<p>POIH, a few people here have speculated on whether you might have Asperger’s syndrome. Are you familiar with Asperger’s syndrome? Do you think your fellow posters might be right about you possibly having it or do you think they’re totally off base?</p>
<p>Pizzagirl - We haven’t had ours on campus since D1’s graduation in 2004. Simply not enough room in the gym. They used to try to hold it outdoors, with contingency plans to hold it indoors in the case of bad weather. In fact, in D1’s year, they did have to move it indoors. It was miserable. Also, having it indoors limits it to three tickets per family. They have since had it at two different off-campus locations. One was at a very large evangelical church that really had nice facilities. Interestingly, the first year there, the valedictorian was Jewish (one of D1’s best friends) and she and her family had absolutely no issue with it being held there. They simply viewed it as a building, nothing else. It was other families who had issues with it there. I guess enough people complained or they found a place that was cheaper to rent because the last two years it’s been held at another off-campus location.</p>
<p>Incidentally, our high school graduation has been held on Sunday afternoons, for as long as I can remember.</p>
<p>And for those familiar with the Chicago area, I’d also add that some of the larger suburban high schools have had their graduation ceremonies at Ravinia, and at one of the facilities at Northwestern University (mostly north shore schools).</p>
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<p>Yes, we were limited to 4 tickets per student. I don’t know what we would have done if we only had one student – after H and me, how would I choose 2 of the 4 grandparents?? Thank goodness for having twins - always thinking ahead!</p>
<p>It seems many posters have been twisting my posts so I would like to clarify couple of things.</p>
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<li><p>I’ve no problem serving vegetarian food or even Halal or Kosher meat. We serve food according to our guests. But I think it becomes superstition when some one refuse to take meal from my kitchen because we eat meat or kitchen is not kosher. So people who consider themselves educated refuse to see the point then that education is not worth.</p></li>
<li><p>I’ve repeatedly indicated that I’ve no problem with individual life style and their choice of clothes or turbans or burkas. I consider it “superstition” when for driving license if some one refuse to show the profile by bringing the ear out of turban or refuse to show the face out of the burka. </p></li>
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<p>So please don’t twist my posts, I think education bring awareness that one shouldn’t be rigid on things that don’t have factual basis. Practice what ever you feel like as long as you don’t use it as an excuse to bend rules.</p>
<p>*Many practices in religions start off as acts of self-discipline, as a way of using the act to bring ones thoughts and behavior closer to God and/or living a more spiritually driven life, not just one of the flesh…</p>
<p>I am Episcopal (and I didn’t grow up going to Church) I can use the example of Lent: the habit is to “give up something” for Lent. It’s supposed to help remind you of what Christ did for you by giving up his life on the cross. A typical Catholic Lenten behavior is to not eat meat on Fridays. I know old-time Catholics who do feel that if you slip up and eat meat on a Lenten Friday, then you are in big trouble! That may border on the superstitious. But using the self discipline of giving something up for 40 days in order to concentrate on other parts of the human experience outside of the flesh is commendable. If I slip up and have a hamburger on a Friday, I don’t think I’m going to hell (honestly, I have a long list of things that are going to get me there much quicker than the hamburger!) but I usually am disappointed in my lack of self-discipline. *</p>
<p>LOL…</p>
<p>Yes, it’s mostly about self-discipline…developing self-control. Pope John Paul II used to speak of such things as “mastery of the body.” I certainly have “slipped up” and have eaten meat on a Lenten Friday, but I know that is no big deal. People aren’t perfect…sometimes we don’t even know what day it is!!! lol And, certainly if you’re at someone’s home and they’re serving meat on a Lenten Friday, it is a greater wrong to make the person feel bad by not eating their meal. So, no biggie there, either. </p>
<p>Those “old school Catholics” who think it’s a big deal really aren’t being superstitious…it’s more of a misunderstanding of what is doctrine…and what is just custom/discipline. It’s likely that they never learned the difference…they just remember Sister Mary Whatever telling them not to eat meat on Fridays. And, they obviously don’t understand that anything that is an unintended mistake is not a sin. With over a billion Catholics in the world, there are going to be a whole bunch that really don’t know all the “fine print” so-to-speak. LOL</p>
<p>Anyway…POIH is using red herrings and straw man arguments in his posts. There is a big difference between someone who wants a drivers license (which is also used as ID for many purposes) but won’t expose one’s face for the camera…because others’ safety is at risk. How is the police officer supposed to ID the person he pulls over, if the pic doesn’t show the face? And, how are the airports going to know if the face-covered person is really who she says she is - if her face isn’t on her ID?</p>
<p>There is a difference between rather minor religious accommodations (such as what happened with this young lady) and ones that are costly, or have a serious **negative **impact on others. POIH seems to think just hearing about such accommodations is a “negative impact” when in reality it’s NOTHING!! It’s all part of life when living in a diverse country. :)</p>
<p>Having Christmas day as a federal holiday is just an acknowledgment that if it weren’t a holiday, so many would be taking the day off anyway, that normal business/school couldn’t be conducted . Heck, even many non-Christians would be asking for the day off as well because they want to spend that day with their Christian friends/family who are having special celebrations that day. If Christmas day ceased to be a holiday, the crazy impact would cost more and be more complicated than having the day off.</p>
<p>Again, POIH, what “rule” was being bent? There is no “rule” that says that speakers at graduations HAVE to use microphones – there is, however, a “rule” that says that speeches given at graduation need to be audible to the crowd. So no rule was broken.
People found a creative way to accommodate the young lady’s situation with no harm to anyone. </p>
<p>It’s as benign of a solution as breaking the “rule” that graduates have to climb steps to the platform to receive their diplomas by having a ramp available for a student in a wheelchair. YK, that’s what problem-solvers DO - they solve problems. That’s intelligence.</p>
<p>POIH, what would you do if your D came home and announced that she was converting to Judaism or had accepted Jesus into her life? Pull her out of MIT because she obviously wasn’t being educated there?</p>
<p>stevensmama:
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<p>As mentioned before that we believe in adult finding their way of life and so have never exposed DD to any religious teachings. The idea is for her to explore and find her own faith once grown up. She has exposure to all religions of the world and it’s up to her to choose a religion or life style because it’s her life.</p>
<p>I don’t impose my life style and my thinking on DD. DD has her own identity, her own views, and will have her own beliefs. I believe that if a person is well educated then he/she will make good sensible decision in life. We tried our best to provide DD with the best possible education. Now it’s up to her to use that education to carve her life style. I will be accepting what ever that life style might be.</p>
<p>DD had Jews friends at her high school and is friends with a lots of Jews at college but we don’t ask about any of her friend beliefs as we don’t need to unless some one ask for a special food.</p>
<p>I won’t have problem with her converting Judaism or any other religion. But if she refuse to eat in my kitchen then I’ll certainly say her education is a waste.</p>
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<p>Same here. Any excuse for a party. </p>
<p>Or a traditional Christmas dinner (Chinese food of course 
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<p>She won’t need to refuse to eat in your kitchen.</p>
<p>But if she became an observant Jew, she might need to bring her own food and utensils with her and eat what she brought instead of the food that the other people at the meal are eating. This would be a simple way around the problem – just like the use of the recording at the graduation that we have been talking about. She could also prepare meals for you in her own kitchen, which might be even better since you wouldn’t have to do any of the work.</p>
<p>I’ve really enjoyed reading a good deal of this thread because it has been extremely educational on the subject of Judaism. There was a similarly lengthy thread on the kid’s side of the forum where two obviously very intelligent students spent hundreds of posts debating every nuance of religion, spirituality, biology, physics, metaphysics, and the existence of God, after which they each declared they had proven their point beyond all questioning. Despite the fact that this debate has gone on for millennia, and is not likely to be solved on a single CC thread it was an interesting exchange and contained a wealth of information on everything from homozygous alleles to Immanuel Kant. </p>
<p>Still, I wonder what POIH thought was going to happen when he posted this. Sometimes I think he just enjoys being a gadfly. After nearly 500 posts I’ve seen several permutations of religious/world view, with one notion generally pervasive – it doesn’t appear many posters are ready to budge much in their overall philosophical view, which I wouldn’t expect since these are topics most adults have spent considerable time thinking about already. I think that’s why, in general, people tend to avoid these controversies – not because they aren’t important, but because people rarely change their minds based on argumentation.</p>
<p>Would you consider her uneducated if she converted and would not eat food that wasn’t prepared in a kosher kitchen, POIH?</p>
<p>You did not answer my earlier question either, POIH- please do.
Do you believe that someone who is agnostic, believes in the possibility of a god and fate and some sort of ordered higher power, and participates in various religious holidays is uneducated?</p>
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<p>Yes, in that case I’ll certainly consider her education is a waste if she refuse to see how a kitchen that raised her up suddenly become unusable just because of religious beliefs.</p>
<p>Is “uneducated” the same in your mind as “her education was a waste”, as you seem to be using these terms interchangeably. Then again, you don’t seem to want to say your daughter would meet your definition of “uneducated” but that her education was a waste.</p>
<p>And again, I am curious to know your opinion:
Do you believe that someone who is agnostic, believes in the possibility of a god and fate and some sort of ordered higher power, and participates in various religious holidays is uneducated? Please answer.</p>
<p>jym626:
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<p>None of my posts ever said I’ve problem with people practicing religion. All of my relatives do and most of my friends too. I’ve problem with superstitions that disallow a person to do something based on some beliefs that is otherwise perfectly normal behavior.</p>
<p>Like the topic of the thread. Speaking through a microphone is perfectly normal behavior but if some one beliefs disallow it then I call it superstition.</p>
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<p>Yes, I’ll consider her literate but not educated because the years of education won’t go away.</p>
<p>If your friends or relatives celebrated holidays that included some rituals or traditions as part of their celebration (eg lighting candles, looking for easter eggs or something), would the celebrating of the holiday make them uneducated?</p>
<p>Are the educated posters here who believe in the teachings of their faith literate or are they uneducated?</p>
<p>There’s an old saying about how anyone less religiously observant than me is a heretic, and anyone more religiously observant than me is a fanatic. 
This applies to secularists and athiests as well. When we’re educated, we’re aware of this bias, and try to avoid it. Which is hard work.</p>
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<p>But how will you be accepting of your D’s lifestyle or possible adherence to a certain religion when you have stated earlier on the thread that those who follow religions are “uneducated?” And how will you be “accepting,” if the religion your D may adapt for herself, teaches her customs such as keeping kosher or not driving to your house on the Sabbath? You don’t seem to want to accept others who practice these traditions and customs of their religion. You also deem such people as being uneducated. </p>
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<p>What do you consider to be “normal behavior?” Here in America, it is normal for people to follow different customs and traditions that others would not follow. Some wear turbans but that is not normal for me. Some won’t cook meat and dairy using the same utensils, but that is not normal for someone else. Some may have a manger on the front lawn with a baby Jesus and that is not normal for me.</p>
<p>Education in America teaches about these differences. Liberal thought includes tolerance for these differences. Your attitudes are the ones that come across as uneducated and lacking in liberal thinking.</p>
<p>I agree with her right to do what she did.</p>