Elfison, Kirk, and Kirk Hadaway. "Prayer in Public Schools: When Church and State Collide." Public Opinion Quarterly. Oxford University Press , 2011. Web. 29 Sept. 2011.
In today's public school systems, the teachings of and from the bible are prohibited, and some simply wonder why. The teachings of church related topics however sometimes do come up in certain classes, for example history. Learning about different worldwide cultures and religions is part of the curriculum that teachers teach. However, if they teach about specific religious topics, is that considered teaching about religion? Some wonder and sometimes never get an answer. According to Kirk Elfison and Kird Hadaway, they conducted a study showing who and what their response was when asked if religion should be taught in public schools. Through this study, they found that the people who were for religion in the classroom were more educated, older, socially, politically, and more conservative in their religion. Although religion is by law not allowed in the classroom, sometimes it gets 'slipped' out into a causal conversation when talking about foreign cultures.
I feel that religion should not be taught in the classroom based off of my opinions. A reason why I say this is because we all have different religions and belong to different churches and believe in different things, therefore when speaking about a certain religion, one may become offended. In my opinion I hate when teachers preach about religious aspects, because I sometimes feel that they may be trying to change one's view on something else. Prime example, evolution. We all believe this world evolved in different ways. When learning about it in biology I felt as if the lecture was stating the world evolved a certain way, when others may disagree. Although this is all in my opinion, I feel religion and public schools should be kept away from each other, unless enrolled in a private school.
Others may view this topic differently, and that is okay, being it is taken in anyone's opinion. But I believe this is a great argumentative topic, and numerous view-points can be taken into consideration. It depends on what and how you believe in things, and how they relate to school work.
I would have to completely agree with you that religion should be kept out of publis schools. People view religion in many different ways and with one particular teacher teaching the class the views of that professor would be expressed more freely rather than just stating facts about the different religions. Religion is such a hot topic that many wars are started because of it. Why would people think it's okay to teach religious beliefs in school if wars are outcomes of religious teachings? This would be a marvelous topic to write about and you should really consider writing about it.
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