Elizabeth's Education

I live in Utah where about 60% of the people are Mormon. Mormons are getting quite a show this year what with Mitt Romney running for president. For those of us non-Mormons here in Utah we know what's coming. I am a firm believer in public education. If I were a benign dictator, there'd be no private schools and all the wealthy people would have to invest in their local public schools and make them better. As a result, more children would get a good education. As you can imagine, I am opposed to vouchers and home schooling. And, for the longest time, I was opposed to religious schools, specifically as a Catholic, parochial schools. Until I moved here.

Since I have lived in Utah a number of my non-Mormon students and friends have explained to me what it is like to live here and be a non-Mormon in the public schools.

• Catholics were not allowed to wear crucifixes in public schools while Mormons were allowed to wear their CTR rings - both a symbol of faith.
• In an identity politics course, 4 students wrote about the Catholic faith as an oppressed identity - um, nowhere in the world does this happen except here.
• One Jewish student was told that in the year 2000 the world would end and if he didn't switch to Mormonism he would go to hell - this from his physics teacher.
• Many many non-Mormon children were told they were not allowed to play with their neighbor children because they were not Mormon. I can cite at least four different sets of kids living in different parts of the state.

Now I offset this by the fact that a couple of my very dear friends here in Utah - the Eris's - are Mormon. They are practicing Mormon and are wonderful people. They have never been odd to us. They attended my daughter's Christening. So I figure you hear these stories and it must just be the crazy people because my good friends never say those things or espouse those things.

Last night I was told by my little Catholic babysitter - who is 14, very intelligent and a very good person - that her friend (a boy who would like to be her boyfriend but she is not allowed to date until she is 16) was in seminary (to which he was sent from school and had no problem missing school classes to attend) last week and was told that if he dated anyone other than a Mormon that girl would take him to hell with her. The entire seminary class was told this - last week. And, his grandmother, who loves my babysitter and has her over for dinner and thinks she's wonderful, said to him, what will the people in my ward think if they found out you were dating a Catholic.

Now I realize that my friends are the anomaly and that most of the people feel this way. The reason, probably, they are my friends is that they are okay with non-Mormons. I do not, when I teach Catholic religious education, ever tell my students who to date. I do not tell them that Mormons are going to hell, or any other religion for that matter. I do teach them that we believe the Catholic church is the best religion...of course we do, why would we be in it if we didn't? But we do not teach that other people of faith are going to hell because we do not believe that. I also know that what I teach my students in Catholic religious education is sanctioned by the Catholic church. I can only assume that what is taught in Mormon seminary classes is sanctioned by that church, thus the LDS religion is okay with telling young people that people who are not like them are going to hell.

How do I send Elizabeth to a school where she will be vilified for no other reason than the majority faith thinks it's okay to teach children hate like this? How do I send Elizabeth to a school where she will be told she is going to hell because she is not a Mormon? How do I send Elizabeth to a school where her opportunities may be limited because she does not see the teacher in the ward on Sundays? I'm not sure I can...I am almost pretty sure I will not be.