It has long been debated whether teaching the Bible in public education would improve our educational system or just help the Christians enlist more members into their religion. Since 1962, the Supreme Court has continued to uphold the ban on all religious practices in public education, including teaching the Bible in classrooms. There are some who believe that this removal of a moral education has lead to a deterioration of the behavior among our students, while others use the protection of the first amendment right to keep the moral teachings of the Bible out of the hands of our public educators. While it is true that it is not the job of the government to decide what religious morals our population must uphold to, teaching the Bible as a piece of literature in public education can enrich our students' learning because of the influence the Bible has had on much of Western Civilization's history and literature.
In 2009 there was a journal published about a study that “assessed the relationship between Bible literacy among secondary school students and their academic achievement and school behavior” by William H. Jeynes (Jeynes 36). The hypothesis was that the deterioration of the behavior among our students was caused my the removal of a moral education through our educational institutions. So they compared the academic achievement and behavior of random students in public high schools and compared them to those from private religious high schools to see if there was a connection. Their findings were that the more Bible literate a student was, the less behavioral problems they had and the higher their grade point average was. They believed that the teachings of the Bible made students follow better learning practices, so the sc...
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...SCO. Web. 29 Mar. 2011. This was a journal of a study on the connections between Bible study and how it affects students academic achievement and school behavior. Their findings were that those who had more exposure to the Bible and its teachings usually had higher grades and had better behavior in school. Jeynes believed that up until 1962 when the Supreme Court eradicated any religious practices in public school, school was where students received a moral education on how to
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behave. In the time from the removal of any religious practices in schools, there has been a surge in juvenile delinquency and he believes that it is due to our youths' Bible illiteracy. He had a clear bias towards supporting Bible study classes in public education by his arguments as to why our youths have followed a trend towards juvenile delinquency in the recent years.
In argument for the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer, they said that reading the Bible not only was essential to the building of good morals and development of the minds of impressionable school children, it was free to be interpreted anyway because of lack of comment and explanation. They claimed that the Bible was not a religious work, but when viewed from the eyes of a Christian, it did express the message of Christianity.
I am primarily interested in how religion was taught in the early 1970s. Including: what religions were covered, how they were integrated into the text, and the values of the religion that were presented. With my interest in possibly majoring in religious studies I feel that I have an excellent understanding of how religion is taught in our high schools today, but I don’t have a thorough understanding of what it was like to grow up in school in the 1970s and go through school. How was religion presented in the textbooks of schools in the 1970s? My primary goal of this paper is to further my understanding of religion in high schools of the 1970s. Then I would like to further my study by looking at newer documents and regulations that are in place now to govern religion that is taught and expressed in our schools today. What I expect to find is that religion was taught similarly in the 70s without all the newer policies and guidelines of today. Lastly I would like to look at how these policies and regulations in our public schools are affecting our students.
In Stephen Prothero’s, Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know and Doesn’t (New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 2007), 297 we discover the average American’s lack of religious knowledge. Prothero discusses religious illiteracy in three ways. How it exists, came to be, and just how to possibly solve this problem. Today religious illiteracy is at least as pervasive as cultural illiteracy, and certainly more dangerous. Religious illiteracy is more dangerous because religion is the most volatile constituent of culture, because religion has been, in addition to one of the greatest forces for good in world history, one of the greatest forces for evil. Religion has always been a major factor in US politics and international affairs.
“In the light of our present day educational systems the idea of Church controlled education may appear to some as inefficient. However, the pioneering done in Virginia under the direction of the Established Church serve4 as a good example for the American educational ideal” (Duffy, 1946).
"Bible Distribution in Public Schools." www. ffrf.org. Freedom From Religion foundation. 2013. Web. 5 Dec 2013.
Mueller, Arnold C. "Religion in the Public Schools." In Church and State Under God, ed. Albert G. Huegli. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2004.
In 1961, Evangelist and pastor Tim LaHaye worked on informing and ridding public schools of sex education programs. In a letter that he wrote to parents at a school he said; “ As a parent, taxpayer, and a Christian, you need to be informed on the devastating Radical Sex Education Program now being advocated by some educators across America”(72). In this letter, LaHaye uses the word “devastating” to show how truly upset he was about this program. He went on to quote the bible in saying that sex was accepted in Christian beliefs and that that was not the problem. The problem was that the context, in which the education was coming from, was not coming from the Bible. LaHaye believed that because God create...
Prothero, Stephen. "There Should Be Prayer and Bible Study in Public Schools." Atheism. Ed. Beth Rosenthal. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2009. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "Should the Bible Be Taught in Public Schools? (Interview with Stephen Prothero)." Beliefnet.com. 2007. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 19 Nov. 2013.
Douglass, Susan L. The World in the Clasroonm. "Teaching About Religion." Educational Leadership Vol. 60 (2002): 32-36 . Web. 10 April 2014.
The removal of prayer from public schools is a very controversial and misunderstood debate. This paper will address the history of the debate, common myths and misunderstandings, and the current trends.
Haynes, Charles C., and Oliver Thomas. Finding common ground: a guide to religious liberty in public schools. [New & updated ed. Nashville, TN: First Amendment Center, 2007. Print.
The statement “philosophy of Christian education” contains much information to be unwrapped. The term philosophy literally means, in the Greek, “love of wisdom.” In this case, the study of philosophy involves a “critical study of the basic principles and concepts of a particular branch of knowledge” (Philosophy). My understanding of Christian education is what I hope to unveil in this brief document. A high-quality education of children must embrace a student’s intellect, spiritual nature, social life, emotional growth, and physical health. I see evidence for this in scripture as Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man (Luke 2:52). The goal of education should be the training of children, in every area of their life, for adulthood. What makes my philosophy of education different from the secular world is the distinctively Christian biblical worldview. It is this biblical worldview that sets apart Christian education from the public schools in our culture because we address the spiritual dimension of children that the secular humanistic education denies.
According to MacCullough (2012), knowing key worldview questions and biblical answers, a teacher is more prepared to integrate biblical worldview activities into their lessons. Moreover, this can be accomplished with ease in Christian schools by integrating the Bible and lessons from the Bible into the lessons being taught. For example, MacCullough (2012) talks about student processing activities and how one story opened up a whole discussion on God and how as humans we can talk to God and that He talks to us through the Bible. Additionally, Dr. Sam Smith talks about those in public schools and how they can integrate biblical principles. He affirms, “We believe you can integrate biblical principles in the public school best by living your life as a model of Jesus Christ and by doing what you do well” (Smith, 2012). This is encouraging for those who choose to work in a public school because, although they are restricted in what they can say, they are still able to integrate a worldview. This can be done by letting Christ shine through them to their students. Similarly, this approach can and should be done in both public, private, and Christian schools. Letting Christ shine through should not just be for those times teachers are in a Christian environment, but in every situation that teachers encounter in their daily lives.
Worsley, Howard. "How Children Aged 9-10 Understand Bible Stories: A Study Of Children At A Church-Aided And A State Primary School In The Midlands." International Journal of Children's Spirituality 9.2 (2004): 203-217. Academic Search Complete. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.
The question has arisen whether schools may give academic credit for released-time courses. Although the answer remains unclear, it is likely such a program would be unconstitutional, especially if credit is not given for other nonschool courses. There is very little to distinguish many of these religious courses from a religious education class, a nonacademic exercise for which schools could almost certainly not give credit.(11)