Facebook User: …or work at Target? Are teachers not allowed to be in public in their spare time??
  • Secular Education Association: Facebook User well now. Our community bartenders and target workers aren’t pulling children out from the public school day to instill a very narrow “biblical worldview” into them. And every time you comment you drive OUR algorithm. Keep it up.
  • Facebook User: Secular Education Association no they are just conveying the message that its ok to drink
  • Secular Education Association: Facebook User why would there be kids in this hypothetical bar that this made up bartender/teacher works in? 🤦‍♀️
  • Facebook User: Secular Education Association because a lot if today’s parents are idiots. They serve pizza at the brewbarn-must be a family place…..we can get drunk AND pretend we’re loving parents….
  • Facebook User: Secular Education Association a few algorithm points to show just how narrow and bigoted your “association ” is-well worth it. The more people who see your mindless drivel, the more that are drawn to the Truth.
  • Secular Education Association: Facebook User None of that has anything to do with the point we made. We don’t give a damn if parents take their own kids to a brewery, church, mosque, synagogue, Target, or anywhere else. That’s their choice.

    We’re talking about our kids, our public schools, and the authority public-school employees hold over students during the school day. A teacher bartending on Saturday has absolutely nothing to do with that.
    You’re arguing against a point nobody made. 💁‍♀️

  • Secular Education Association: Facebook User How exactly are we ‘bigoted,’ Michael? Be specific. We defend the religious freedom of Christians, Muslims, Jews, atheists and everyone else equally. We just don’t think public schools should privilege any of them.

    Go ahead. Take your time.

  • Facebook User: Facebook User how many STUDENTS are going out to bars?
  • Facebook User: Facebook User Kids aren’t going to bars to drink…. Tf
  • Facebook User: Facebook User
  • Facebook User: Facebook User the ones that have parents that value beer more than their kids-sadly there are way too many who spend evenings at a brewpub with the kids-thinking it makes them seem selfless…
  • Facebook User: Facebook User duhhhh. Parents grandparents older siblings……should I go on?
  • Facebook User: Secular Education Association everheard of friends or relatives.
  • Facebook User: Secular Education Association the schools don’t give ANY religious group-even the SEA-special treatment. Since the 50’s any group that wants to loosely call their practices(christian, Muslim, Wiccan, Drag, Nativist,….) religious, can freely access students during the school day. Catholics have been doing it-usually in the school parking lot-since the 70’s. Nobody else chose to use the law for their groups until LW stepped into the gap. Feel free to start a group of your own-and you can teach your ways.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User and those religious groups clearly identify who and what they are. Why does the Southern Baptist Conference hide behind the Lifewise name? Why did they engage in this rebranding? Perhaps to deceive those of religious beliefs that hold them to be heretical and wrong headed?
• Facebook User: I taught for 33 years ans often had kids in Sunday School or VBS that were in my class. So I was both their teacher and their Sunday School teacher. It isn’t a problem.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User were you teaching your Sunday school class in the public school building?
• Facebook User: They leave school for it and it’s up to the parents if they want it, that’s how it’s separated. Thanks for sticking up for their constitutional rights! 👏
• Facebook User: Wonder how much of her art education includes religious art under the guise of classic artist study?
  • Facebook User: Facebook User you mean like how my son’s art teacher had children draw themselves at a protest for BLM? Like that?
  • Facebook User: Nope, not like that at all.
• Facebook User: Sunday school is not a part of daily school and should not be!
  • Facebook User: Facebook User That was literally the purpose of how schools started in America!
  • Facebook User: Facebook User Who gives a shit, I want a person who is a productive citizen that can read, comprehend what they read, write, understand science, and do math. Religion only has one purpose- INDOCTRINATION and NO RELIGION outweighs another, keep them ALL out of school and produce citizens who are productive in society.
• Facebook User: