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Prayer In Public Schools

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School prayer in the public school setting has always been a controversial issue. For decades society has been divided into whether students should or should not be allowed to pray at school and school functions. There have been many court cases to decide this issue. Those that oppose it believe there is a definite separation of church and state. On the other side, people believe that prayer in schools is constitutional and is confirmed by the belief of freedom of religion. Our country was founded on religious beliefs so therefore it should be present in the school setting as well. Allowing for prayer would allow for morals and values to be present in the educational setting. In fact there is prayer present right now in education with a moment of silence offered daily during the beginning of the day. I believe that prayer in the classroom should be allowed and there many benefits of it.
Those that are opposed believe that there should be separation of church and state. The school’s main purpose should be to educate children not expose them to religion as well. They feel …show more content…

In our daily lives, there is unrest and parents are no longer parenting. They rely on the school to teach and give them morals and values as well. Allowing prayer in the classroom, would guide students to make the right decisions and better choices. Morals and prayer go hand in hand. There needs to be a knowledge of right and wrong and the consequences that goes with their decisions. This seems to be very lacking in our society today. The public school system is sadly disintegrating by the rise in school shootings, increasing drug use, alcoholism, and teen pregnancy. School prayer could help fight these issues.
Allowing students to pray in a public school causes many mixed emotions from a variety of people. There are those that support it and then those that think it doesn’t need to be present in an educational

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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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859 Words | 4 Pages

Engel v. Vitale: Prayer in the Public Schools is a book written by Julia C. Loren. Loren’s main purpose for writing this book is to inform us about the history of the Engel v. Vitale trial, an important trial which determined that prayer was not acceptable in the public schools quote as the book says the “In 1962, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down one of its most controversial decisions of the twentieth century.” In this book, Loren was not bias towards either Engel’s or Vitale’s side of the case as she did not appear to be very fond of one particular side and gave information regarding both sides of the case. With that being said, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in history or even the Engel v. Vitale case itself because the author was very straightforward in telling about both sides of the case without leaving anything out. Engel v. Vitale:

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599 Words | 3 Pages

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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2001 Words | 9 Pages

Engel won this case. furthermore, steven Engel backed a court case on removing silent prayer in Alabama, which he succeeds in doing. Steven Engel is considered by many one the father of public schools without

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426 Words | 2 Pages

The reasoning behind that decision was that the provision allowing students to absent themselves from that activity did not make that law constitutional. The purpose of the First Amendment was to prevent government interference with religion (Facts and Case Summary - Engel v. Vitale, n.d.). Justice Douglas concurred with what the court had found. He took a broader view of the Establishment Clause, arguing that any type of public promotion of religion, including giving financial aid to religious schools, violates the establishment clause (Facts and Case Summary - Engel v. Vitale, n.d.). I would agree with this decision in some ways, but there are some that I do not agree with.

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372 Words | 2 Pages

In 1962, the Supreme Court case “Engle v. Vitale” ruled that school prayer could no longer be performed in public classrooms because it was offensive to some families’ religious beliefs. The arguments revolved around the different interpretations and understandings of the 1st Amendment that stated, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;” Those opposed to school prayer claimed that it violated their personal/religious beliefs; because their children were forced to pray to a God they did not believe existed. They thought that religious activities should be separate from government policies and remain a “function to the people themselves.” On the other hand, those supporting

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1763 Words | 8 Pages

They are able to say wrong answers, and form opinions without the fear of being reprimanded. In the spring, the students performed “Stations of the Cross”, a very prominent catholic tradition that all the students were familiar with. She allowed the students to have fun with this event and interpret the scenes in their own ways. (Carger, 1996) Allowing the children to do this will help them remember the key events better than if they were just reading it out of a book. It was always positive in this classroom leading to happier students and a better learning

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As we all know today’s school are a lot different than those in the 1960’s. During the 1960’s is was tradition to open each and every day with a nondenominational prayer, along with the Pledge of Allegiance. Today, prayer is accepted in schools as long as it is led by the student themselves, and not the teacher. In 1962 the case of Engel vs. Vitale went to the Supreme Court based off the idea of whether school sponsored prayer violates the First Amendment Establishment Clause. At this time there was a general law in New York State that required every school within the state to open each day with the Pledge of Allegiance, and a prayer that did not restrict denomination.

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Now that I am at a public school, we can not do that. In fact, I believe that it is against the law to teach religion in a public school setting. Primarily for this reason, I did not want to leave St. Michael

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In 1951, the following prayer was written that was intended to be recited each morning as part of the regents’ Statement of Moral and Spiritual Training in the Schools: “Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers, and our country.” Because the regents made the recitation of the prayer each day entirely optional to the school boards and the individual families of students, many New York school districts shunned the prayer because of their eclectic student bodies. Not only was the state religiously and ethnically diverse, but religious instruction in state schools was declared unconstitutional by the 1948 Supreme Court decision in the McCollum vs. Board of Education case. Because of the constantly increasing controversy about religious teaching in public schools, at least 90% of New York districts were not using the prayer by the late 1950s. Then, in 1958, five parents (of varying religions and ethnicities) of students within the district filed a lawsuit to stop the use of the prayer in their schools.

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440 Words | 2 Pages

It would be biased and partial to only give money to non religious schools, where as it would be impartial and unbiased to give to all schools no matter if it is

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609 Words | 3 Pages

Some of us now do not believe that there should be separation. Some feel that there should be religion be in public schools if brought up in conversation and then there are the ones that feel that religion should not be in public schools so that they or others would get upset with hearing things they do not believe

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The ACLU would most likely file a lawsuit against any version of this policy if passed because they will say that it violates the separation of church and state because some of the schools that will take students using vouchers provided by the government. A potential harm of this policy is that is it could make it more difficult for children in heavily isolated areas to receive these higher levels of education because it will be difficult for them to have access to a private school. Students in these portions of the state are more likely to be the ones who need public schools than students that live in urban areas. While they will still receive a better education than before, it might not reach the level of the education being received by those in private

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288 Words | 2 Pages

There have been many cases with the Supreme Court and rights of students. Many of the cases in which took place in the topics of self expression, freedom of speech, discipline, religion, and more. Some of the following are situation where students brought their cases to the Supreme Court in order to protect their rights. Freedom of Speech

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1438 Words | 6 Pages

Public school funding Increasing school funding is very important in today’s future American students. Education should be one of the top priorities in the United States to make sure every student has the same opportunity to get the same great education. Increasing public school funding be beneficial for outdated textbooks, lack of technology, and increases more resources for students. These resources would be crucial of generating students of America. These students are the workers, leaders, and inspirations of future America.

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