Talk:School prayer

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Peer reviewers: Kmcdavi, SavannahHinde, Pkoewle, WarrenforPrez.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 08:45, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Untitled

The article view only represents a US view on public prayer. What about the rest of the world? I don't know the command to put a label on the top page saying that the article does not represent a world view. This article could use one I think. Arm 00:56, 19 August 2005 (UTC)

Ok I found the right tag. An issue as big and widespread as shoving religion down everyones throat (public prayer) has got to be an issue that exists outside the United States. --Arm 06:51, 28 August 2005 (UTC)

It certainly is. I will return later (possibly much later) to add information about the UK position. I would also be interested to hear views from other countries (eg France, which is highly secularised) on their experiences. --Ross UK 19:50, 2 September 2005 (UTC)

I see that I have been beaten to it! Will add more at some point. --Ross UK 12:30, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

School Prayer

One thing about this article: no one ever said that kids can't pray in school at all. I changed the article to reflect the fact that it was MANDATORY prayer eliminated from public school, not prayer altogether.

What the article conspicuously lacks is a history of school prayer. It has a history of decisions affecting it, but it does not discuss whose bright idea it was in the first place! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.217.142.210 (talk) 18:51, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

The last sentence in the Reinstatement paragraph is very biased and pushing an agenda: "Lou Engle, founder of The Call movement, has proposed a correlation between the prohibition of school prayer in 1962 and 1963 and the decline of SAT scores, increase of teen pregnancies and increase of children born out of wedlock in those same years." The link for this has no information on this claim. Its just a Christian website. --Punkrocker27ka (talk) 04:42, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

Graduation

I heard of a few graduations across the US that were devoid of prayer due to complaints. I know for certain one happened in my school, Munford, and I also heard something about a school in Kentucky. I would appreciate help in expanding the new subsection. Neutronium 05:49, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

I left that in, and even expanded it a bit, but I'm not sure it really has a place in an encyclopedia. It's a news item, specific to a particular time and place. But it does illustrate one aspect of the debate.Mark Foskey (talk) 04:31, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

I took it out. It read as follows:

At Graduation

A controversy at a high school in Tennessee may provide an example of the way the controversy plays out in parts of the US. In May 2006, the ACLU of Tennessee, in response to letters it received from several students, convinced Munford High School's principal to replace official prayer at graduation with a moment of silence. Retrieved July 15, 2006</ref> During the planned moment of silence, students pulled out cards with the Lord's Prayer written on them and began to read, to cheers from the audience. In the aftermath, some have concluded that the school's ACLU club faculty adviser has lost her job over the incident.

Two sources were given:

• "Munford Grads Go in Prayer"
• "Munford ACLU Adviser is Fired"Retrieved July 15, 2006

There are minor sourcing problems--everything seems to be from a single website, and we're relying on a Wayback Machine copy, and I can't find any prominent news sources that covered the event.

But the main problem is that "A controversy at a high school in Tennessee" is, we're told, to "provide an example of the way the controversy plays out in parts of the US." Well that's not a single data sample, and of necessity it's a controversial one--at least locally.

Drowned in the detail of an individual case we lose the detail. Have many high schools stopped leading their graduates in prayer? In which school systems does the practice of mandatory prayer at graduation continue? In the meantime I don't see a need for a separate section on graduation until there is something substantial to write. --TS 11:53, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

I think it will be hard to find any sources confirming the practice of "mandatory" (student-led but made mandatory by the administration) prayers at graduations. At my graduation (high school in Indiana) there were 2 student-led prayers which were basically mandatory. They were not mentioned in the program (but mentioned during practice) and I assume (I am just a foreign exchange student so I don't have extremely deep insight into K12 education) it is the same in most other high schools, at least in the Bible Belt. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.25.153.16 (talk) 02:52, 30 May 2009 (UTC)

Canada

It's strange to mention Canada in the introduction but not have a section for that country. The actual right protected is "freedom of conscience and religion", the reason being that school prayers would be prejudicial against students of different religions. The ban does not apply to all "state" schools, as prayers are still allowed in separate schools. —Preceding unsigned comment added by The Four Deuces (talk • contribs) 05:28, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

The article did have a large sourced section on Canada (British Columbia) which was deleted by an IP vandal (86.17.109.91) on 18:35, 25 November 2008 which wasn't corrected until now. Cheers! Wassupwestcoast (talk) 02:07, 14 May 2009 (UTC)

encyclopedic, public domain source (please assimilate content ...)

I'm adding Congress's CRS reports to their relevant talk pages, since they're so thorough and you can just copy-and-cite the content ... here's yours:

• http://wikileaks.org/wiki/CRS:_Prayer_and_Religion_in_the_Public_Schools:_What_Is%2C_and_Is_Not%2C_Permitted%2C_August_18%2C_2000
• http://wikileaks.org/wiki/CRS:_Legislative_Prayer_and_School_Prayer:_The_Constitutional_Difference%2C_October_26%2C_1994

PS with this information, you should be able to create a stand-alone article School prayer (United States), which would be long overdue ...Agradman ^talk/_contribs 00:38, 2 July 2009 (UTC)

Information needed

This article needs more information about private individuals who have been forbidden from doing religious acts such as praying by the government. Cousin Kevin (talk) 22:37, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

For example???Adam in MO Talk 19:44, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

Old joke

As long as there are final exams, there will be prayer in school. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 205.175.225.22 (talk) 14:08, 26 July 2010 (UTC)

Pgg804 (talk) 13:30, 1 March 2012 (UTC)