Why should praying be banned in schools?...

I for one do not understand that. Why do we want to take GOD out of everything. And that is what has happened here in the USA, Before we know it, it will be taken off of our money. I am not saying it will for sure. But saying GODS name anymore seems like a dirty word to people. For example. A girl in my daughters 5th grade class was talking about something that she had learned at Church. There was a big deal over this and letters was sent home to the students parents. I did not see it to be a problem but alot of other parents did. I want my children to know about GOD. At Christmas plays that they have at school they no longer have any of the songs in them about Jesus.

This is a very hot topic here in the U.S.. You'll get a lot of stuff about separation from church and state, but bottom line, I think prayer should be allowed in public schools. I don't think it harms anything, and to deny the right, is sad and wrong. Now as I type this I hope no one starts an argument about my opinion because seriously, people get riled up about this.

Our country was founded on a principal of separation between church and state, an idea strongly endorsed by Thomas Jefferson, who was the primary author of our Declaration of Independence. In our educational system it is allowable to have private schools and some of these are owned and administered by different religious organizations and in these schools, prayer is allowed. The public schools, on the other hand, are owned by the state and since there is no state religion in the US, allowing prayer in the schools would create unrest with the different denominations warring against one another in a desire to dominate. Jefferson's reasoning on this follows from John Locke's thoughts on the Difference between Civil and Ecclesiastical Power. Our country's structure is built on a system of checks and balances where the government is divided into three power blocks, so the speak. They are the legislature, the judiciary, and the executive branches. Religion is a mater of individual freedom, not a branch of government. The reason US stands for the United States is that men like Jefferson recognized the need for people to agree on matters of government, for a government divided against itself will long stand.

Hello aseretdd, I really do not understand what kind of world we are living now. I don't even like to talk about religion, racism or anything negative as it is just make me more headache looking for the answer. To be banned doing prayer especially in a country like US, is something real weird. I understand if it happens in your country or mine but in USA, there must be something really really wrong about it.

Private schools allow prayer in the US. The public schools are funded by the government. In the US there is seperation of church and state. I think religion should be taught but every religion should be taught. I do not believe kids should pray in school as we all have different beliefs. Religion is taught in the home and that is where it should stay. I don't care what others believe in but I don't want it forced on my kids. I have been teaching my kids about different belief systems and my hope is that when they get old enough they will decide what religion is best suited for them.

I'm not really sure what the reason is. I know that the US constitution allows freedom of speech. When I was younger, it seems like they allowed prayer in school, even in public schools. Of course it was expected in private schools, but I think the reason it was banned was because parents of kids who were not believers complained that the schools were requiring their kids to pray and to keep them happy they banned it for everyone. That is just my understanding of it. If this is not accurate, pleas let me know. Have a great day!!!

I don't understand this either. I mean... yeah we all have our own beliefs... but if EVRYONE is given like 10 minutes of silence a day... they can pray their own prayer/beliefs or just sit there and be quite... show a little respect for those around us. Another thing that is really slacking in our schools now days...respect

I must agree with Galina on this,I was forced to pray evry morning at assembly,but at that time,there were not a lot of differant religionsaround like today. As there are more study periods in schools today,why not set aside one peticular room ans eperate it into areas for each type of religion and allow the kids to pick which one they wish to use to pray in,if they are not religious,they can just study. I used to get detention every day because I refused to be in time for school so as to make sure I missed the assembly. I will say,I was kind of lucky,I was forced into both Chatholic and Protistant religions,and I was allowed to choose,so I chose neither,and after time,did find my own religion,but I was not brainwashed in believing one over another. You are in school to learn things to help you servive in life,not to waist time and taxpayers money to learn what you are taught in church.

In Australia, all Government schools ban praying. This is because we believe that religion is completely separate from education. The Government is also separate from religion.All public schools are secular. If people want their child to have religion & praying in their schooling, they can send them to a private school.

In my mind religion is a private matter. The parents may pray with their children all they want, and bring them to church whenever they want. I think that public schools are for everyone, no matter what religion they belong to. To me it is a matter of respect. I do not think that christians would take having their kids be part of muslim prayers five times a day lightly. Nor do I think it is a good thing to have people pray to a god they do not believe in. It is disrespectful both to the kids that must take part in prayers to someone they do not believe in, and to the people whose god people prey to when they do not believe. Freedom of religion is in fact one of the human rights. No sivilized society should ever even consider breaking the human rights. No harm in taking part in prayers to a god they do not believe in? Well, it might be. And it is not up to christians to decide if it is harmfull for muslim or budist or jewish or agnostic kids to take part in christian prayer. That is up to them and their parents. What good can it possibly do to force prayers on somone? Force never leads to anything good in my mind. This does not mean that I do not think christianity should be taught in school. I think everyone needs to learn about it. But religious acts are something completely different. Religious acts should only be performed when it means something special to the ones performing them

I am a primary school teacher. In my first year of teaching I taught in a Catholic school and the Catholic religion was very much alive in the school day. Praying was done at the beginning of the school day, before lunch and just before the end of the school day. The Lord's Prayer was often said too. The school prayer book had many more prayers for older children. Then later in my teaching career I taught in a Church of England school and there was less praying was done there. In non religious schools children of all different faiths go there and get on well together. I think prayers for all the children in a school should be available.

Hi there. I don't see why it should be banned. If it is banned then it's probably cos of the different religions over there. I don't see how they can ban that though. I just don't see how.

Not everyone agrees that it should be banned. I don't. I do feel it was wrong when they used to make children pray at the start of each day. With so many different religions and beliefs, prayer should not be pushed in public schools. Likewise it should not be banned from those that wish to.

Prayer IS allowed in public achools. It's such a misunderstood thing: when I was in High School we had a Christian Share Group that met weekly to pray and hang out together. It was endorsed by the school and we had a teacher advisor who stayed after school to meet with us. Every year we did (and still do) a project called "See You at the Pole" where, on a certain day every year, thousands of students in the U.S. gather around the school flagpole and pray for their school, their friends, teachers and community. I've never heard of anyone trying to stop this. What isn't allowed is ORGANIZED prayer. You can't get on the loud speaker and force everyone to recite a prayer. This I agree with. If, for example, you tried to force me to say the Hail Mary I wouldn't do it because I don't believe in worshipping Mary as if she were a deity, nor would I ever, in a million years, allow someone to force me to repeat "There is no god but ALlah and Muhammed is is prophet" three times every morning. Keep it personal, keep it to yourself and you are absolutely, positively allowed to pray in school. I did, many do and it's not something that's going to be put away by force anytime soon. Some have tried and there always will be some that will, but at the end of the day there's no legal recourse for them as long as it's done in a peaceful, unintrusive manner.

The constitution of the United States guarantees the separation of church and state. What most people don't realize is that that means the government can't mandate what religion people have to practice. The government has a minister that opens each day that congress and the senate is in session with prayer. The schools can have student lead prayers separated from the classroom. The fear of the schools is that if they allow any prayers that the ACLU will sue the school and cost the schools a lot of money. May people don't know that church services were held in the government building at the beginning of this country's history. John Quincy Adams writes in his diary that he attended church in the capitol building in the morning and then in the afternoon he attended service inn the Treasury building. December 4,1800 congress decided that the Capitol would also serve as a church building. Prayer being taken out of the schools is an example of how one person that makes enough noise can change a whole education system. She was Madalyn Murray O'Hair.

people should be allowed to pray in school. IN THEIR OWN TIME. so at lunchtime, whatever. if that's how they students want to spend the time, then no one should stop it. but it shouldn't be a part of things like school assemblies or classes. no one should be put in a position where they are expected to pray. because the students religious and spiritual beleifs is none of the schools business.

I think prayers should be a part of schooling because we send our children to schools not only to learn how to earn money but also to become good human beings and for that religion and prayers should be taught in school.

Dear Aseretdd, In my country India there are many schools which comes under religion managements, like Hindu, Muslim, Silk, Christian etc. They all do have prayers and moreover the students are from various other religions they too cooperate in prayers and no one have any objection on this. May India is considered as a secular country even though there are many riots and other bad incidence in the name of religions not in the name of prayers in schools and also hope it continues in well going of schools.

I shake my head and wonder, too. This country was founded on belief in God and for the sake of nonbelievers, prayer has been banned. Now there's talk of removing "one nation under God" from the pledge of allegiance and it's just not right. That move is getting a lot of opposition. It's not right that atheists get the upper hand in our customs and government regulations.

there's an opposite situation in our school...before no prayer at all but now it seems different we pray before and after the class...the worst thing if you have 5 subject in a day so you will pray about 10x a day in school..for me this is not practical, you know why even we pray almost all of my classmates cheat on every examinations...what is the purpose of praying if you do bad things?