A non-voucher system allows religious diversity to flourish, without raising such difficult questions. Comparatively speaking, even a strict adherence to the First Amendment is kinder to religion than other systems around the world. France is the perfect example.

In France, separation of church and state is so strict that no symbolic expression of religious allegiance whatsoever is allowed in the nation's public schools. Muslim girls in hijabs, Jewish boys wearing yarmulkes and Hindu students in turbans have been banished from the schoolyard for their offensive religious headgear.

While we may be shocked at such seemingly fascist religious censorship, the French regard a religiously neutral environment as essential to fostering intellectual objectivity. We would criticize France's schools for seeing personal religious expression as a threat, not an opportunity, for diverse and varied rational discussion.

It follows that as a nation we should not willingly close off any of our children to the breadth of cultural and religious discussion present in our public schools. It is only through such wide exposure that children can begin to choose who they are for themselves and equip themselves for the lifelong examination of personal identity that they are about to embark on.

In the United States, the separation of church and state is intended to substitute reflection and debate for the indoctrination of belief systems. School vouchers used for religious schools divorce the theory of the First Amendment from its logical application.

Over a hundred years ago, Mark Twain remarked that "In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made school boards." Let's prove Twain wrong by urging school boards to deny public funding for private parochial schools.

Dalia R. Rotstein '03, a Crimson editor, is a first-year in Stoughton Hall.