Bible Breaks at Public Schools Face Challenges in Rural Virginia

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By Carol Morello
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 23, 2005; Page A01

STAUNTON, Va. -- Lunch is over and some classes already are at recess when a group of schoolchildren at McSwain Elementary stands up, puts on coats, walks 200 feet across the playground and files into Memorial Baptist Church.

Over the next half-hour, the Bible shapes the lesson plan.



The scene is repeated with different groups of children four times a day, each Monday and Wednesday, at McSwain and three other public elementary schools in Staunton.

For 65 years, weekday Bible classes have been part of the fabric of growing up in this town of 24,000 in Augusta County and in a score of other small towns and hamlets in rural Virginia. It is such an accepted tradition that 80 to 85 percent of the first-, second- and third-graders in Staunton participate.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29266-2005Jan22.html

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