Prayer in School

Should Prayer Be Allowed in Public School? I Think Not

I am absolutely against prayer in public schools. There are places children can go to learn about religion – their homes for example, or churches, synagogues, pow-wows or temple. Those are all great places for kids to learn about religion – public school is not.

First of all, kids are extremely impressionable, especially in elementary schools – and anything their teachers say is taken at face value as undisputable fact. Sure, parents influence their kids, but it is almost impossible to overestimate the impact that a teacher will have on a child. Many times a parent will ask a teacher, “Can you please tell my child that *insert lesson here*” because they know that if a teacher is the one to relate the information their child will be more prone to believe it than if it comes from Mom or Dad. If a teacher tells a 9 year old something, about anything, that child is going to believe it – no matter how much their parents try to dispute it.

Educating children about different belief systems and religions is a good thing, I am absolutely in favor of it, but you need to present those beliefs as just that – beliefs, not facts. Recently in my daughter’s school they have been doing a lot of things to celebrate Aboriginal Day. Activities like listening to a native storyteller talk about the traditions of her people and share some of their legends are a great way to teach kids about the beliefs and religions of First Nations people, and I support that. However, they’ve also been starting off the day with a traditional Cree prayer in place of singing “Oh Canada”, which really irritates me. The prayer starts off with a Cree elder saying ‘Let us all face East, which reminds us that we are all one people under one God.’ If he said, ‘The Cree people believe we are all one people under one God.’ I wouldn’t mind as much, but he doesn’t, he says we are one people under one God – presenting his belief as fact.