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Prayer In School: Religious Freedom? Public schools exist to educate children, not to make children aware of their own religion and proselytize. What five, eight, or ten year old could look at prayers recited as part of a class routine as “voluntary”? Religion is private, and schools are public -- so it is only appropriate that the two should not be brought together and mix. To introduce prayer into our public schools builds walls between children who may not have been aware of religious differences before. When religion has invaded our public school system, it has singled out that lone Jewish student, or the class Unitarian or the atheist… the children in the minority. It used to be commonplace that when prior to the court decision against prayer in schools to place non-religious or non-orthodox students into places of detention, as some sort of ‘punishment’, during bible reading or prayer recitations. It is coercive for schools to schedule worship as an official part of the whole school day, school sports, or to use prayer to formalize graduation ceremonies. Such prayers are more “mandatory” than “voluntary”.
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