It's not going to kill anybody if religion and prayer are in schools. I think it shold be allowed. I'm talking about private and public non religion schools.
Other - Education - 15 Answers
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1 :
I agree.
2 :
I think all people including children should be allowed and encouraged to pray in what ever manner they see fit.
3 :
Absolutely. If someone doesn't have that same religion, they have the right to not participate, but not the right to say they can't do it just because they aren't of the same faith.
4 :
I think they should concentrate on spelling. I remember prayer in the schools and how we had to say Our Father every morning, which is a Christian prayer. About 1/3 of the class was Jewish but we had to say it anyway. Whose prayers would you suggest? Christian? Jewish? Muslim? etc. etc. What about agnostics or atheists? Should they be forced to pray?
5 :
Yes, it's about time we started examining the mythology of the dark ages as party of history.
6 :
Yeah. Public schools preach evolution, so why not other religions?
7 :
Yes, to bad my kids can't practice"FREEDOM OF RELIGION" I need to add that, everyone who seems to think they can practice religion in school. Well where I live, you cannot take a bible to school, wear a shirt that says "JESUS ROCKS" anything religious is not allowed in school, that is just sad.
8 :
Religion and prayer are already allowed in public schools. You can pray any time or any place you like, as long as you do not disrupt the class. Unless you want to force others to pray also, is that what you are asking? Why dont we force everyone to pray together? Or teach your religion as fact? Then it becomes an infringement on OTHER peoples religious freedom. You have the freedom to follow whatever religion you want, but I also have the freedom NOT to follow your religion. As far as student led prayer - you have to look at the situation. Is the audience required to be there? Is attendance mandatory? If so, then even student led prayer is not allowed, such as at a graduation ceremony or class meeting. If attendance is not required, such as at an after school religion club or prayer group, then student led prayer is fine. No one is forced to attend.
9 :
I think that religion and prayer should be allowed in public and private non religious schools. I know that our school system allowed these two things when I was in school and nobody minded. Nobody felt like they were forced to take part and nobody WAS forced to take part. You just sat quietly at your desk and listened. If you didn't want to listen to the Scripture reading, you could think about anything you chose such as what you were doing that day after school or what you were going to plan to do that weekend and nobody would know that you didn't listen to the Scripture. However, if you listened to the Scripture reading, you always learned something new. This was partly why I always listened and I found the readings very interesting. After this came the prayer which was led by the teacher and then after this came the pledge to the flag. Then we started with our classwork. Nobody objected and neither did our parents. It wasn't such a big thing; it just WAS. Everybody understood that. Our country was founded by men and women who believed in God and we were honoring them (our founding fathers and mothers) by listening to the Scripture and the prayer and the Pledge to the Flag.
10 :
yeah i suppose it's pretty harmless if someone prays at recess or by their locker. as long as a teacher is not spouting that garbage. obviously it's fine to cover it in any class that it applies to. it's weird that god doesn't really feel like you're addressing him unless you do that weird hand signal.
11 :
Honestly (and I am very religious, faithfuil person), it doesn't really matter to me. I think that religions should be taught for awareness and tolerance. As far as prayer, as far as I know, no one can stop you from praying on your own (I always prayed before every test) & there are clubs (such as fellowship of Christian Athletes) where believers can come together. A whole group prayer time is covered in most school districts by the "Moment of Silence" after the Pledge.
12 :
Notice that the asker of the question said allowed, not forced on children. I think it should be allowed but not forced on children. If a child wants to pray, let them pray. I consider that part of the freedom of religion. Teachers or school faculty should not force the children to pray. School faculty led prayers (forced prayers) should not be allowed, however student led prayers (voluntary) should be. The other students may have to listen to the prayers, but that is part of the freedom of speech and religion. And since the student is leading the prayer it is separation of church and state. I remember when I was in high school. There was a court ruling that it was against the law to lead prayers at school even if student led. They threatened around our local area that any students that led prayers at their high school graduations would be encarcerated and put in jail. I will never forget the large showing of police that showed up at my high school graduation ready to handcuff and cart off anyone who participated in a student led prayer at graduation ceremonies. This happened at many other high schools around my local area. My class president and class vice president both led student prayers at my high school graduation, knowing very well that by doing so they might be handcuffed and put in jail. Most of the students followed in prayer. Many other high schools defied the order also in the same kind of situation. No one was carted off for praying, but the tension was definitely there. If they had carted people off to jail, I would have considered my country no better than China as far as religious tolerance.
13 :
Not me. Religion has no proper place in any government-sponsored arena, lest we find ourselves on a slippery slope to a state religion. And that would be an abomination. The courts have done well at keeping religion out of government -- and government out of religion.
14 :
Religion and prayer are already allowed in schools. What you seem to be talking about is giving schools the power to force people to pray and engage in religious training, which clearly violates the first words of the First Amendment by tending to establish state-sanctioned religious denominations. If children want to pray, they can pray in school without interference, as long as they don't create a disturbance; any administrator who interferes with them will be breaking the law. There is a difference, which you apparently need to think about, between allowing people to act freely and forcing them to act as though they share your beliefs.
15 :
So you won't have a problem with a pentagram being drawn on the floor of your school so that those who call satanism their religion can pray to their god. Or the native american mud hut so they can indulge in peyote while offering their sacred prayers to their god(s). Maybe you're only talking about Christian prayer and not Catholic prayer where some diocese still cross themselves when they pray, or wiccan ceremonies requiring candles or burning of clothing, or voodoo religious prayer that requires the blood of certain animals to consummate the prayer. Wow, I don't know where you go to school, but it would be difficult to get much done around just the various Christian rituals, let alone those who are of the Jewish faith, or Islam. I'd say no. We need to keep religion and state seperate. Do you not see Iraq, or Iran, or Israel, or Turkey or Lebanon, or any other nation that doesn't seperate.
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