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Christianity In Public School Essay

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Back then/in the past/The change/historically Post World War II, it was common in public schools to start the day with worship services and prayer or hold explicitly Christian assemblies for special occasions throughout the year. In fact, it was estimated that by 1960, “...religious exercises…were conducted in about fifty percent of the nation’s school districts” (Jr. 11). However, the religion of students and educators was not solely Christian. This caused problems with students, parents, and teachers, and led to a rise of opposition to the traditional norms in public schools. Numerous court cases were taken to the Supreme Court, who upheld the Establishment Clause, ruling out the study of the Bible and worship services from public schools. …show more content…

The role of religion, specifically Christianity, in schools has changed; where it was common to start the school day with prayer, now, after Supreme Court rulings, public schools are required to uphold neutrality by not limiting students’ religious rights. By understanding how the relationship between school and Christianity has changed over the years, students and teachers can learn the importance of allowing students to express their religion. Since Supreme Court rulings on the separation of Church and State, religious based issues have arisen because of religious illiteracy among students, and the public school and educators responsibility to create a neutral environment for …show more content…

When faced with religious diversity in the classroom, some teachers don’t know how to approach the challenge of students’ religious liberties. In the article “Faith and Freedom of Religion in U.S. Public Schools: Issues and Challenges Facing Teachers” the author Ilene Allgood states “...public school educators are not adequately prepared to handle the multifarious challenges when religion and public schooling intersect” (Allgood 272). The author requests that courses focusing on religion in public school be required for future educators to prepare them for navigating religious issues in their classrooms. Similarly, the article “Teaching Religion in America’s Public Schools: A Necessary Disruption” outlines the issues regarding the separation of Church and State, and how it applies to public schools. The authors, Jeff Passe and Lara Willox, then explain how to develop a healthy relationship, starting with educators’ lack of understanding and education about religions. Teachers need to “...develop instructional techniques that promote tolerance, sensitivity, [and] nonjudgmental expression of beliefs…” (Passe and Willox

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In another case, Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe, 530 U.S. 290 (2000), prayers were offered before graduations and football games by a student elected chaplain. While the case being processed in district court, the school district issued another policy that permits, but does not require that all students participate in the student-led prayer. The court ruled that the football game prayers were authorized by a government policy and taking place on government property which was perceived as government establishing a religion. This case relates to O’Connell v. Hopewell School District, New Jersey because the football team is practicing on government property. Additionally, in Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe, since the prayers were on government property, it was perceived as a government entity establish a

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an you imagine yourself having to start your daily school routine with a prayer? This became a serious question to be taken up by the Supreme Court of the US, in November of 1951. Following an increase in in juvenile crime (many believe caused by the Korean War). The New York Board of Regents adopted a prayer to be recited in NY public schools (Dierenfield 67). The prayer was established because “...the regents believed that such a program would ensure that school children would acquire ‘respect for lawful authority and obedience to law’ ”

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Case Citation: Santa Fe Independent School Dist. v. Doe, 530 U.S. 290 (2000) Parties: Santa Fe Independent School District/ Petitioner Jane Doe/ Respondent Facts: Prior to 1995, Santa Fe High School established a policy which allows their student council chaplain to deliver a Christian prayer through the school’s public address system before home football games of the school’s team. The practice was repeated before every football game. The mothers of one Mormon and one Catholic student filed a suit, claiming that the prayer policy violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

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Although public school prayers violate the separation of church and state, that doesn’t mean the U.S supreme court can replace freedom of religion with freedom from religion. Most of them argue the gov’t is meant for everyone, it should be neutral while protecting all. Alabama, Montana, north Dakota and Maryland are the only state out of 54 states to allow public prayer and religious groups, club and programs in public schools, but on conditions like students will not be forced to cooperate in prayer, furthermore students are allowed to have a moment of silence (in Virginia) and teaching of the positive-negative side of different religion. There is a possibility someday, someone will sue a Virginia school because of it moment of silence time. The justice system needs to draw a clear line between religion and the people 's

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The court case Santa Fe Independent School District vs. Doe was a court case decided by the supreme court ruled on June 19 2000.  This was quite the controversial court case involving religion and the schools sponsoring of student lead prayer.   The court found that the school’s policy was biased towards religion and that it violated the first amendment, to be more specific the establishment clause.     It all started back in 1995 when students lead prayers before every home varsity football game.

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One of the many landmark cases heard by the United States Supreme Court in American history was Lemon vs Kurtzman. In 1971 the Supreme Court had to decide if states could give money to certain religious based schools to hire staff even if the teachers couldn’t teach religious classes. The first amendment to the Constitution established the law of separation of church and state. What is the established boundary between church and state? This case would be the defining point in that fight between the involvement of a state and the churches.

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The case of Everson v. Board of Education began when New Jersey issued a state law authorized schools to make rules for transporting students to and from public and private nonprofit schools. Ewing Township made students use the public bus as school transportation, and they reimbursed the parents for the cost of transportation. Everson filed a suit against the Board of Education, arguing that tax money collected for public schools was being used to pay the families of student that attended private schools that were affiliated with various religious groups. Everson believed the Board had violated the “constitutional guarantee against the ‘establishment’ of a religion contained in the 1st Amendment” (phschool.com). In violating the guarantee of the 1st Amendment, Everson thought the Ewing Township board had also violated the guaranteed right to separation of church and state.

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Religion has always been a big part of the American culture however the American constitutional separation between church and state have teethed on the edge of collapse as religious fundamentalists tried to blur the line between the separation. The Scopes “Monkey” Trial brought to the forefront the heated debate in the religious battle to overturn the Butler Act which forbade public schools science curriculum in Dayton, Tennessee from including evolution. John scopes, a high school biology teacher, employment was suspended for violating the Butler Act, and this brought the American Civil Liberties Union to his defense in part to mount the first legal challenge against the Butler Act, in order to bring to the forefront of national and international debate the role of religion in secular education. The debate has come full circle and is again a hot topic as public educators are confronted with the fundamentalists insisting upon the teaching of religious ideology as part of secular school curriculum and similar demands for prayer and the elimination of the teaching of evolution in public schools.

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On June 25, 1962 the Supreme Court voted 6-1 in favor of Engel that the Regents Prayer violated the First Amendment clause. Writing for the majority, Justice Hugo Black stated, “it is no part of the business of government to compose official prayers” and also explaining how the prayer breaks the “constitutional wall of separation between Church and State” There is no doubt that the school's prayer was a religious act led by teachers in a public school, however there was a lot of negative backlash in response to the court's decision. Many US citizens were outraged by the decision. Although William Vitale, the board president from New York, supported the prayer, he claimed the board would follow the court's decision either way.

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However, the nature of that role is rather convoluted. In reflecting on the development of the modern US educational system, Reese points out that the “power of tradition” is clear, but that “it is not self-evident what the phrase means or how society’s expectations evolved over time.” Just as the emendation of the Pledge of Allegiance to include the phrase “under God” represented both a break from tradition (the words were not previously part of the pledge) as well as an affirmation of tradition (the change was cast as a fortification of core American values), so too did the various movements concerning religion in the classroom rely on the argument that tradition is founded not in historical practice, but rather in foundational values and ideals. This helps explains why many Christian denominations came to very different conclusions about the role of religion in the classroom, despite their common grounding in “tradition”. Indeed, these differences evidence the fact that the tradition they spoke of referred not to long-established customs (as the term might commonly be defined), but rather to core values and ideals, such as common theistic background, the salvation of the youth, or the separation of church and state — as the specific case may

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