An argument for religious practices in american schools

On one hand, among U. On the other hand, Americans with college degrees report attending religious services as often as Americans with less education. Other Pew Research Center data on religion and education This analysis looks at measures of religious identification and commitment among Americans with different levels of education.

The United States is currently in the unenviable position of being near the bottom of the list of industrialized nations when it comes to teaching evolution in our public schools. As a consequence, at least half of adults outright embrace creationism and reject evolution.

How can a scientifically illiterate nation compete in global market?

What does it mean for our future when half our population rejects fact and accepts fable? The Freedom From Religion Foundation is continually contacted by students and parents who encounter teachers and principals who view their captive audience of students as a ripe mission field for recruitment.

We handle more than 2, complaints a year by members of the public concerned about violations of the separation between church and state, and the vast majority of these concern violations in our public schools.

We have to closely monitor our public schools to comply with more than 60 years of clear precedent barring prayer and devotional instruction in our public schools. This year marks the 65th anniversary of the landmark McCollum v. Board of Education decision by the U.

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Supreme Court, barring religious instruction in our public schools. Jim McCollum was the only child in his elementary school not participating in religious classes. The plaintiffs in both these cases became pariahs for speaking out against religion in their public schools.

Unfortunately, even today, students who stick up for separation of church and state still often become outcasts, as demonstrated by the mistreatment of high school student Jessica Ahlquist last year.

Arguments for Prayer in School

After she won a federal ruling in Rhode Island removing a prayer banner from her public high school, Jessica at one point had to be accompanied to school by police escort. She retreated to private tutoring after repeated and vicious threats of violence and retribution.

Religion in our public schools creates divisiveness, and awareness of religious differences often builds walls between students. InCatholic parents in my state of Wisconsin brought suit against the practice of devotional reading of the Protestant bible in the public schools.

In concurring with a ruling that declared such bible reading unconstitutional, a Wisconsin State Supreme Court justice wisely noted: There is no such source and cause of strife, quarrel, fights, malignant opposition, persecution, and war, and all evil in the state, as religion.

Let it once enter our civil affairs, our government would soon be destroyed. Let it once enter our common schools, they would be destroyed. Supreme Court litigant Vashti McCollum often responded, in response to the question about teaching religion in the schools: If we teach religion, whose religion?

In the best of all possible public school environments, it would be ideal, of course, to include, at least at the high school level, a class on comparative religion.

Most social studies and geography classes already study the religious affiliations of an area, and some of their identifying tenets. Are Americans prepared to do that in a fair and neutral manner?

Ultimately, the object of any public school class, no matter the subject, ought to be to teach critical thinking skills.

Are religionists willing to agree that children should be taught in public schools to question religion?Teaching About Religion-- an essay from Education Week in which the authors make a case that it's important to teach about religion in order to understand the world -- they also distinguish between teaching about religion and engaging in religious practice.

On Arguments Against Religious Education | The American Conservative

For nearly half a century, the United States Supreme Court, consistent with this nation's history of secular schools, has ruled against religious indoctrination through schools (McCollum v. Board of Education, ), prayers and devotionals in public schools (Engel v.

RELIGION IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OVERVIEW – A COMPLEX ISSUE minority or majority - to practice their religions freely and without government interference. As a result, we have developed an expertise in this area.

Furthermore, the student body in America's public schools is growing increasingly diverse. Religion in our public schools creates divisiveness, and awareness of religious differences often builds walls between students.

In , Catholic parents in my state of Wisconsin brought suit against the practice of devotional reading of the (Protestant) bible in the public schools. In banning school prayer the U.S.

Supreme Court has mistaken the principle of “freedom of religion,” guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, for freedom from religion and any observance of it. School prayer would allow religious students the freedom to observe their religious beliefs during the school day.

By cutting all ties to the government, accrediting agencies would free themselves to declare that religious schools violate the core principles of higher education and therefore may not be accredited.