Separation Between Church And State Essay

An important part of liberalism in modern day society is freedom to practice any religion one chooses as well as the freedom to abstain from practicing religion. The United State constitution draws a distinct separation between church and the state. This division between religion and state allows people to not have their religious values compromised by any nationalized form of religious doctrine. Although the separation between the two is defined, as a society we often run into many issues pertaining to variance between the religious values of individuals and the actions of the state. A great example o conflict of interest amongst religion and state practices can be seen through the public education system. The public school system has a goal …show more content…
Many schools around the country have accepted this policy and do grant parents the ability to block their students from certain curriculum, however many schools have also disallowed opting out. The argument at hand is what public education systems should do to acknowledge religious objections and the separation between church and state. I strongly believe that in order to truly have a country that recognizes the importance of the separation between church and state, public schools must educate students in varieties of perspectives and should not allow parents to withdraw their students from portions of public school curriculum. It is important for students to have a variety of perspectives to not only be autonomous but also productive members of society. Learning values from diverse educational backgrounds promotes the very values that a liberal democracy is based upon, and creates autonomous, legitimate citizens. In the next paragraphs I will relate class readings with rationale of my …show more content…
The author argues in this reading that schools should have an “opt out” option for objecting parents. The author argues that not allowing “opt out” programs will shift people away from public schools into private religious schools. Private school can teach secularly and would take away from the liberal democratic principles of diversity and autonomy that are gained in a public school. Burtt argues that this religious parents don’t want to seek a curriculum change, just changes for their students. My refutre for this argument is that it creates a slope of issues that deteriorate the public school system to cater toward outspoken outliers opinions. If schools begin to allowing objectors to have different curriculums it will lead to slippery slope that is a change in a curriculum as a whole. If public schools worry too much about catering to fundamentalist and change their curriculum to become more encompassing and neutral then all value will be lost. Public schools must maintain a stronghold on teaching from diverse prospective, and promoting values that make up a strong liberal democracy. Public education cannot fall into fear of offending someone’s religious beliefs. If public schools begin catering to religious objections then religion trumps the power of the state, and separation of church and state is a weakened liberal principle. In order to prepare students to become