DO you have anything on religion in schools?

Question

I would llike things that are mostly in the United States.

Answer 1

I do only because I go to a private christian school. In public school in history class we would study some about hinduism, buddhism, islam, but never christianity or judaism.

Answer 2

Well, it depends on what you mean by having anything on religion in school.

When I was in high school, I remember learning in social studies and world cultures classes about various religions. I learned about Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and I know I'm forgetting some others. Was ten years ago when I had those classes, but I recall the world religions section where we learned about major religions in the world.

As far as teaching church doctrine in school, that's not allowed. We can teach ABOUT religion, but we can't preach. Not every student that attends public school is the same faith and schools have to respect that, so they can't teach church doctrine of any religion or faith as "truth" in a public school. Only way a school can do that is if they're specifically a religious school. My hometown had a small Catholic school that was grades 1-8 as well as the K-12 public school.

Obviously, lol, kids who went to kindergarten and grades 9-12 did so at the public school, but the Catholic school was there as well. I think there was also another Catholic school in another neighboring town, but that has since closed down and those kids go to either the Catholic school in my hometown or straight to the public school.

Either way, unless it's specifically a religious school, church doctrine can't be taught in public schools here in the States.

However, kids don't need to leave their faith at the door, just because they go to a public rather than religious school. Kids can pray before class, a meal, a test, whenever. Contrary to popular belief and controversy, God has NOT been taken out of or forbidden from being mentioned in school. Teachers and faculty can't lead or require prayers, but kids can, of their own free will, say private prayers any time they wish, so long as they don't disrupt the class.

Prior to 1963, teachers and sometimes principals led students in not only the Pledge of Allegiance, but usually a short prayer as well. This was before my time, but my mother was young during this time and went to school in Iowa. She told me that not only did they say the Pledge(actually, growing up, I said it, too, up until junior high and high school. Was standard all through elementary grades), but the school principal led the students through recitation of the Lord's Prayer.

After 1963, this was ruled unconstitutional on the grounds that not every child that goes to school is of the same faith, so reciting any prayer was unfair as to specify a prayer(which, again according to my mother, was generally Christian) excluded kids who weren't of that faith. Kids have the right to their own faith, so to make, say, a Jewish kid recite a Christian prayer not only contradicts what he's taught at home, but also tells them what to believe, rather than letting them have the beliefs they do deep in their hearts.

Kids can pray on their own, but teachers can't make them. Kids can also read the Bible or any other religious text and they can also invite their classmates to join them to come to service with them on the weekend. They can't harass, bully or otherwise intimidate other students into doing so, nor can they discriminate against students who don't share their faith. Same goes for the teachers and faculty.

A teacher can pray on her own(my own fourth grade teacher would quietly bow her head and pray daily before lunch) and the school can't tell her not to, but she can't make all her students do the same.

Also, religious students can have religious clubs for after school, so long as all faiths are able to if they wish, and secular, nonreligious clubs are also able to exist. As long as there's no harassment or bullying or discrimination, it's fine.

Religious groups are also free to use the school, but only during non-instructional hours, like weekends and after school. I've heard of religious meetings and services happening at school, but never during school hours. My husband-to-be, his school(which was in a MUCH bigger city, compared to my small town of 1500 here in the Midwest) allowed people to pass out bibles and tracts on school property, but as far as I can remember, this never happened at my school.

Let's see, graduation speeches are another controversy and difficult to determine as the line between personal belief and school favoring religion is even thinner than it is otherwise. Schools may not have a priest or minister give a benediction at any time during the commencement ceremony(although I seem to recall that at my own graduation, the might have done it anyways...), nor many any faculty speaker give any religious speeches as they're acting as employees of the school and thusly the state at the time.

Student speakers, however, may have religious speeches, so long as those speeches are respectful and not discriminatory. Students can have their beliefs, but since graduation is usually mandatory to attend, students there are a captive audience and since not everyone is the same faith, the speaker needs to be aware and respectful of this.

Football games and sports games, it wasn't an issue at my school, but I've heard other places where it is. When we did games, it was usually school fight songs we played as well as the Star Spangled Banner. Nothing religious.

But other places feel that those there should recite a prayer(for what, I don't know, as I'm an atheist and even if I were religious, I'd find praying for my team to win fairly shallow), some coaches who feel their players should pray. My opinion on this is the same as it is for everyone else. Coaches can pray. Students can pray. But coaches cannot MAKE their players pray or else bench them for the game as that's discrimination of faith.

As far as announcers leading the crowd for a game, I don't feel that's right either as players are generally required to attend games if they wish to remain on the team and those in attendance aren't the same faith. To lead them in a prayer they may not follow is presumptuous and again, discriminatory towards those who aren't of the same faith.

Discrimination and respect are two key words in this entire mess of religion and public schools here in the States. Kids can have their own faith, as can faculty. But the schools, being government institutions, can't force students and teachers to be of one faith over another, nor can they stop them from having what faith they might already have.

Hope this helps. :)