Do you think there is a connection between taking God out of school and the increase in violence??

Question

Maybe I am guilty of making a biased assesment(due to my beliefs) of the consequences of taking God out of school but it seems to me that the more we remove any referance to God and the existance of moral absolutes and right behavior crime, violence and a general disrespect for fellow man has permeated our public schools. Is it significant that students behavior is much more elevated at religious schools or am I missing something???

Answer 1

100% correct

Answer 2

No, I don't. I am an atheist, and I think that the public schools should not mention anything to do with religion except how it figures into historical lessons, IE, the crusades, freedom of religion as one of the reasons that North America was colonized, etc.

But if you believe that you have the right to insist that my kids MUST be taught religion in public schools, then I have the right to pick what religion is taught to yours.

However, I think a better solution is for parents to teach responsibility to kids at a young age, and that there are consequences to their actions. Certainly religious instruction can do this, but it's not the only way. My son has received almost no religious education, yet I can't imagine him injuring someone, shooting someone, etc.

I also think that violence in the media leads to an increase in violence in society. Kids imitate what they see, and when they see shooting, fighting, etc, they copy that. When tobacco advertising was banned from TV, smoking rates dropped. Why not try that with violence?

Answer 3

I think that moral realtivity, disrespect for authority, and
less hope in general are factors .

I had a dream once about the future of public school
It was further into the future, say 25 years, and every once in a while, a child would just go crazy and start throwing things
in class. Well, it happened occasionally to almost
every child in school, so the solution was to send them
to a "holding" area until they calmed down. In my dream,
the cafeteria was used. I saw a child being sent there
as soon as he started displaying aggression symptoms.
I followed him to the cafeteria (he was told to go by
himself). There were about 20-30 students in the
holding area at any given time. Their episodes lasted 1-2 hours, then they calmed down and were sent back to class.
The children in the cafeteria were runnning around and
throwing things mainly. Even their physical features changed
during that time. There were ladies that looked like
nurses watching the children. The one I talked to was
just sitting back and watching. She smiled at me,
contented and calm, and just said, "Oh, they're just kids..."

After that, I went to the nearby convenience store.
I saw adults there that were calm compared to the
children, but I saw similar symptoms in them - they did
not have episodes, but were doing things like stealing
when no one was looking and had kind of wild, sneeky
expressions. There was a lot of moral decay including
pornography everywhere. Kind of scary. It seemed very close to the potential of where it is going!

Answer 4

No, it has nothing to do with it. As someone already said, look at Europe where most schools are completely secular. There's far more discipline, self-control and no guns, knives etc. I think its more a factor of the US being a violent, gun-toting nation and the parents who aren't allowed by law these days to discipline their children. True morals and discipline start at home, not school.
Your question also implies that christians have higher moral standards than non-christians. Now that is just not true...
EDIT: Personally I think its christianity and other religions that teaches disrespect for life. We can kill and torture the world all we want because god made it especially for us. Yeh, right.

Answer 5

Why don't we place the blame where it truly is, the parents. Kids do and say things these days that I would have NEVER gotten by with as a kid. Some parents I know are afraid to discipline their kids because you can't spank them, the kids have been told that's abuse and I've heard of kids threatening to call the cops on mom and dad. Even if it's not spanking, most parents just don't want to "deal" with them. It's has become so easy to pass the buck in this country and no one wants to accept responsibility for their own actions anymore. And there are just as many kids from christian backgrounds behaving badly as their are non-christian.

Answer 6

You're making a biased assessment due to your beliefs.

Notice that the only hate speech you got in reply to your question came from a Christian (naturescent). Obviously that doesn't square well with the notion that the violence in the world is due to a lack of talk about gods.

Answer 7

Taking god out of schools? When was god in schools exactly? Buts its ok, because 95% of the criminals in prisons are religious.

Answer 8

Christan schools refuse admittance to any students with behavior problems. If having God in the school helps with violence, they should take ALL the kids with behavior problems in and fix them.
That will never happen.

Answer 9

Nope. Look at the European schools. You never hear of shootings, stabbings, etc. And most of the European countries are moving towards secularism.
They, however, also have a tighter reign on guns in terms of normal citizens acquiring them.

Kids - Access to guns/arms = less violence.
Wow. Easy equation.
________________________________
Edit: Also you're reasoning isn't sound. Went to a Parochial HS (religious). We were surrounded by religion everyday. Yet half my senior class went on a ski trip and did Cocaine and one drank himself into a snow drift. On the train coming home, you would see most of the Public school kids sitting quietly, whereas ANY of the religious HS's on the train would be screaming, running up and down the aisle, straddling each other, etc. It doesn't pan out for your opinion.

Answer 10

The same question was asked last week.
No there is no connection. If you looked into statistics (I put the links on the last post), you would see that atheists (per capita) comprise the lowest percentage of the prison population.
Also, if we are to bring god into schools, whose god to we bring, yours?

The public schools are to teach knowledge, parents are to teach values. Why don't parents take it onto themselves to instill values into their children?

Answer 11

Yes, you are biased.

If you want proof, look at the disproportionate amount of Christians in prisons. Then look at the number of atheists.

Then look at the kids with the crosses doing drugs, having sex and smoking. They're probably in Young Life. I was in high school not too long ago, and I can tell you, the more "religious" the kid, the more they can justify their addictions and bad behavior.

It's all to do with parenting. Not with religious fervor.