Essay On First Amendment In Public Schools

The first amendment in the US constitution states that Congress shall “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting thereof.” A metaphoric wall has always existed between the church and state, according to Thomas Jefferson in 1947 (McCarthy, Martha).That wall has been in the center of many court cases in the Supreme Court linked to public schools. The public school setting has always been a major area of controversy concerning the separation of church and state. Albeit with some exceptions, the separation of church and state should not take place in public schools. The freedom of religious expression is already limited, and if the separation of church and state happens to take place in public schools throughout the US, the government would teeter on the brink of violating the first amendment. The First Amendment gives religious Americans preferential
Some recent legal activity has focused on allegations that public schools are proselytizing students by reciting the pledge each day (McCarthy, Martha). These legal actions were taken because some recent court cases has found that people were going against the prospect of saying “under God” in the pledge, they claim that saluting the flag contradicted their declared fidelity to God alone, a spiritual commitment that the First Amendment's "free exercise" clause protects (Sifton, Elisabeth). But by a ruling in 1943, students are also allowed to not partake in the reciting of the pledge, so there really is no reason for the separation of church and state in that field. Also, taking away the pledge would throw America into a political war. The pledge has been around for a very long time, taking it away would be like prohibiting the singing of the national anthem. The pledge is a huge patriotic symbol for most