Religion In Public Schools

Ministry Manual #3: The Christian Teaching in the Public School In A Teacher’s Guide to Religion in the Public Schools, Topic 11 addresses the question of “May I pray or otherwise practice my faith while at school?” This article states, “As employees of the government, teachers do not have the right to pray with or in the presence of students during the school day. Outside of their school responsibilities, public school teachers are free like other citizens to teach or otherwise participate in their local religious community. Teachers must refrain from using their position in the public school to promote their outside religious activities.” As a future teacher in a public school, this concern has crossed my mind over and over again, but because …show more content…
As we have studied previously in Chapter 4 of A Teacher of the Church, these kingdoms are a vital part of our ministry; God sustains both of them, while fostering a relationship between them. To begin, the left-hand kingdom is all about our actions. It is through this kingdom that we are encouraged to use good works to make the world a better place, as we contribute to God’s overall goal for our lives. On the other end of the spectrum, the right-hand kingdom focuses more upon how God delivers the Good News of Jesus Christ to us. It follows Romans 10:17 in saying, “So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the Word of Christ.” After looking in depth at the two kingdoms, it is easy to see that as public school teachers, we are a little bit limited when it comes to the right-hand kingdom because of the various laws in place briefly discussed in Topic 11. In a public school, we often aren’t allowed to speak openly about God or spread his Word throughout the school day. Instead, we have to rely on our actions to demonstrate the love Christ has for us. By showing this behavior, God will shine brightly through, and students will see his unending …show more content…
She first explained that there are many issues in our “soil.” In our society, there is hard, rocky, and thorny/weedy soil, which is caused by those who hear the gospel but don’t understand, those who receive the Word but wither away when times get tough, and those who value the material world rather than the spiritual world. Our students will come from all different kinds of soils, and we need to be aware of this in order to be most effective. Each year, the atmosphere in our classrooms will change with new students. By taking the time to understand the environment and develop relationships with each individual student, we will be able to better understand the ways in which we can appropriately show our faith. In the end, it is the overall mission of Christian teachers to prepare the different types of soils, so that students are able to hear the Word and understand it. By being motivated by love and showing a deep compassion for our students, teachers in public schools are able to fulfill the left-hand kingdom and help students so that they are able to successfully receive the right-hand kingdom in other places throughout their