Who says God shouldn't be in the public school Classroom?

I found an odd book in my classroom today, something one of my kids brought to school. It's called "The Everyday Guide to GOD" with a placid looking blue lit, heavenly scene for a cover and at the bottom, the words, "Basic, uncomplicated and indespensible". Now I'm not big on the whole religion thing, but it made me wonder why a 3rd grader would have it in their possession and feel the need to bring it to school.

Oddly enough, I've found my 3rd graders to be very intruiging when it comes to God. For instance, right before the holiday break, my class wanted to know why I personally didn't celebrate Christmas. Before I could even utter a sound, one little girl cries out (in a most annoying/whiny voice), "But what about JESUS! Don't you want to celebrate JESUS! It's his BIRTHDAY, we need to celebrate JESUS!" Two weeks before that, a couple of my other students got into an argument about whether one girl was "truly" a Christian if she didn't believe exactly what the other girl did. It took me by surprise that some of these kids are taking religion SO seriously at 8 and 9 years old. It shouldn't surprise me (due to the fact that I'm knee deep in the eastern end of the "Bible Belt") that they are being taught religious stories and learning lines of ethics through church- but why are they SO worried about their salvation?

I guess what bothers me most about it is that it's just one more example of how our kids aren't kids anymore. I understand that some of these kids have a seemingly higher line of intelligence than we did back then, but they should be worried about whether their doll's hair will grow back if they cut it, or if the black magic marker will come off their newly "painted" hotwheel- not about whether their souls will go to Heaven tomorrow if they die in their sleep.

Then again this whole God discussion has turned up some interesting thoughts.......

One of my other girls asked a question much more to my liking. She asked me, "Mr. Rahmaan, what would happen to our sentences if God never invented verbs?" Now THAT is a question that even God would appreciate.....