Public School Prayer Throughout public schools in the United States, there is a growing concern over whether students should be allowed to pray in school. In “Should Students Be Allowed to Pray in School” Michael Cantrell he states each individual school should be able to decide if prayer is allowed. Many times throughout the article, the author uses fallacies such as poisoning the well, hypothesis contrary, straw man and hasty generalizations to argue his point incorrectly. Although the author attempts to shed light on this highly debated topic, his arguments are not valid and not factual. In the first paragraph of the article the Michael Cantrell displays a logical fallacy called, a dicto simpliciter. This is when someone makes a general statement that may not pertain to everyone involved. Cantrell states, “It seems the idea of …show more content…
This is when the author purposely presents information in his favor to sway the reader. He does this by saying, “They have no constitutional purview for being involved in education in any capacity, and when it is involved it leads to someone’s rights getting trampled on.” He is displaying his displeasure with the government 's involvement in the education system. Cantrell is not presenting the given information fairly.
Finally, Cantrell uses Hypothesis contrary to fact one more time. He says, “If parents were uncomfortable with this decision, they could place their child in a different local school.” This is another made up scenario being used to back up his point. This is another flaw in his article.
Michael Cantrell, of “Should Students Be Allowed to Pray in School” made some valid points, but also made many errors. It is important to back up claims with facts and it is pivotal to not use logical fallacies. It is also important not to waffle back and forth. The article had a strong idea and a good topic, but it needs editing from an outside
1. McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) a. Constitutional Question: Under the Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution, did the Maryland law unconstitutionally interfere with congressional law? b. Background Information: Congress set up the bank of Maryland McCulloch argued that the Maryland tax was unconstitutional and had no authority to demand taxes from the bank in Maryland. James W. McCulloch was a cashier at the Baltimore Branch and refused to pay the taxes.
Facts This case arose out of the consolidation of Lemon v Kurtzman from Pennsylvania and Early v Di Censo from Rhode Island. In the two cases, the state had adopted laws that required the state to provide aid to church related elementary and secondary schools. The Rhode Island’s statute provided for financial support for non-public schools by supplementing 15% of teachers’ salaries. The Pennsylvania statute provided funding for salaries, textbooks and instructional materials for non-public schools.
Case Citation: Santa Fe Independent School Dist. v. Doe, 530 U.S. 290 (2000) Parties: Santa Fe Independent School District/ Petitioner Jane Doe/ Respondent Facts: Prior to 1995, Santa Fe High School established a policy which allows their student council chaplain to deliver a Christian prayer through the school’s public address system before home football games of the school’s team. The practice was repeated before every football game. The mothers of one Mormon and one Catholic student filed a suit, claiming that the prayer policy violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
Engel v. Vitale: Prayer in the Public Schools is a book written by Julia C. Loren. Loren’s main purpose for writing this book is to inform us about the history of the Engel v. Vitale trial, an important trial which determined that prayer was not acceptable in the public schools quote as the book says the “In 1962, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down one of its most controversial decisions of the twentieth century.” In this book, Loren was not bias towards either Engel’s or Vitale’s side of the case as she did not appear to be very fond of one particular side and gave information regarding both sides of the case. With that being said, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in history or even the Engel v. Vitale case itself because the author was very straightforward in telling about both sides of the case without leaving anything out. Engel v. Vitale:
an you imagine yourself having to start your daily school routine with a prayer? This became a serious question to be taken up by the Supreme Court of the US, in November of 1951. Following an increase in in juvenile crime (many believe caused by the Korean War). The New York Board of Regents adopted a prayer to be recited in NY public schools (Dierenfield 67). The prayer was established because “...the regents believed that such a program would ensure that school children would acquire ‘respect for lawful authority and obedience to law’ ”
First Amendment The First Amendment provides: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise.” These two clauses are referred to as the “establishment clause” and the “free exercise clause.” The free exercise clause protects the religious beliefs, and to a certain extent, the religious practices of all citizens. The more controversial Establishment Clause prohibits the government from participating in religious activities and/or organizations. Mandatory prayer in schools would constitute an improper establishment of religion and would also interfere with the free exercise rights of those students who did not believe in that particular prayer or prayer in general.
However, the nature of that role is rather convoluted. In reflecting on the development of the modern US educational system, Reese points out that the “power of tradition” is clear, but that “it is not self-evident what the phrase means or how society’s expectations evolved over time.” Just as the emendation of the Pledge of Allegiance to include the phrase “under God” represented both a break from tradition (the words were not previously part of the pledge) as well as an affirmation of tradition (the change was cast as a fortification of core American values), so too did the various movements concerning religion in the classroom rely on the argument that tradition is founded not in historical practice, but rather in foundational values and ideals. This helps explains why many Christian denominations came to very different conclusions about the role of religion in the classroom, despite their common grounding in “tradition”. Indeed, these differences evidence the fact that the tradition they spoke of referred not to long-established customs (as the term might commonly be defined), but rather to core values and ideals, such as common theistic background, the salvation of the youth, or the separation of church and state — as the specific case may
Brinkley depicts the opinion of Chief Justice Earl warren as he restated his words, “we conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal”
There have been many cases with the Supreme Court and rights of students. Many of the cases in which took place in the topics of self expression, freedom of speech, discipline, religion, and more. Some of the following are situation where students brought their cases to the Supreme Court in order to protect their rights. Freedom of Speech
This shows that after this case study, it was established that US Citizens have the right to a K-12 education, one that is equally funded so that all students are learning on a level playing field. For this case study, the Texas Supreme Court established the right for students to receive a public school education Texas citizens have the responsibility to take action against an issue they find unconstitutional, either by voting or joining an interest group.
The Consolidation of Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education and The Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 and the Implications on Brown v. Board of Education The Civil Rights Era is an important piece of the United States history. The movement was fueled by a push for equality amongst all, but particularly for those people of color. The landmark trial of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas led the way for a change in the understanding of what all men are created equal meant. The court decision in 1954 Brown trial was unanimous that segregation in public schools is inherently unequal.
Engel won this case. furthermore, steven Engel backed a court case on removing silent prayer in Alabama, which he succeeds in doing. Steven Engel is considered by many one the father of public schools without
In 1951, the following prayer was written that was intended to be recited each morning as part of the regents’ Statement of Moral and Spiritual Training in the Schools: “Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers, and our country.” Because the regents made the recitation of the prayer each day entirely optional to the school boards and the individual families of students, many New York school districts shunned the prayer because of their eclectic student bodies. Not only was the state religiously and ethnically diverse, but religious instruction in state schools was declared unconstitutional by the 1948 Supreme Court decision in the McCollum vs. Board of Education case. Because of the constantly increasing controversy about religious teaching in public schools, at least 90% of New York districts were not using the prayer by the late 1950s. Then, in 1958, five parents (of varying religions and ethnicities) of students within the district filed a lawsuit to stop the use of the prayer in their schools.
As we all know today’s school are a lot different than those in the 1960’s. During the 1960’s is was tradition to open each and every day with a nondenominational prayer, along with the Pledge of Allegiance. Today, prayer is accepted in schools as long as it is led by the student themselves, and not the teacher. In 1962 the case of Engel vs. Vitale went to the Supreme Court based off the idea of whether school sponsored prayer violates the First Amendment Establishment Clause. At this time there was a general law in New York State that required every school within the state to open each day with the Pledge of Allegiance, and a prayer that did not restrict denomination.
In a similar case, Board of Education of Central School District No. 1 V. Allen, the courts favored Allen deciding that schools can lend textbooks to parochial schools because it's benefitting the parents of the students and not the actual organization. Rhode Island had a case, Early V. Di Censo, regarding the separation of church and state because their states was paying private schools teachers a 15% supplementary salary. The local taxpayers were paying for the private school teacher's salary. This case benefited from the Lemon V. Kurtzman since they set rules and restrictions after this