School Prayer

Being a very spiritual person with a strong personal relationship with my Christian God, of course I want prayer in school. However, I do not believe it will ever happen in the sense I would like to see. I believe that any amount of religion in school promotes peace, self-worth, self-confidence, a sense of belonging, and pride. Regardless of your religion or lack thereof, most human beings want those qualities so why would we not want our children to learn them early. Taking time out for “quiet reflection” for a short period each day is a good thing. At this point John (or his children) could chose to take part in this period of “quiet reflection” and pray to their respective deities. As all the other children do so in their own respects, Mary (or her children) could chose to sit quietly and not partake in the session.
Moser (2010) quoted the first amendment, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." To prohibit school prayer is to prohibit the free exercise of one's religion (section 2.3, para 3).
The positives are quite obvious and I believe ones that could help make our America a much better place to live in. It would take a lot of hard work, a lot of patience, and take a long time to accomplish harmony among the population. I imagine the payoff would be glorious in a perfect America. However, we live in such an unharmonious society consistently striving for individuality and holding dearly those laws that protect every right we have.
This would put a lot of pressure back on the teachers who are already underpaid and overworked to help the children have respect for other children’s individual religion. There would be parents who might possibly feel opposed because they think that one child’s religion might bleed into their religion causing their children to question their own faith. In younger ages, I do not see this as a problem, but I could see in middle grades children also being picked... [continues]

Read full essay