"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." These first 16 words of the United States Bill of Rights prohibit Congress from establishing or prohibiting religion, and since its ratification in 1791, it have been the subject of debates. This is the basis of the idea of Freedom of Religion, and many people in America now have taken to heart the corollary of that freedom, the Freedom from Religion. This debate is most evident within the public schools where any mention of prayer or Christmas has been thoroughly expunged. In 2000, the Supreme Court even agreed that a student led prayer before a football game constituted "Congress making a law respecting and establishment of religion." What gets conveniently forgotten in most of these suits are the six words after the comma, "or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

Secular Public Schools

One of the main arguments against practicing religion in the public schools is because, as an extension of the State, allowing the practice of religion will in effect recognize and establish a religion. Unfortunately this has been taken too far to the point that teachers and administrators are becoming afraid of even acknowledging that religion exists. This has made the schools an easy target for anyone with a grudge to file suit after suit, both costing millions and, worse yet, detracting the schools from their primary purpose, teaching children.

Parochial Schools

The Roman Catholic Church has schools around the nation, as does the Southern Baptists, Episcopalians, Jews, and Muslims. There are many differences between each of these schools as well as the public schools, but while the religious schools all promote their own religion as the paramount, they all do a great job in educating children. Throughout the country, the students from the private parochial schools outperform the public students in all standardized tests and they also are more often admitted to the prestigious colleges. No religious school in the US teaches that the other religions are evil, nor do they prohibit the exercise of the other religions; they chose to focus on other issues instead.

Pros and Cons

It can be expected that every school will promote the ideals of its chartering organization. Catholic schools will promote Catholicism, Muslim schools will promote Islam, a corporate school will promote that corporation, and public government schools will promote the virtues of the government. An important distinction comes in because the government schools will, by law, deny the virtues of the religions as well as denying the values those religions impart on the individual.

The idea behind preventing a single established religion in the United States is fair, but as the First Amendment states, there should not be the prohibition of religion. Unfortunately, over the last 50 years a very vocal minority has led a push for freedom from religion and all too frequently the courts agree. Alas, that is what has happened in our public schools and the result has led to an eroding of the education most of our children receive.
Michael Muhammad is a career counselor and in his spare time he blogs for militarydegreeprograms.org, a site he often recommends to those who are interested in the Top 10 Best Military Degrees. If you have considered getting a military degree he suggests learning more about Military Degree Programs.