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.
The incorporation of religious practices has been shown to increase awareness of beliefs and values held in different cultures. The article “Teaching religion in America’s public schools: A necessary disruption,” talks about how “In our global society it is more important than ever to know about and understand the religious beliefs of others” (Passe, J., & Willox, L., 2009). This statement is so true. The more knowledge students possess about diverse ways of thinking, the better they can relate to and understand the world around them. The article goes on to say that “Without studying religion, how can a student possibly understand such topics as the crusades; religious prosecution; the formation of India and Pakistan…” (Passe, J., & Willox, L., 2009). It seems that the information is there to have, but it is just not used very often ...
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...public-school students. Journal of Research on Christian Education, 18(1), 36-36-55.
Hoff, C. "COLUMN: Public school teachers, private prayer." University Wire. 2005, November 01.
Lester, E., & Roberts, P. S. (2009). How teaching world religions brought a truce to the culture wars in Modesto, California. British Journal of Religious Education, 31(3), 187-187-199.
M., W. W. (2011). School Board Meeting Prayer Ruled Unconstitutional. Education Week, 31(1), 4. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Passe, J., & Willox, L. (2009). Teaching religion in America’s public schools: A necessary disruption. The Social Studies, 100(3), 102-102-106.
Public schools are no place for prayer. (2005, Sep 11). South Florida Sun - Sentinel, pp. 4.J-4J.
S.C School Officials Drop Email Proselytizing After AU Complaint. (2011). Church & State, 64(6), 17-18. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
California school with about 1,000 students) I learned a lot about how religion is taught and how religious issues are handled. Raised in a Christian home, having my father teaching at the same school I attended, and practicing Christianity my entire life, I watched carefully throughout my high school education to see how my teachers would deal with the world and U.S. religions that play an enormous role in the history of our world and country.
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.
* Longley, Robert. "Public Schools Don't Have a Prayer." U.S. Gov Info/Resources n.d. 15 Nov. 2001 .
Prayer in School Affects all of Society. “Creation Today” 1 January 2014. Web. 9 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.
An issue that has been constantly debated for years is whether voluntary prayer in public schools should be permitted. A student should be allowed to pray voluntarily at the beginning of each school day based on many reasons. Prayer based on moral beliefs reinforce good citizenship as defined by our forefathers. A daily reminder of a need for the belief of good over evil is a necessary part of this society. Daily voluntary school prayer should be re-instated in public schools due to three reasons, the historical basis of the beginning of the United States government, the serious moral decline since prayer has been outlawed, and the government infringement on the constitutional guarantee of individual freedom of personal beliefs.
Through many Supreme Court cases, decisions, and official statements, the United States Government has made it clear that study about religion is constitutional (Haynes 2). 3 main cases have explicitly shown the acceptability of religion in school. There have been many statements made Supreme Court Justices and the current president himself stating the permissibility of having religion taught in school. Guidelines have also been written and carried out for the use of religion in the public school system (Guidelines: U.S. Department of Education, 2)
For years now there has been a heated debate about whether or not prayer should be allowed in school,. Everytime the argument is rekindled, it ends in a stalemate, and is a topic that campaigning politicians tend to stay away from.
It is argued that there isn’t a way for every religion to be recognized within the public schools to accommodate everyone without offending anyone. It just isn’t a possibility to incorporate a sense of a “prayer service” that meets everyone’s needs without completely throwing off the school day’s curriculum and without making a form of an offense.
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).
This website provided a copy of the U.S. Secretary of Education’s guidelines on religious expression in public schools.
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.
Nord, Warren A. Religion & American Education: Rethinking a National Dilemma. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1995.
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...
University of Michigan. “Religion in Schools: A look at how religious practices influence education.” .