Email I sent to Elaine's Principal

Principal ******,
It has come to my attention that in Miss Monroe's Kindergarten classroom there is a hand-written poster which states a 'Pledge to the Earth'. At the bottom of this poster is the word "Namaste", which from what I've read translates to "I bow to you",among other definitions.

My references can be found at the following links:
http://hinduism.about.com/od/artculture/p/namaste.htm

http://www.yogajournal.com/basics/822

http://www.religionfacts.com/hinduism/practices/namaste.htm

http://fittv.discovery.com/fansites/namaste/meaning.html

Miss Monroe has the children reciting the 'Pledge to the Earth' daily. I'm a working-mother, so I can't sit-in on her kindergarten class to see for myself how the pledge is taught in-person. All my information comes from 'meet the teacher night', a typed letter Miss Monroe sent to ALL the parents of her students regarding the Pledge to the Earth, and email communications Miss Monroe has had with my husband.

Oddly, when Miss Monroe typed up the pledge for the parents, the "Namaste" line was left off. At first my husband and I thought Namaste was the name of the pledge's author, but when we looked it up online, we were surprised by it's definition.

I believe in the power of words. Having the children pledge to the Earth sounds like sharing new-age religion to me. Especially with it the poster ending with "Namaste" (I bow to you).

My husband and I decided that we don't feel comfortable with our daughter having this lesson. We have asked Miss Monroe (last Wednesday morning, I think) to let our daughter abstain from practicing the pledge with the other students.

But I worry that our daughter may be the odd-kid-out when others are practicing their pledge in class. I'm not sure what to do from here.

It's still early in the school year, so I've been considering having my daughter switched into a different class for Kindergarten (assuming the Pledge to the Earth is not a school-wide trend). I'm kind of waiting to see if my daughter feels like an outsider while the others continue with the pledge.

Do you have any suggestions for me? Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Liss Decker-Brank
(***)***-****

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She responded that she wants to 'help' our family with this issue, and wants to visit with us. Thus far, her schedule is the opposite of mine. We are emailing back and forth to schedule the visit. In my last email, I told her that I don't mind if she meets with just Jim, without me. I'll let yall know how this works out.