What Religion Means to Menlo Students
Six Day Devotion Eliza Crowder | Staff Reporter
Many people think I am insane because of the substantial amount of church meetings that I attend every week. With three hours of church every Sunday and 6:30 a.m. religious classes every day before school, sometimes I ask myself why I dedicate a huge amount of my time to church related events. After pondering this question for a few minutes, I eventually cease to doubt myself and confirm that I choose to attend these meetings for my own benefit and self-discipline. The times in my life when I have missed church on any given Sunday are so few that I could probably count each instance on my fingers. For as long as I can remember, my family has woken up every Sunday morning with the first priority in our household being to arrive to church on time. It’s no secret that a huge chunk of my life has been spent learning gospel lessons in church. Despite this major time commitment, I cannot imagine what my life would be like without having been taught to devote myself to my faith. The church that I am a member of, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), has molded me into the type of person I am today, and I owe so much of my identity to the morals my religion has instilled in me. Similarly, waking up every morning at 5:30 am to get ready for church is no easy task. In fact, every morning I wake up with the thought running through my head “all my friends get to sleep in for another hour and a half…”, and then I proceed to lethargically drag myself out of bed. Feeling like I have the responsibility to get to bed earlier (because I know that I have to wake up earlier than most) has been an extra burden on an already challenging academic and extracurricular life. On the flipside, I would not trade the lessons I have learned from attending that 50-minute Sunday school class for anything. Learning to do hard things is a highly valued trait in my family, and choosing to do hard things on your own is treasured even more. Having the ability to do difficult things is the most effective way to improve yourself and to have a successful life. My faith has taught me that my wants and wishes are not my first priority. Instead, I should heed to the concerns of others before my own. It has taught me to consider others differently, to not get caught up in societal pressures, and to focus on the people and the moments that truly matter in life. Religion has a tendency to leave a different impression on every individual it comes into contact with. Many people interpret the same doctrines and teachings in manners that differ from one another. In return, these individuals end up learning very different lessons. For me, religion is not just a set of core teachings, but is more accurately a representation of the type of person that I am today. Living by unconventional standards often sets me apart from my peers, and that can be a challenge that requires overcoming. However, I strongly believe that the guidelines my religion has taught me from such a young age will immensely benefit me as I proceed on in the coming stages of my life.
“The only role that religion plays in my life is how I am affected by its role in other people’s lives.”
“I go to church, but I am not a super-Christian. My religion is mostly something that I keep private, but I am open about my views and will discuss issues if asked.” “Apart from how religious extremists affect my world, it’s not a part of my life.” anonyumus quotes from survey
How Large of a Role Religion plays in the Lives of Menlo Students (5 being the largest role)
Our Transition to Secular Schooling Coming from religious schools, both of us had to make changes in our lives to adjust to a secular learning environment.
Alex Edidin | Staff Reporter
For the first six years of my life I attended Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School, located in Palo Alto. There were many positive and negative aspects that came along with switching from a religious to a secular school. One benefit of going to a religious school is everyone celebrates the same Jewish holidays. At Hausner, we had every single holiday off school, which made it simple and stress free to attend temple. However, now during every Jewish holiday, I must decide whether to fall behind in my core classes and go to temple, or to skip temple. Although this decision can be hard at times, I understand that Menlo is not a religious school; therefore, we do not have religious days off. Another change that Menlo created was eliminating classes, such as religious studies. Every day at Hausner we were given two hours to focus on courses related to Judaism, where we could discuss our religion and learn Hebrew. In these two periods, nobody was worried about grades, rather students solely focused on the material. In some ways I miss this, but I also appreciate that Menlo tries to cover at least a bit of every religion during freshman history.
Amanda Crisci | Staff Writer
The Need for Understanding
I attended St. Matthew’s Episcopal Day School in San Mateo through eighth grade before coming to Menlo. I used to have church three times a week during school hours and a class dedicated to Christian studies so going to a secular school was a big change. Since coming to Menlo I have stopped attending Sunday mass because of new time constraints. When you have three hours of homework, three-hour Sunday team practices, and sleep to catch up on, it becomes impossible to find time for non-Menlo functions. In middle school, I was challenged every morning to self reflect and find the best in everyday. At Menlo however, sometimes you lose sight of what is really important and become pessimistic. I think the hardest part about my transition to a non-religious school was loosing touch with myself and what I actually wanted. Although I’ve never considered myself a devout Christian, religion allowed me to re-assess myself when I felt angry or frustrated. I wish that Menlo put more emphasis on finding your passions and personal goals over good grades and college essays. Even though Menlo has made it tough to practice religion, Menlo has given me opportunities I couldn’t have had in my religious school, for example, meeting people of many other religions. Even though my middle school allowed people of other religions to attend, mostly Christians attended, so coming to a school with people of many different religious backgrounds was very refreshing. Overall, I would wish Menlo classes could spend less time worrying about academics, and let students learn.
Joe Klien | Guest Writer
As many of you know, I gave a pretty emotional speech a couple weeks ago. I truly meant what I said, and I truly believe we must make an effort to push for a better community. So far, I’m pleased with the individual efforts that have been made. It seems like we are picking-up some serious momentum. I want to thank everyone who has reached out to me after the assembly, as well. It’s hard to publically open-up like I did and it’s relieving to know people cared about what I had to say. I also want to thank everyone for finally giving this issue the serious attention it deserves to have. However, there is still much work to be done, and it starts with understanding, not tolerance. You can try to convince yourself that every religious practice or belief is okay, but until you understand why people think the way they do, tolerance is useless. Menlo is a very accepting community when it comes to LGBT rights, and we should continue to be so. But, there becomes a point when those who claim to be tolerant and accepting are, in fact, the opposite. Those who do not believe in gay marriage because of religious reasons are chastised here – I’ve watched it with my own eyes. It’s an extremely ironic double-standard that the champions of equality are willing to bash those with different views without being seen as hypocritical. Wherever you may stand on an issue, such as that of gay rights, it’s important to understand where everyone is coming from. Whether you believe in gay marriage, civil unions, or none of the above, it’s important to understand why other people think the way they do. It is hard to be openly, serious about religion at Menlo. People wear crosses and miss school for holidays, but those who present a religious view towards an issue are hard to come by. Stop the religion bashing. I also want to call out those who make snide remarks such as, “I should come out as straight on NCOD.” Stop it. First of all, it’s really not funny, and second of all, it just makes you look like an idiot. There is a stigma against gay people here the same way there is a stigma against religious people; willingly exposing yourself to the subjugation of school gossip takes a lot of courage. It also shows a lack of understanding (surprise, surprise). Don’t do it. Understanding is the first step you have to take to be tolerant. Tolerant individuals make for a tolerant community, which is what Menlo needs to strive for. This means tolerance of everything, whether or not you agree with certain beliefs. I don’t have to be a certain religion or race or anything to understand why a person believes what they believe or why a person feels the way they feel. It just takes some effort, and individual effort will add up.