Persuasive Speech On Prayer In School

Does prayer affect what a student can and cannot do? Prayer seems like an innocent, honest action to do in school. Some children are even pushed towards prayer by most of their parents, depending on their religious beliefs. Yet, what we do not know is that there is a major controversy between religion and schools. Though there is religious freedom due to the 1st Amendment of the Constitution, the government should not allow prayer in school because children should have a choice whether they want religion to be part of their learning and because religion is diverse around the nation. Significantly, a major part of the United States are our rights that are stated in the 1st Amendment of the Constitution. These rights are what established

Being the adults responsible for a child at schools, a teacher is accountable for all the educational needs of a child. A teacher who is a certain religion cannot be necessarily knowledgeable in that religion, but that does not mean that a child cannot explore into something new. Once again in the interview between Melinda D. Anderson and Linda K. Wertheimer, Anderson noted that, “‘Teach, not preach’ was a common refrain as a guiding principle for how schools should introduce the teaching of religion” (Anderson). What Anderson really means is that teachers should also take into consideration that they can change what a child views and that they are one of the major parts in a child’s growth. They can easily change a child 's opinion on what they can and cannot

In an article by Camille Myrick a teacher at Oak Grove Middle School, Randi Rogers, was quoted in a letter that stated, “Ms. Rogers said that even if the word ‘prayer’ was illegal, she would continue to write names on the [prayer] board for whom she would be praying” (Myrick). This sounds like a case of a child who possibly questioned the teacher 's actions, which would explain why it was brought up. However the article also noted that, “It also accused Rogers of being aggressive towards a student for disrespecting her religion” (Myrick). The teacher should realize that she should have been handling the situation in a professional manner, rather than blaming the student who really was not at fault at all. The teacher was also to blame for handling the situation as the letter mentions, “‘Ms. Rogers said that if a student didn 't like it [her religion] he could move to another part of the classroom’” (Myrick). The teacher should know that schools are funded by the state and she should have taken into account that it was not an appropriate way to approach the circumstance she was in. This also gives one an outlook on how a teacher can easily control a child 's surroundings and experiences, and whether prayer should be part of a child 's learning. Moreover, the law made against religion did not not allow children to not