I grew up with practically no religious instruction. I barely knew what religion was. I knew it had something to do with belief in God. I knew it had something to do with telling people how they should behave and what would happen to them in the next life if they did not follow certain rules. And I thought it had something to do with going to church.
I knew that some people thought it admirable to attend church. I knew that others did not think so. I was aware that some of the people who founded America had done so in order to gain the freedom to practice the religion of their choice. I knew, too, that these people were generally considered worthy of admiration. But I was mostly indifferent to all of this, and the main reason could have been simply my observation that my father considered religion an irrelevancy.
I attended sixth through eighth grades at Planada Elementary School, where classes were dismissed early one day a week so that some of the students could attend religion classes. I was advised, by whom I do not remember, that I could join one of those classes if I wished to.
I said, fearing a scolding for saying so, that I would rather not. To my considerable relief, there was no further discussion of the issue. I was at least as inquisitive as any normal child. I was especially eager to read the few science books I could find that were written for juveniles.
Some science must have been taught in the elementary schools I attended, but I do not remember them. I do not remember having any science textbooks. There was also a smattering of history and, in the later grades, geography. And, of course, there was always "physical education. The first scientific fact I remember getting from a teacher was in the third grade. Zollars, on some occasion or other, was explaining gravity. She said the Earth was "like a magnet" that made people and everything else stick to its surface.
