Persuasive Essay: The Role Of Prayer In Public School
Prayer In Public School
Over the past century, prayer has slowly but surely been phased out of public school. It used to be a daily and mandatory event. Of course, with anything that is required, there are always people who try to refute it. The results of prayer being mandatory are shown today. It has been taken out of the daily routine. Some of the core principles that this country was founded upon have been taken out of the public school system. This was because of the diverse populations that would sweep through the cities. Consequently, the Supreme Court ruled that prayer in school is an infraction on the First Amendment (FindLaw). Things have gone downhill in the public school system since then. Legal quarrels have arisen over the discussion of religious freedom (FindLaw). …show more content…
However, some people have still presented lawsuits arguing that the Pledge of Allegiance violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment due to the phrase “under God”. Prayer was a normal practice in colonial schools, which were normally branches of a nearby Protestant church. Leading up to and through the nineteenth century, this tradition continued. As immigration multiplied, attempts were made by education reformers to modernize and curtail religious influence within schools (FindLaw). At the time, there was only a number of Protestant schools in the country. Now, there are thousands of them. The lawsuits that have been filed against public school boards for instilling prayer have been critical modern milestones in the challenge between federalism and states’ rights.
School prayer was removed from the public school system by gradually altering the definition of the First Amendment through a multitude of court cases and hearings. Among the top three is The Regent’s School Prayer in the Engel v. Vitale case of 1962.
My Position
Over the past century, prayer has slowly but surely been phased out of public school. It used to be a daily and mandatory event. Of course, with anything that is required, there are always people who try to refute it. The results of prayer being mandatory are shown today. It has been taken out of the daily routine. Some of the core principles that this country was founded upon have been taken out of the public school system. This was because of the diverse populations that would sweep through the cities. Consequently, the Supreme Court ruled that prayer in school is an infraction on the First Amendment (FindLaw). Things have gone downhill in the public school system since then. Legal quarrels have arisen over the discussion of religious freedom (FindLaw). …show more content…
However, some people have still presented lawsuits arguing that the Pledge of Allegiance violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment due to the phrase “under God”. Prayer was a normal practice in colonial schools, which were normally branches of a nearby Protestant church. Leading up to and through the nineteenth century, this tradition continued. As immigration multiplied, attempts were made by education reformers to modernize and curtail religious influence within schools (FindLaw). At the time, there was only a number of Protestant schools in the country. Now, there are thousands of them. The lawsuits that have been filed against public school boards for instilling prayer have been critical modern milestones in the challenge between federalism and states’ rights.
School prayer was removed from the public school system by gradually altering the definition of the First Amendment through a multitude of court cases and hearings. Among the top three is The Regent’s School Prayer in the Engel v. Vitale case of 1962.
My Position