I'm not sure this one's worth fighting

In Chicago, an atheist parent plans of fighting a recent ruling allowing schools to require a moment of silence at the beginning of the school day.

Meh. I'm public high school teacher of seventeen years and an atheist, and I don't feel this is a battle worth fighting.

Is it an attempt to get prayer in school? Almost certainly. Will it fail? Almost certainly. The kids prone to pray will do so, but the rest, including about 95% of those who claim to be theistic, will be going through their mental agenda for the day, thinking about their boyfriend and/or girlfriend­, or pondering other non-religi­ous thoughts. This is a waste of time all around, but it takes about 15 to 30 seconds out of the day.

My school has a moment of silence requiremen­t, and I use it to go over a mental checklist for what I'll be teaching less than a minute later.

The minute any kind of prayer is actually required, I'll be notifying the ACLU, but until then, picking battles wisely is the best course.