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how long has religion in public schools been debated
why religion should be allowed in schools
how long has religion in public schools been debated
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Religion should be prohibited in public schools. There’s no reason for allowing religious displays to destruct the public education system. The involvement of religion in public schools is distracting and unnecessary. The removal of religion, except for educational purposes, is essential to providing a stable and effective learning environment for every student. Without religion, students could be provided with a better chance of succeeding in the classroom.
Only the school board officials and members of congress can take religion completely out of the public school systems. While the ACLU has tried its best to insure that public schools have religion free environments, their actions aren't enough. It’s up to the members of congress to step up and pass laws prohibiting needless displays of religion in public schools.
Some people are opposed to banning of religion in schools. Some feel that banning religion infringes upon the school faculty’s first amendment rights. Others feel that is morally wrong to take out religion. Most of these people don’t see the negative roles religion can play in the classroom. There are many harmful effects of allowing or not allowing prayer in public schools. Besides the controversial court cases between the school systems and the ACLU and the effects of the students and faculty, no side can win indefinitely.
Religion complicates the educational environment. Children can become distracted by the role religion plays with the teachers, instructors, and administrators. Children and young adults are extremely impressionable. They are just beginning to form their own beliefs and morals. Arthur Schopenhauer once said, "the capacity for believing is strongest in childhood, special care is taken to make s...
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...hero, Stephen, Grant Wacker, Frank Lambert, Richard Lischer, Claiborne Carson, and Andrew Young. "God in America: "The Soul of a Nation"" Interview by Narrator.Www.pbs.org. PBS, n.d. Web. 2 Apr. 2014.
Religion and Schools. Perf. David D. Cole and Greg Ivors. 1993. DVD. Www.c-span.org. CSPAN, 9 June 1993. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.
Rosenbaum, David E. "With Little Ado, Congress Put God in Pledge in 1954." The New York Times. The New York Times, 27 June 2002. Web. 26 Feb. 2014.
Schopenhauer, Arthur. Religion: A Dialogue and Other Essays. 5th ed. London: n.p., 1899. Print.
Shpaner, Roi, and Kathleen Balson. "TED Conversations: A World without Religion, How Will It Really Look?" Www.ted.com. TED, 17 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 Apr. 2014.
Waggoner, Michael D. Religion in the Public Schools: Negotiating the New Commons. Lanham, Maryland: Roman & Littlefield Education, 2013. 21-22. Print.
The intercom comes on in a classroom first thing in morning and says “now kids, it is time for our prayer”. Every kid in the class joins hands and starts to respectfully pray. Once the prayer is finished, they all go back to work and are more unified together, right? That is usually not the case. More likely than not, only several kids in the class joins the prayer. Most kids then laugh at the others praying, breaking the bonds between the two. With religion being brought up in school, there are more possibilities for debate between children ending in violence. Three fourths of kids at my high school will not even recite the pledge of allegiance just because it says god in it. Public schools should not have any impact on religion. Christian Groups are sneaking religion into high schools.
Chapter three of Civil Liberties: Opposing Viewpoints inspired me to research today’s issues of school prayer. To understand how we got to where we are today, I first delved into our countries history of court cases pertaining to rulings on prayer in schools. Lastly, to update my audience on how our lives are being affected today, I directed my efforts toward finding current situations. By analyzing these situations, I gained knowledge for a better understanding of why society needs to be aware of these controversies. I don’t think there should be any form of organized prayer in today’s public schools.
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.
In recent years, teaching religion, or the individual practice of religion in school, has become a very controversial topic. There are many different views on this matter and even more opinions on how it should be handled. There are people on both sides of the spectrum; there are those who believe that it should be taught and allowed in school, and those who believe it should not be taught or practiced in school. If the practice of religion were an option in public schools, students may become more tolerant, as well as knowledgeable, of religions and cultures beyond their own. Secondly, a time interval during the day may be implemented into the school schedule to allow the practice of student’s personal beliefs. Finally, since prayer was eliminated from public school systems, the nation has seen a decrease in education and the increase in crime rate. Even though public schools today are without school prayer, most schools have replaced prayer with a "silent moment of reflection." Prayer should be established into schools, because it generates the exposure to other cultures, allows a calming period for students, and creates well-rounded individuals in society.
In her article “Beyond the Wall of Separation: Church-State in Public Schools”, Martha McCarthy, a Chancellor Professor and chair of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, makes it clear that her aim is to inform educators of the legal history and constitutional precedents of the Establishment clause and Free speech Clause of the First Amendment with an attached understanding of how educators should implement these findings. She summarizes and analyzes key Supreme Court rulings over the course of the 20th century as they pertain to religious expression in public schools. She clarifies the usage of both the Establishment Clause and the Free Speech Clause, including recent changes in trends that have been noted in the Supreme Court during the last decade. From the late 1940’s to the 1990’s most Supreme court rulings focused on the Establishment Clause to the increasing exclusion of the Free Speech Clause such that students were increasingly limited in the ways they were allowed to express themselves in school even in a private manner. In recent years, however, it has been noted that forcing students to suppress their religious expression is itself a religious statement and one that denies the role of religion in people’s lives. McCarthy notes that the public schools must take a neutral stand in relation to religion such that they do not defend or deny its role in people’s lives, either directly or indirectly.
By the 1950’s, Americans began to grow concerned about the morality of their children, especially since “the common school inculcates all Christian morals; it founds its morals on the basis of religion; it welcomes the religion of the Bible.”3 School boards across the region began to investigate ways to teach moral...
This plainly states that public school teachers, principals, and boards are required to be religiously neutral. They may not promote a particular religion as being superior to any other, and may not promote religion in general as superior to a secular approach to life. They also may not promote secularism in general as superior to a religious approach to life, be antagonistic to religion in general or a particular religious belief, be antagonistic to secularism, and they must neither advance nor inhibit religion (Religion in Public).
"I do not believe that any type of religion should ever be introduced into the public schools of the United States." -Thomas Edison. Religion and prayer in public schools is a big controversy for schools in the United States. School officials cannot take sides on religion since it will violate the first amendment which states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Establishing a specific religion in public school violates the first amendment, therefore public schools have to remain neutral when it comes to the matter of religion. Some people believe that teaching about religion should not be allowed considering it violates the separation of church and state, but that is not true. There are many issues regarding religion in public schools, however exercising your personal religion independently is not one of them. (Leitch, 1)
The “establishment” or “religion” clause of the First Amendment of the Constitution reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” (Education Week, 2003, para. 2). It is from this clause that the idea of separation of church and state comes. It is also the basis for much of the debate regarding the practice of religion in public schools (Education Week, 2003). One of the big questions regarding the religion issue is where to draw the line between separation of church and state and religious freedom. The practice of religion in public schools can balance these two ends by allowing students to individually exercise their religious freedom, so long as they do not interfere with that of other students.
There is a great deal of ongoing debate surrounding the issue of religion in public schools. When you consider the rights of all Americans under the Constitution’s First Amendment, it is outrageous for the United States of America to have “freedom of religion”, and then place excessive limitations on students and teachers in public schools. There are a growing number of people opposed to the idea of religion being in school for a variety of reasons, from which the Government’s solution was to impose restrictions on all religions and deny others their rights in the defense of protecting the rights of a few. Teachers and students of all faiths should be able to attend a public school and freely express their beliefs without these limitations being imposed.
Religion should not be taken out of public schools that are funded by the government, because our government was based on religious principles from the very beginning. Our government was founded o...
Many individuals believe that the first amendment prohibits religion to be taught or exercised in a public school setting. They believe this because they feel as if it infringes on an American citizen’s right. Often times there can be discrimination against minority groups. An example of this was after the 9/11 attack in New York. Discrimination against Sikh-Americans became increasingly worse because they were often accused of being allied with Al Qaeda. People are worried that if we do teach the religion in school, bullying will grow to become an even bigger problem (“Religion in Schools: A”).
...meone of their rights and taking them away. It is discrimination against whichever religion is not taught. While prayer and religion may help aid in development, not every child or every person will develop the same. Different backgrounds, including religion and culture, produce different results. Religion should not be allowed in public schools, it would cause more harm than it will do good.
Annie Laurie Gaylor quoted Thomas Jefferson in her article The Case Against School Prayer, “No citizen shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever…” and that to “compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of [religious] opinions which he disbelieves is sinful and tyrannical” (Gaylor, 1995, p. 7). No man should have to be subject to anything that he does not believe in. Prayer should not be allowed in the public school system because of the idea of separation of church and state and the First Amendment.
University of Michigan. “Religion in Schools: A look at how religious practices influence education.” .