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 been 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. how we can what? If a line
were to be drawn, it would be to weed out public schools and focus our attention to private
schooling. I suggest that you say this in a different way in order to clarify the idea.Nobody can
complain about what happens in a private school because the choice what 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. Where is the thesis statement?
I 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 seem to be no problem with this, but the world that we live in does have a problem
with it. Like Virginia, the Alabama public schools had the same type of law until 1985. In
Hutchinson’s article (2000) try introducing this with a little bit more detailthe 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 principle that government must be neutral toward
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 The Court then repealed the law in belief that it encouraged prayer among students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 regarding religion in public schools.
Oliver (1998)include Oliver’s whole name and title in order to show why he / she is important, 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
This looks good. Carry the line out to the margin and allow the hanging indent to wrap
the second line.