I was part of my elementary school chorus, though. We sang some religious, some not... and a couple Chanukah songs that I've never heard since, nor do the lyrics come up in a Google search (I guess my music teacher made them up... or something). I think what we'd do is either we'd do all generic winter/santa songs, or we'd do those and include both Jesus songs and Chanukah songs.
On the other hand, when we went carolling (it was an optional part of chorus - and chorus itself was optional), we would sing both the generic stuff and the Jesus stuff.
I didn't have a religious upbringing (I never did believe in Jesus), but I'll agree with what janinedog said... the religious ones were pretty. I guess I like the stuff in minor key.
Actually, I don't think I even paid attention to the meaning of the lyrics until I was in 6th or 7th grade. And by that point, things were PC enough that we never sang the religious ones.
High school... every year the Joshua Club would put on a Jesus play during lunchtime, the audio of which would be heard pretty much everywhere on campus if you were outside. Nobody else did stuff for other religions, though I think most people didn't want the attention it would bring.
My actual opinion? Eh... well, I don't think there should be public schools in the first place, but since there are, think about this: Do you want your tax money to be paying for kids to sing religious songs? Even if you do... is it right for your neighbor to be paying for kids to be singing religious songs when he/she doesn't want to? My answer to both is no. If no government(i.e. taxpayer) money was used to support the singing kids... well, to me, taxpayer money supporting the singing kids includes the use of property paid by the taxpayers - including the school grounds themselves. So if no taxpayer money supported the singing of religious songs, they wouldn't be singing on school grounds, and I wouldn't have a problem with it.
... This was longer than I expected it to be. Sorry about that. :P
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I was part of my elementary school chorus, though. We sang some religious, some not... and a couple Chanukah songs that I've never heard since, nor do the lyrics come up in a Google search (I guess my music teacher made them up... or something). I think what we'd do is either we'd do all generic winter/santa songs, or we'd do those and include both Jesus songs and Chanukah songs.
On the other hand, when we went carolling (it was an optional part of chorus - and chorus itself was optional), we would sing both the generic stuff and the Jesus stuff.
I didn't have a religious upbringing (I never did believe in Jesus), but I'll agree with what
Actually, I don't think I even paid attention to the meaning of the lyrics until I was in 6th or 7th grade. And by that point, things were PC enough that we never sang the religious ones.
High school... every year the Joshua Club would put on a Jesus play during lunchtime, the audio of which would be heard pretty much everywhere on campus if you were outside. Nobody else did stuff for other religions, though I think most people didn't want the attention it would bring.
My actual opinion? Eh... well, I don't think there should be public schools in the first place, but since there are, think about this: Do you want your tax money to be paying for kids to sing religious songs? Even if you do... is it right for your neighbor to be paying for kids to be singing religious songs when he/she doesn't want to? My answer to both is no.
If no government(i.e. taxpayer) money was used to support the singing kids... well, to me, taxpayer money supporting the singing kids includes the use of property paid by the taxpayers - including the school grounds themselves. So if no taxpayer money supported the singing of religious songs, they wouldn't be singing on school grounds, and I wouldn't have a problem with it.
... This was longer than I expected it to be. Sorry about that. :P