Persuasive Essay: Prayers In Public Schools

“Since prayer was removed from public school classrooms in 1962, we have had a 6-fold increase in violent crime, our divorce rate has tripled,births to single mothers have increased 5-fold, the teenage suicide rate has tripled, and SAT scores have dropped 10%.(Creation Today). Reasons that represent why prayer and moments of silence should be allowed in the public school system will be expressed. This essay will represent the affirmative stance when regarding this topic of school wide prayer and moments of silence.

The Roman and Han empires thrived for hundreds of years, making huge impacts on society and the way of life in classical civilizations. Both had many products to trade, had a strong bureaucracy, and created many advanced technologies that helped shape our world today. Yet some of these impacts on society played a major role in the demise of these two major empires. While the Han and Roman empires had many similarities that led to their decline, such as corrupt government officials and invasions by foreign groups, they also had key differences, such as the way the empire dealt with its immense amount of land and the level of assimilation of those they conquered.

The American education system is one of the main places of controversy for the Separation of Church and State. Almost every child in the United States attends some type of school, many of them public systems. In such a school setting, these children are often exposed to the beliefs of their teachers and administrators, as well as their own classmates. In Greece, New York, ever since 1999, the town board has begun their monthly gatherings with prayer. Rev. Lou Sirianni begins his gathering by stating: "Be thou present, O God of wisdom, and direct the councils of this honorable assembly," the prayer ended, "All this we ask in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ, Thy Son and our Savior" (Wolf 1). Recently in 2007, two residents who regularly attended board meetings, Susan Galloway and Linda Stephens, complained that the prayers were promoting more of a Christian community than any other religion (Masci 3). Although separation of church and state is stated briefly in the First Amendment, these two ladies had the right to go after the town for not allowing a freedom of religion and for most importantly throwing religion into a government owned school function. The case was brought to the Supreme Court in 2007 and is still under debate, with a result hopefully by the end of June 2014. The question is whether or not this prayer is allowed at a school function. Not everyone is willing to put

Name: Ethan Krezinski Class Period: 3rd Lit. & Comp. Macbeth the Tragic Hero “The Tragedy of Macbeth” is a type of tragedy that focuses on the character of the tragic hero. Aristotle defines this hero as “a man who is neither outstanding in virtue and righteousness, nor is it through wickedness that he falls into misfortune, but through some flaw.” The Tragedy of Macbeth fits this description of a kind of play in which Macbeth’s pride leading to an excess of human ambition lead him to human actions that have their inevitable consequences, in which the characters’ bad deeds, errors, mistakes, and crimes are never forgiven or rectified. In this tragedy, Macbeth has a tragic flaw that leads to an ill-judged action that lead to another and then another and eventually leads to catastrophe.

For centuries, the debate has existed whether or not to allow prayer in public schools. Many Americans feel it is not right of the schools to teach religion. With all the diversity associated with the United States, public schools cannot select one standard religion to practice, due to the cultural and religious differences in the country. Not only are schools the storm center of controversy involving religious differences, they are the principal institution charged with transmitting the identity and mission of the United States from one generation to the next. If we fail in our school policies and classrooms to model and to teach how to live with differences, we endanger our experiment in religious liberty and our

Since the Declaration of Independence was drafted founding itself on individual privileges and choice, happiness and democracy, a multitude of concerns have kindled the rights disputes that we see making law an active and continually growing and interesting area of interest today. Issues arose included women suffrage, civil equality, slavery, the ability to hold a religious forum, along with many others. And, though the context and times have significantly changed with these concerns there still remains a constant struggle between state, religion, and schools. Prayer in public schools is still a topic of conversation. The giving of religious gifts to administrators and the funding of schools through tax-payer monies are

Many people agree against prayer in public schools, while others think that people should be able to express their religion in their own ways. In public schools, they are not allowed to hold prayers at all during the school day due to the mixed religion students that are attending the school. Over the past few years, this has become an extremely controversial issue in our nation. Many people find it proper to pray in school but many people also agree that it is extremely wrong and that if there is going to be pray in school, every religion should be addressed. The government cannot make a law about having a certain religion banned or allowed in a school setting. Children are allowed to pray on their own time as long as it does not

but, so far no compromise has been agreed upon. This is due to the fact that

School prayer is a very controversial issue in today’s society. The issue of school prayer is about whether the public school systems should let the students pray, at the start of the school day, as a class. The issue of school prayer began in the late sixteenth century when people in England did not approve of the way one religion was forced upon them, so the Puritans, known as the Pilgrims decided to come to the colonies. Even in the colonies the Pilgrims had problems with religion they had to sometimes resort to highly creative strategies in order to pray. When people were caught having a secret service they would have to face the consequences that the law enforced, whether it was going

“Freedom of religion includes both the right to manifest beliefs and practices and the right to be free from state coercion or constraint in matters of religion ().” One of the most controversial places in which freedom of religion manifests itself is the public school. In order to protect freedom of religion, it is important to make sense of how a school must treat religion so the school does not compromise its role within society. This paper will establish current rulings on religion in public school and then explore what a religious accommodation is, why it may be necessary, and finally how it will take shape within the public school system by using a multitude of examples. This paper argues that religious accommodations for students in public schools are necessary to ensure freedom of religion. However, in order to guarantee that religious accommodation is enforceable and discernable, it argues for a two-pronged evaluation of each scenario in order to determine the viability of the proposed religious accommodation. Firstly, the accommodation must not infringe on the education of the other students not included in the accommodation by taking away their rights and the accommodation must not exempt a student from the education provided by the school. By applying this two-way evaluation system to given examples it will be concluded that religious freedom must absolutely be protected by way of certain religious accommodations provided that the school is

This gives students the opportunity to openly, or privately, pray which conveys the love of their deity or deities or lack thereof.”

I wanted to be a firefighter when I was younger, because I wanted to help people and save lives. As I have gotten older, I began to think that wanting to be a firefighter was a dumb idea because I was too chubby, too small, and too afraid. This was after a really bad experience which caused be to become afraid of almost everything, I was becoming very depressed, consequently, I was starting to give up on my dreams of college, of family, and of my future in general.

Prayer plays such a big role in many people’s lives. It happens each and every day and multiple times throughout the day. Even though it can play a huge role in someone’s life, it cannot be practiced in schools. Prayer in school has been a very controversial topic for many years. According to Steven K. Green, “On June 25, 1962, the United States Supreme Court decided in Engel v. Vitale that a prayer approved by the New York Board of Regents for use in schools violated the First Amendment by constituting an establishment of religion (Green 1).” It has since then been taken out of school preventing teachers to preach or teach about religion.

    Many public schools do not approve of prayer in the populated, student-filled environment.  The definition of prayer is” a devout petition to God or an object of worship”(Dictionary).  While private schools are capable of creating their own rules an regulations regarding religious practices such as prayer, public schools, as they are regulated by the state and federal government, are not able to create these regulations on their own.  This creates the argument of whether or not public display of religious practices such as prayer should be legalized by state as well as national school board agencies.  Although Prayer has many benefits, it is still a choice; Prayer is not forced, it’s an individual choice, and the First Amendment states freedom of religion.

One of the avenues of influential learning is in school. The place where students spend half of their life. Going to school aids students in acquiring knowledge, establishing rapport and developing skills. When students attend school, they showcase not only their characters traits and attitudes, but they also carry with them their cultural differences and religious practices. (Green & Oldendorf, 2005). Looking at how diverse our society is, the question of teaching religions and their ideologies at a school-level rise. Whilst the state practices neutrality towards religion, there are still issues and challenges when it comes to accommodating religious diversity and its integration in the education system (Berger, 2013, p.104). Therefore, integrating religion in the education system can lead to