Prayer in public schools

[dimpy.handa]

We've all noticed―and many have commented on―the slow creeping degradation of America's public school system. Coincidentally, the banning of prayer and any other religious teaching in public school in 1963 is just about the same time that our public school system started going downhill.

While I'm not a follower of any particular religion, I think most religions have much to offer with regard to morals and character and living in the way that good people believe we should. What is ironic, is that this kind of moral teaching is straight in line with what our school system should be teaching our children. A teacher can say to his classroom that hurting others or stealing is wrong, but he's forbidden from using examples from the Bible―or any other religious text. The children listening to this teacher trying to tip-toe around religion to teach these moral lessons, experience a disconnect―for lack of a better word. Without the moral lessons instilled in children by religious teaching, the only thing children end up learning is the importance of not being caught. They learn that if you don't get caught there are no consequences. Contrast this with lessons from the Bible for example. While you may not have been caught performing your dastardly deed, God saw it, and you will pay the consequences! Other religions have similar paradigms. In any religion no wrong act goes unpunished.

 

[swatiraohnlu]

The 1962 and '63 Supreme Court decisions to "remove prayer from the schools" were just another in a long series of battles lost by Christians, battles so often fought only with whimperings of outrage, and never, so far, fought with a mass exodus from America's public schools.

These decisions did not have much effect on the US educational system.

 

[dimpy.handa]

The history of prayer in public school is a story of legal interpretation. The relationship between religion and government in the United States is governed by the First Amendment to the Constitution, which both prevents the government from establishing religion and protects privately initiated religious expression and activities from government interference and discrimination. The First Amendment thus establishes certain limits on the conduct of public school officials as it relates to religious activity, including prayer.