A Moment of Silence 1
A Moment of Silence
Lucas Klettke
9-12-01
English 120
Dr. Russell
Moment of Silence 2
For years there have be controversies disputing religion in public schools. Can we allow
religious holidays to be taught? Can the students have religious clubs? Should prayer be
allowed? Where do we draw the line as to what we can “do” or “not do”? In this world I don’t
see where we can without discriminating or offending someone. If a line were to be drawn it
would be to weed out public schools and focus our attention to private schooling. Nobody can
complain about what happens in a private school because the choice was made. If a problem
does arise it is probably a problem that can be handled with ease. There would be no religious
disputes in private schools.
I myself am a Christian, I have been baptized and Confirmed, I believe in God, I go to church,
and I pray. Then why do I feel we need to have more private schools and keep religion out of
our public schools? Well according to Hutchinson (2000) since 1976 the Virginia State
Legislature has allowed public schools the right to require a moment of silence for meditation or
prayer. There would seam to be no problem with this, but the world that we live in does have a
problem with it. Much like Virginia, Alabama public schools had the same type of law, until
1985. In Hutchinson’s article (2000) the Wallace vs. Jaffree case proved just why we can’t have
religion in our public schools. It was ruled by the Supreme Court that a moment of silence
violated the principal that government must be neutral towards religion. The Court then repealed
the law in belief that it encouraged prayer among students. (Hutchinson, Leah)
This is only one example of the many different disputes brought up among religion in public
schools. Oliver (1998), a special counselor for religious and civil liberties, states that unless
Americans can live together with our deep differences, our public education system will struggle
to survive. Something so small as to having a moment of silence in public schools was taken all
the way to the Supreme Court and on top of that, ended up being taken away. What we can do
about this is draw the line and say no religion in public schools. Many would be outraged with
this, but we could always send our children to a private school.
A Moment of Silence 3
Works Cited
Hutchinson, Leah
(2000, April 13). A Moment of Silence for Students?
Retrieved September 7, 2000 from
http://www.mbhs.edu/silverchips/articles/aprmomentofsilence.html
Thomas, Oliver
(1998, May 20). Schools and Religion.
Retrieved September 10, 2001 from
http://www.ncccusa.org/news/news47.html