Teacher led school prayer

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Prayer

Teacher led school prayer, also known as mandatory school prayer, is a time dedicated during school hours that is allocated for pupils to participated in group prayer led by a teacher, usually with fixed worded prayer. In most industrialised countries, schooling is mandated by the state. Thus, mandatory prayer in schools would be a violation of the separation of church and state.

By country[edit]

United Kingdom[edit]

Non-faith schools are required to have collective daily worship that is "wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character". However, most schools are not compliant with this law and calls for its abolition have increased in recent years.

United States[edit]

Prior to 1962 in America, public school classrooms would generally open with a teacher led school prayer. In 1955, the New York Board of Regents recommended the prayer "Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our Country." The "Regent's prayer" along with any teacher-led prayer was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark decision Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962). Obviously this prayer is offensive to atheists, since they do not depend on God, nor could they receive "blessings".

Even after 1962, when mandatory school prayer was ruled unconstitutional in the US, it has continued to be an issue. Individual prayer is not affected by the ruling.

Arguments against teacher led school prayer[edit]

  1. School prayer is unconstitutional. The first amendment states that government "shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." Public schools are funded by the government, so if prayer is part of the schools' schedules then it's the same as being endorsed by the government.
  2. Schools are for education, not worship. Prayer serves no educational purpose.
  3. It's unnecessary. Students are perfectly capable of worshiping their gods elsewhere. They can pray at home or at church (students are still allowed to pray at school all they want). They can even read the Bible at school and pray by themselves as long as they don't force anyone else to, so there is no reason to make it part of the formal schedule.
  4. It can lead to intolerance. Students may not want their peers to know they are atheists. So by not participating in the prayer they could be setting themselves up for prejudice. School prayer puts atheistic/agnostic students in an uncomfortable position, one that the school should not force on them.
  5. School prayer is coercive. If it's led by the teacher, part of the school routine, and engaged in by the vast majority of peers, it would be extremely difficult not to conform. So either the student will convert, lie, or be an outcast.

Arguments for school prayer[edit]

  1. Schools should instill good morals in students, and this requires prayer. While it is up to the schools to a certain extent to teach kids how to get along with others and to function in society, it's also up to the parents. Schools can teach kids morals in general, but not moral teachings exclusively derived from the beliefs of any single religion since this would be unconstitutional. Only the parents of the child may do this. Also, belief in a god or gods isn't required to have good morality. On a side note, Morality is meaningful when guided by good intentions and a minimum of awareness, not when composed purely by what someone / something blindly commands you to execute. Forcing children to repeat after you mindlessly a set of words (One a particular religion endorses, but not others) isn't exactly helping the growth of empathic abilities and reasoning, both of which are required for one to form a meaningful moral code.

Counter Arguments[edit]

Arguments for school prayer generally rely on the concept that the founding fathers intended America to be a religious nation.

In any case, students can still pray even if teacher led school prayer is banned.

See also[edit]

External links[edit]


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