Prayer houses in schools, with facilities in the courtyard

The State Duma allowed school administrations to open prayer rooms at the request of parents and students. The Russian Orthodox Church, represented by the head of the legal service of the Moscow Patriarchate, nun Ksenia, approved the initiative.

Okay, the church is separate from the school, and the hierarchy may not know its peculiarities. But deputies?! How do they imagine the functioning of school prayer rooms?

In accordance with the new state educational standards, schools should not have anything: game rooms, music rooms, fine arts classrooms, choreographic and assembly halls, swimming pools, etc. However, it is known that the vast majority of Russian schools do not have any of this.

Moreover, June 5, 2012 at a meeting chaired by D.A. Medvedev, Minister of Education D. Livanov cited the following figures: sanitary standards are fully observed in only 60% of schools; only 58% of institutions are provided with centralized cold and hot water supply; in 22% of schools, “conveniences” are located in the courtyard.

Then what funds will be used to equip the chapels? Okay, let it be for sponsorship. Considering how many temples are being built, perhaps money will be found to equip religious premises and “benevolent work”. But why is the construction of a normal school toilet not a matter pleasing to God? Why don’t collapsing ceilings, leaking roofs, and falling window frames become the subject of equally zealous concern of the people’s representatives?

And if in the school, in addition to the Orthodox, there are Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, Buddhists, Jews, will this circumstance mean the need to open several prayer rooms, or will everyone somehow be accommodated in one? And if there is only one room, will militant atheists also be able to claim it? Will there be a need to set aside a temple for pagans on school grounds? What sizes of idols will be allowed to be installed, and will the director be required to monitor the strength of their fastening in order to avoid injuries? There may be sectarians among the parents of schoolchildren. What should we do with them if they periodically, even during extracurricular hours, come to meet the next end of the world? How to deal with believers in astrology, palmistry, fortune telling by cards, Alan Chumak? Where to store all the props that they might need, and who will be responsible for them?

What if parents ask (or find) funds for a school chaplain? Or will they start bringing pastors with them to conduct services and rituals? In this case, won’t the school administration itself turn out to be an outsider in the chapels, and won’t the director’s demands, which they don’t like, then be considered “desecration of the holy gifts”?

It is not yet clear at what time teachers will have to let students go to pray. Before the Unified State Exam, test, answer at the board? And if a teacher prohibits or suspects a student of abusing the right to be in the prayer room, then won’t his complaints be perceived as an insult to the feelings of believers with all the ensuing consequences?

...Once the prayer rooms open, the school will no longer need a teacher. I think an additional recruitment of Cossacks will be announced. They now define the culture, maintain order, and teach the children. In a patriotic spirit, when even the amenities in the yard can be proclaimed as an original monument and national pride.