Maybe I take a different perspective to prayer in school because I've always been surrounded by it. I've gone to Catholic school since pogs and skydancers were in style, so liturgy and God and all that just seems normal in the school setting. I don't seem to understand the opposition to prayer in school.
Please don't think I'm some kind of spiritual nazi or anything. I might be Catholic, but I'm by no means the kind of evangelizing fundamentalist that people automatically associate with being devote. I even have a few personal conflicts with the dogma. And I understand perfectly that everyone has the right to practice whatever faith or lack thereof in whatever they need to without interference(unless it harms others) But I don't think a moment of silence daily would be such a bad thing. Don't even call it prayer, just a moment to be still. As a high school student, there's rarely a time that things are still, between 7 billion extracurricular activities and mountains of homework amidst senioritis. I have to say personally that the morning prayer is a bit relaxing. One person reading a small snippet of some kind of liturgy is a lot easier to tune out than twenty-five people in my homeroom screaming at each other.
Losing my Religion
By hugogirl46 - Posted on February 27th, 2008
Tagged: Personal freedom
First off, double spaces between paragraphs are generally appreciated.
Second, the coercion test. Even if there was a non-denomination, non-mandatory prayer at the beginning of each day, people would feel pressured into saying it just because a lot of others were or vice verse. Think how you would feel if you were the only one who said the prayer. Awkward no? Might feel a little uncomfortable?
Even if there was a "reflection" time (an even more thinly vialed attempt than ID to sneak in the back door), how do you think someone would feel if everyone around them was praying with their reflection time and they were just sitting there.
That is the reason those things are unconstitutional.
However prayer shouldn't be outlawed in school. Only school sanctioned prayer. And school sanctioned means putting aside time in the day, or even allowing a student to say a prayer (publicly) at a school service. Pray at lunch or during homeroom (it's inevitable that at least five minutes are just people talking) or something
And how is not allowing prayer in school comparable to you loosing your religion?
"But are not the dreams of poets and the tales of travellers notoriously false?"
H. P. Lovecraft
The allowing of time to pray or worship during school hours is not a bad idea in principle, however, as mentioned above, the likely scenarios that would develop from such a program would probably cause more grief than recompense.
It is for the good of all students if the religious and even political choices of individuals remains unknown as the resulting debates are rarely worthwhile and all the more disruptive.
Part of public education is the slight need to homogenize the student body. Its not something desirable, but it is a necessary evil in order to maintain a decent learning environment. Religious acts can be distracting and should not take the place of regular work or study.
I am sure that there must be time during the day (perhaps before or after school) in which you can pray.