Freedom of Religion in Public Schools Essay

This was stated after the Supreme Court told Texas public schools cannot have student-led prayer at football games. Through these statements one can see, there are three main areas of religious activity in the school system that many people would benefit from. Through each one come certain characteristics that make them both beneficial and permissible as stated by the United States Government. These three main areas are religion in the classroom, or religious teaching, religion in extracurricular activities, and religion in the everyday atmosphere and activities of the school. ( Hernandez, E. I., Sikkink, D. (2003). Religion matters. University of Notre Dame, 2003(1), 12, 21- 22, 31- 38. Retrieved September 27, 2006, from http://www.nd.edu/~cslr/research/pubs/Sikkink_paper.) Those who are against prayer in schools also say that religion is private, and schools are public, so the only appropriate situation is that these two do not mix. They also say that introducing religion in public schools would build walls between children who may not have been aware of religious differences before. (Gaylor, A. L. (1995). If we were to allow prayer in the classroom our constitutional rights as defined by the first amendment, separating church and state would be violated. This would contradict what we’ve built our country on. It would take us a step back from being a free country. At that point we would be under a totally different political system and