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Prayer in Public School
Charles Stevens
Penn State Harrisburg
SOC 461: Sociology of Religion
Dr. J. Scott Lewis
April 1, 2020
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Abstract
Religions role in United States public education has an interesting history. The discussion of prayer in
school has been shifted by several landmark decisions by the United States Supreme Court. Those cases
will be discussed in minor detail and how their impact has shaped the relationship between public schools
and prayer. The topic of this paper is to discuss the history of the debate on whether or not prayer should
be allowed in schools. References to statistics related to public and private schooling in the United States
is referenced to shape an argument of the time that children spend at school and what their daily schedule
generally consists of. Also, whether or not I personally believe that children should be allowed to pray in
schools. Finally, I will defend my position and refute the counterargument.
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School prayer has been a hot-button topic in the United States dating back to a Supreme Court
decision made in 1962. Prior to that open oral prayer was almost ritualistic in public schools, elementary
through high school. Not only was its common practice, literature during the 18th, 19th and
20th centuries were taught through the Bible. (Janz 1962) Today, public schools across the United
States have worked to distance themselves from sponsored religious activities and for good reason. Prayer
in school creates a unique situation for citizens who want to engage in religious participation while still
engaging in formal education and balancing the liberties protected by the first amendment. As a result,
there have been several landmark decisions made by the Supreme court which has shaped the relationship
between public schools in the United States and school prayer.
Not all schools in the United States are prohibited from engaging to prayer. According to the U.S
Department of Education, there are 33, 619 private schools in the United States. These are schools that are
not under the same federal and state legislation public schools are governed under. For the purpose of this
paper, the sole focus of my argument will be centered around the debate of whether prayer school be
either permitted or prohibited from the public-school arena. There will be a discussion on why schools
today generally stay away from school sponsored prayer and also talk on whether there was any
restriction and if that would change the landscape. The argument of whether schools can permit prayer
and whether they can sponsor prayer in vastly different. This is due to a loophole in the interpretation
of rulings that will also be mentioned as well.
From my time in school, the topic of religion was hardly referenced. There was plenty of
discussion on The Great Gatsby, an altered view of U.S history, and some many other pieces of
information that hardly resonate today. While there are plenty of critics of public education, the
fundamental purpose it servers essential. Education is one of the five social institutions that work as
pillars of society and in the United States nearly 91% of students are enrolled in public schools according
to the National Center for Education Statistics. Of that population, unless done outside of school hours,
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there will be little formal discussion on anything remotely related to religion. Students will develop an
ideology completely absent of religion unless done so before they are enrolled or at home.
In most cases, there is little negotiation in participation of school. Children are required to go to
school until at least 8th grade when they can be signed off by a guardian and taken out of school
entirely. This is due to a ruling in 1972 during the Wisconsin v. Yoder case. The decision ruled that
Amish children could not be forced to go to school because the parents have the fundamental right to
freedom of religion. Cultures with religious requirements in daily regimen whether that includes
prayer, meditation, or dance are restricted under the restraints of a typical public-school schedule.
Schooling in the United States generally begins at age 5 or 6 and is complete around ages 17 or
18. The typical school day can start from 7:30 AM -9:30 AM and ends around 2:15 PM 3:45 PM. Subjects are for the most part science, math, English, history, physical education and a few
other alternatives. Curriculum is created by school board members who are voted in by a general
election. For that period of an individual's life, more of their time is spent at school than at home. The
repercussions that socialization has on children according the Standard Social Science Model will further
shape the rest of that person's life. This is a sacrifice that parents are forced to make under federal
legislation that has created outrage for many.
Besides the obvious legal implications of having prayer in school, there are also ethical decisions
that need to be made if accommodation for prayer would happen. In the past, the Christian model of
reciting Bible-like scriptures has been used. This model could not and would not work in
the pluralistic religious landscape in the United States today. Prayer is not same for all religions. The
variation is type of prayer would create issues that logistically schools could not handle. In an effort to
combat favoring one type of prayer over the others, schools in the past have drafted “nondenominational” prayers. These prayers are “neutral” to the degree that no one specific entity or
supernatural is mentioned. The philosophical issue with that is the assumption that religion must entail a
“god” like power that should be referenced when worshiping. Another of the many reasons why prayer
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does not seem like a fit for schools is that there is a possibility of superimposing the practice of one
religion on others.
This was the case in Abington v. Schempp when a school district in Pennsylvania was on the
ropes for holding a daily bible prayer and the courts ruled that it was an establishment of religion.
(Abington v. Schempp, 1963) Since the United States has evolved as a pluralistic society, choosing
the type of the prayer conducted would take people much smarter than me to create. With religion being a
subjective concept, the implementation of a prayer that would satisfy all parties seems almost
unobtainable.
So other than choosing whose prayer to use in schools, another question that needs to be
addressed is who should be conducting this prayer? Would it be done by a teacher to their students?
Would it be lead students for students? Does there need to be an figure to lead the prayer? This would
create an issue for those who are devoted to minority religions or new religious movements. Making these
decisions will uncover bias and preference which will lead to marginalizing of less spoken for religions.
Then having one individual spearhead the responsibility to deliver a prayer on behave of all religions
seems preposterous. What about religions that participate in drug rituals? Cultural bias will restrict the
forum in which prayer will take place whether the most objective individuals in the country design it.
Getting back to where schools are allowed to permit prayer in the classroom and shifting away
from the opinion element of it, there are legal guidelines in which this argument is dictated. The First
Amendment has two primary elements. The Establishment Clause which prohibited congress from the
establishment of an official religion. Then there is the Free Exercise Clause which allows citizens to
worship freely without state interventions. From those two the state cannot promote the participation of
one religion and there can’t be government-funded schools promoting sponsored prayer.
Mentioned before, the discussion of prayer in school drastically changed after a landmark
decision in the case of Engel v. Vitale. The decision came in 1962 when SCOTUS ruled EC deemed any
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religious activity conducted by government officials to advance religious beliefs was a violation. The
ruling was 6-1 in favor of the plaintiffs and found that school sponsorship of religious activities violates
the establishment clause. Hugo Black, author of the decision was quoted saying “It is neither sacrilegious
nor antireligious to say that each separate government in this country should stay out of the business of
writing or sanctioning official prayers…” (Engel v. Vitale, 1962) Unsurprisingly, this was not the first
time this type of ruling has occurred. In McCollum v. Board of Education in 1948 a decision declared
teaching religious instruction during public school hours was unconstitutional. Then in the
West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette in 1943 ruled that mandatory flag salute was
considered a violation of the Establishment Clause.
School’s do not only struggle with the element of prayer when it comes to religion. In Wisconsin
v. Yoder 1972 the question of how long is a student obligated to formally attend school was brought in
front of the courts. It was decided that the right to freedom of religion exceeds the states interest in
educating. Personally, the decision of 8th grade being the last year an individual is required to be at school
seems arbitrary and a bit over the top. What makes an 8th grader any well prepared to become a
productive member of society than a 7th grader. An individual's readiness for life is so widespread even
those who fully attend school through to graduation aren’t “fit” by whosevers’ standards are being used.
Another ruling close to home was Lemon v. Kurtzman 1971 was the Supreme Court came to a
decision the Pennsylvania's Nonpublic Elementary and Secondary Education Act from 1968 violated the
Establishment Clause. As a result, they developed the Lemon test to determine if action by the
government violated the Establishment Clause. The three things that were being looked for was if there
was a secular purpose, that the primary purpose was not to establish a sponsored religion and make sure
there is no excessive entanglement between the government and religion. In order for something for
something to pass it must violate one of the three.
Mentioned before, the subjectivity that is related to this debate can cause more issues than
previously intended. The concept of “Excessive Entanglement” seems arbitrary and leaves room for
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vast interpretation because was is considered excessive to one person may not be the same to
another. The Lemon case was also taken up in Rhode Island and in both cases, states violated the first
amendment and were funding programs that “didn’t apply to the general populations”.
Legally, schools are probably doing the correct thing by not having prayer in school. This is for
several reasons. Mostly, schools like to steer clear of controversy because there is an everlasting spotlight
on them. Having hundreds of children in one place interpreting prayer from an official of the school can
lead to some furious parents. But by not having prayer in the classroom is slightly different from an
objection that personally bothers me with formal public education in the United States. The
complete absence of religious literacy from most curriculum is one flaw that must be address. Religion
and American history are as “inescapable as the rivers and mountains, the laws and the courts, the trade
routes and the labor unions, the political parties, and national presidents.” (Gaustad 1992)
By excluding religious teaching from the classroom, public schools have ultimately made
the decision that it is okay to ignore. Similarly, subjects including black history (or history of people of
color in general) and women’s history have been left out but has been deem discriminatory by today’s
standards. Both topics are discussed within classrooms throughout the country with little controversy. It
may be rationed to argue that the exclusion of teaching religion in public education infringes on those
same discriminatory practices.
Schools do their best to protect themselves from controversy. Textbook publishers and sellers are
even better examples of this. In order for their products to be accepted by school boards (at least in public
education) the content is required to be as less contentious as possible. The climate surround religion has
always been a hot-button topic. It is mentioned in our first amendment. As discussed by Huntington
(2002) there is no doubt subjects within public schooling are incomplete without some foundation in
religious explanation. The manner in which these lessons are taught is an area of debate that should be
explored further.
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To avoid this Butler (2004) explains that religious figures are used here and there
as simplistically as possible in something he deems “jack-in-the-box faith.” So, schools make an effort to
satisfy both sides but are possibly giving millions an incomplete education at the expense of parental
outrage. Besides steering clear of controversy, schools have other reasons for excluding religion in
their curriculum. Rulings during the 1960’s have muddied the waters and has left confusion in the
interpretations. Cases, Engel v. Vitale (1962) and Abington v. Schempp (1963) are responsible for a
majority of such uncertainty. In those rulings the U.S Supreme Court outright banned pray and bible
teaching from public schools. This has led to the common misinterpretation outlined by Ruyter and Merry
(2008) that “the teachings about religions” is not “the teaching of religions,” which is deemed
unconstitutional. This construed notion has yielded far more consequences than it has been
rewarding. Students from the United States go through years of celebrating holidays with little to no
mention in their religious foundation. Children when told the story of Christmas lack references to Jesus.
When told the story of Thanksgiving, students are often not informed of who the Pilgrims are expressing
their gratitude for. (Prothero 2007)
The history of pray in school is long and confusing. As a result, religion as a whole has been
removed from the forum within school. Student-driven prayer has been a replacement for sponsored
prayer but is still rare at public schools. Legal decisions have molded the relationship religion has on the
curriculum of public education in the United States. Legally, schools make the right decision in not
permitting prayer. Morally, for some reason it feels unjust to take that privilege away. You aren’t forced
to but at the beginning of everyday there is a recitation of the pledge of allegiance. It is an accident of
birth to what nationality you are born in. There is no choice in which nationality you are given. This is not
the case with religion. There is choice in which religion a person subscribes to. Even if an individual’s
parents are devout Catholics, they can become Muslim. So, in my opinion schools should work to make
some type of accommodation for worship. Students spend hours a day, for months in schools that for the
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most part prohibit the discussion and practice of religion but at the same time what they are doing now is
the correct thing legally.
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References
Abington School District v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203
Butler, J. (2004). Jack-in-the-Box Faith: The Religion Problem in Modern American History. Journal of
American History, 90(4), 1357. doi: 10.2307/3660356
Engel v. Vitale 370 U.S. at 435.
Huntington, S. P. (2002). The clash of civilizations and the remarking of world order. London: The Free
Press.
Gaustad, E. S. (1992). American History: With and Without Religion. New York Times.
Janz, J. F. (1962). Church and State: Prayer in Public Schools. Marquette Law Review, 46(2).
Projections of Education Statistics to 2021. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://nces.ed.gov/programs/projections/projections2021/tables/table_01.asp
Prothero, S. (2007). Religious literacy what every American needs to know, and doesnt. New York,
NY: HarperOne.
Ruyter, D. J. D., & Merry, M. S. (2008). Why Education in Public Schools Should Include Religious
Ideals. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 28(4), 295–311. doi: 10.1007/s11217-008-9120-4
Statistics About Non-Public Education in the United States. (2017, March 1).
https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oii/nonpublic/statistics.html