"Spencer McCulley Mrs. Stockton AP Language 8 February 2012 Praying in School: Acceptable or Objectable? In the daily lives of people around the world, stress and anxiety cloud the thoughts and critical thinking of a person’s mind, whether it’s through their job, family issues, or other personal quarries. To cope with the rising levels of physical or mental burdens, most people look to their religion, or more importantly prayer, to seek answers and to provide psychological attendance. Why can’t this same procedure be used with students in public schools? In light of recent educational reforms, the matter of secularism and religious prayer inside the walls of government-run educational facilities is still a significant debate amongst students, teachers, and professors alike. The antidisestablishmentarianistic attitudes and strict, indignant manifest of educational leaders in our society are dismembering the academic freedom and constitutional fabric of our likelihood as students. As this world continues to change with the modern age of technology and fast-paced lifestyles, the hierarchy of adolescent learning is completely ambivalent to the important needs and voiced opinions of students as they yearn for a positive environment of religious tolerance and general acceptance. I firmly believe in the notion that students should have the right to freely pray, in a respectable manner, before, during, and after regulated school time hours within the confines of public schools. Peers of educational facilities should be able to subtly practice their own religious ways without blatant persecution from others. It is generally accepted that different forms of religion are beneficial to all members of a party despite the opposing views of their own doctrine. Religion, and more importantly prayer, helps people with their emotional and social problems in many forms. Prayer flourishes the minds of students and provides a relaxing state of calm serenity. Prayer, mixed with confession, releases the pressure and stress people encounter in everyday life. This same atmosphere can be merged into public schools and students without persecution from other peers. Though this ideology seems plausible without much conflict, students who openly pray in school could surface rather distasteful distractions for other members in the facility. Despite prayer being enacted in a silent and intrapersonal manner, students potentially could try to induce others to join in unknowingly. This pseudo-missionary work could spark major controversy and may cause unnecessary disputes. To suffice this predicament, rules created by the local school boards could help avoid confrontation by partitioning the act of initiating unwelcomed religion from one student to the other. Students not involved with religious doctrines should deserve the same amount of rights as those with it. This way, everybody can truly express their own ideals in a cohesive and safe environment. A prime example of religion and prayer inside schools is a national group called FCA, or Fellowship of Christian Athletes. FCA is committed to bringing students Christianized activities and information predominantly on school grounds. FCA meetings tend to occur before, during, after regulated school hours as well as on some weekends insides schools. During the meetings, students participate in worship, prayer, games, and other pertinent activities. FCA provides a safe-haven for adolescence searching for a secure relationship with the Lord. While their mission is clear and just, it also produces a negative effect, eloping students with mixed emotions. Assessing the predicament of peer pressure, students might feel obligated to pressure their friends or peers into joining FCA; this creates a subjugated state that shuns and prejudices non-members of FCA, causing unwarranted friction between the two groups. Separating these social outlets conjures a sense of disconnect and effectively dismantles the stereotypical clichés associated with school students by making it seem that FCA is a elite group of higher students who are popular. In order to make sure this doesn’t happen in schools, it should be made aware to all students through the principal or other school leaders that FCA is open and not mandatory and that it is the free will of students to join if they choose to, despite the outcomes of the other students around them. Any soliciting of religion from students can be punishable if it creates a school hazard. It is the goal and pledge that students should exercise their religion in an appropriate manner, that won’t get them in trouble, through a person’s moral standards and clean conscious. From my personal experience with prayer, I can vouch that my life has been made completely easier than it was previously. Prayer in my life gives me the opportunity to get things off my chest that I tend to not openly talk about with others. Prayer lets me confess and overcome my past mistakes and pains and lets me clear my mind of any and all radical thoughts that create unwanted obstacles. I don’t believe that this way of thinking will benefit everyone who tries, but there’s always that possibility. No one knows the “correct” religion in the world or even if there is a distinct religion, but it is quite certain that all religious and nonreligious backgrounds have some form of prayer associated with them. Students shouldn’t have to suffer from the lack of prayer in school, especially to those that need it the most. Our government shouldn’t prosecute it just because some might find it offensive or disdainful. They should learn to tolerate religion as well as accept its existence, though they don’t have to believe in the cause itself. In conclusion, students should have the right to express religious prayer within schools without backlash and oppression from other students or faculty in a mature setting that accounts for both sides of the debate. Schools that instate the activities of prayer in schools should also qualify their actions with limitations in order to satisfy the median in between each other. Ever since the Engel Supreme Court case, prayer has been abolished from schools. I believe that the “separation of church and state” clause should amend the rights of free prayer in public schools in accordance to my previous reasons listed. The rights of students should be upheld and not discriminated against and should be acknowledge in the highest authority."