On Monday June 25, 1962, the United States Supreme Court decided in the case of Engel V. Vitale that prayer in school violated the first amendment by constituting on establishment of religion. In 1963 the Abington School district banned Bible readings in public schools because it was deemed unconstitutional (Green). Our government was based on religious principles from the very beginning; The Declaration of Independence says that we are all created equal by God and the public schools have had prayer in them for many years before the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional. Former Secretary of Education William Bennett said that between 1960 and 1990 there was a steady moral decline. During this period divorce doubled, teenage pregnancy went up 200 percent, teen suicide increased 300 percent, child abuse is at its highest, violent crime went up 500 percent, and abortion increased 1,000 percent (10 Reasons For School Prayer). Prayer in school would benefit the student because they will be able to learn
Stovall 2 personal morals not only at home but at school too. They will be able to learn what is right and what is wrong.
The pros of prayer in school are that prayer would fit the needs of the whole person. Schools must do more than train student’s minds with academics they should also care for their spiritual needs and boost the values taught at home and in their community. School prayer would allow religious students an opportunity to observe their religious beliefs during school (Pros and Cons of Prayer).Public schools should have religious groups before or after school so they can still keep in touch with their spiritual side. Taking prayer out of schools is taking the students’ rights of religious freedom away from them. If p...
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...e topic of religion they will be breaking the separation of church and state law. Schools can have religious groups as long as it’s before or after school and as long as they don’t interfere with other students. School prayer can happen as long as the school doesn’t write the prayer for the students to recite (Religion in The Public School).
Being that the United States is a free country and we as a people have freedom of religion students should be able to say a prayer and hold religious organizations without it having to be before or after school. School prayer has been
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banned since 1962 and young students have gone through a downward spiral because there is nothing to teach them good morals. They would get these morals from religion because it teaches them to be able to control themselves and learn what is right and wrong.
This paper deals with the stance of our schools and government on prayer in school. In this paper I will show how our government is hypocritical in its dealings of the prayer in school issue and how some of us as citizens are hypocritical as well. I will discuss the freedom of religion rights and how its interpretation affects prayer in school. Also, I will address the popular phrase, “separation of church and state”, that is often used to argue against prayer in school.
In 1962 the Supreme Court decided that public schools did not have the power to authorize school prayer. This decision made public school in the U.S. more atheistic than many European nations. For example, crosses still hang on the classroom walls in Poland, and the Ten Commandments are displayed in Hungary. There are prayers held at the beginning of legislative and judicial sessions and every President has mentioned a divine power in his inaugural speech. In keeping with a spirit of religious freedom as stated in the First Amendment, there is no reason why students should not be allowed to have a moment of silence during the school day when they can pray or do as they choose.
until the middle of the 20th century, organized prayer and Bible reading were practiced by public schools across the country. In 1961, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled school prayer to be unconstitutional in the landmark case, Engel v. Vitale. Just two years later, in another landmark case, the court would decide that school sanctioned Bible readings and other similar religious activities should not be allowed as well (http://www.oyez.org/cases). Should these rulings continue to stand in this country? Yes. The government of the United States of America should continue to disallow prayer in the public school system. Praying public schools ...
In 1971 in Mobile County Alabama the School Board created a state statute that set aside time at the beginning of each day for silent ’meditation’ (statute 6-1-20), and in 1981 they added another statute 16-1-20.1 which set aside a minute for ‘silent prayer’ as well. In addition to these, in 1982 the Mobile County School Board enacted statute 16-1-20.2, which specified a prayer that teachers could lead ‘willing’ students in “From henceforth, any teacher or professor in any public educational institution within the State of Alabama, recognizing that the Lord God is one, at the beginning of any homeroom or any class, may pray, may lead willing students in prayer, or may lead the willing students in the following prayer to God… “ (Jaffree By and Through Jaffree v. James). Ishmael Jaffree was the father of three students, Jamael Aakki Jaffree, Makeba Green, and Chioke Saleem Jaffree, who attended a school in Mobile County Alabama. Jaffree complained that his children had been pressured into participating in religious activities by their teachers and their peers, and that he had requested that these activities stopped. When the school did nothing about Jaffree’s complaints he filed an official complaint with the Mobile County School Board through the United States District Courts. The original complaint never mentioned the three state statutes that involved school prayer. However, on June 4, 1982 Jaffree changed his complaint. He now wanted to challenge the constitutionality of statutes 16-1-20, 16-1-20.1 and 16-1-20.2, and motioned for a preliminary injunction. The argument against these state laws was that they were an infringement of the Establishment Clause within the First Amendment of the Constitution, which states that Congr...
Religion is one of the most controversial issues in society today. The concern of allowing prayer in schools is an on-going debate and has resulted in numerous lawsuits. Religious school clubs, after school activities, curriculums, and moments of silence during school are just a few of the court cases that judges have administered. People in favor of prayer in schools believe that their children can only learn certain values through religious practice. On the other hand, an individual against religious practice in schools views this issue as an infringement on his or her children’s rights as Americans.
Although there are a lot of "don'ts", student-initiated prayer is allowed in various situations and locations in the public school system. For example, it is allowed in school buses, at the flagpole, in after-hours student religious clubs, in the school hallways, in the cafeteria, and in the classroom before or after scheduled classes (Religion in School).
"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)
Prohibiting School Prayer Threatens Religious Liberty. Civil Liberties. Ed. James D. Torr. -. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2003.
In 2002 Jonathan Zimmerman wrote a book Whose America: Culture Wars in the Public School, which dissects how religion was taught in the classroom in the past, why it has not worked and thus why we should not allow prayer back into the classroom today. During the common and progressive school eras, the battle in America was whether or not to teach religion in schools, but by the 1940s the questions changed to which religion schools should teach. Therefore, Protestants, Catholics, Jews and Evangelicals
Religion and prayer can benefit students in educational settings by positively contributing to better grades and behavior. Personal faith and prayer are important to people in many walks of life. Some individuals believe that this need for religious stimulation includes the youth in our school systems. There are different reasons why knowledge of religion and prayer can be important to students. For example, if students do not know about diverse faiths, it can be difficult for them to have a well-rounded knowledge and understanding of other cultures. There are oppositional sides to this issue as well. Some people believe that prayer in educational settings could be used as a way to persuade students into believing certain things that they otherwise would not have believed. We live in a diverse world, so it can be hard for everyone to agree on religious convictions and what prayers, if any, to pray.
Prayer in School: Good or Bad? As secular humanists and groups like the Christian Coalition are at war with each other regarding prayer in high schools behind closed doors in Washington DC, the average high school kid is the one that gets caught in the middle. For years now there has been a heated debate about whether or not prayer should be allowed in school. Every time the argument is rekindled, it ends in a stalemate, and is a topic that campaigning politicians tend to stay away from.
The first and fourteenth amendments to the constitution establish the rules that apply to school prayer. The first amendment says: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. The 14th Amendment of the Constitution has several clauses; the clause that pertains to school prayer is the Equal Protection Clause requiring each state to provide equal protection under the law to all people within that state. What this means is, each student in the school is protected from being forced to pray in school in any certain way.
“If we ever forget that we are “One nation under God,” then we will be a nation gone under” -- Ronald Reagan (BrainyQuote). Ronald Reagan makes a great point. America was created as a place for religious freedom. Now that freedom is beginning to be stripped away from us. One of the biggest reasons is due to the argument concerning whether or not religion should be allowed in school. It is believed, by many, that allowing education and religion to coincide is going against the first amendment. This argument is one that dates back to the eighteen hundreds, and has yet to be resolved. It is an American citizen’s right to freely express and learn about religion wherever they please, including the public school system.
To have prayer in the public school system is against the idea of separation of church and state. The state should not institute school prayer because the public schools are for education, not a place where religion should be taught (Gaylor, 1995, p. 1). The state should not force every child to say a prayer in the classroom because not everyone believes...
School prayer, in the context of religious liberty, is state-sanctioned or mandatory prayer by students in public schools. Depending on the country and the type of school, state-sponsored prayer may be required, permitted, or prohibited. Countries which prohibit or limit school prayer often differ in their reasons for doing so: In the United States, school prayer cannot be required of students in accordance with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The concept map made me better understand the social issues that I chose in many different ways.