Focused Freewrite (Reading Response to Brandt Essay)

I could relate more to Brandt’s essay than any of the others that we have read so far.  I don’t exactly relate to what his experiences are but the opinions of one of the parents he mentions in his essay.  He really tries to examine and research this question of religion among children.  He talks about a secular society, which got me a little confused.  It sounded as if he just through in the word to make the essay sound more intellectual.  He really does not stress that phrase as much as he should have.  There was a part in the essay where he says the parents who are religious are able to answer their children’s questions about religion.  My only response to that was is it so wrong not to know all the answers to your children’s questions?  If it is not religion they are asking about, then I am sure they will ask about something else the parent doesn’t know about.  In the one story about the parents who sent their children to Sunday school when they never practiced that religion and they still don’t attend any church, I did not quite understand until I read two pages later.  Another set of parents who also send their children to Sunday school even though they do not attend church themselves made a really excellent point in which I absolutely agreed with.  Brandt said, “he thinks that if they don’t give her a religious background they will be depriving her of a choice later on.  If she had the background, she can always reject it when she gets older, he says; if he doesn’t, there will be nothing to reject but nothing to affirm, either.”  This statement should have summed up the whole essay for Brandt.  This quote should have been placed toward the end or he should have at least referred back to it at the end.  He seems to agree with it but still never refers back.  Perhaps he did not read into it as much as I did.  The fact that Brandt also mentioned famous people also caught my eye because the only people he mentioned were psychologists.  This is interesting to me since I did take psychology this year and recently I am taking sociology.  As I learn more about these people they are more considered scientists and I know people that study things like that do not take religion into consideration when searching for scientific answers.