Public Prayer Should Not Be Allowed In School

While you are certainly correct that the first amendment allows for freedom of religion, among other things, it is not particularly correct to assume that, because we have this freedom, we can do whatever we want with it. As a much more extreme example, we have the right to bear arms, but does allow me to simply walk into a preschool with a handgun? Absolutely not; I don't think I have to explain the reason why that would be a detriment, I am sure you already know. Getting back to my initial point made at the beginning of my reply, we cannot use freedom of religion in every which way we please, for many reasons. For one, public prayer does not necessarily constitute balanced behavior within a group of individuals of diverse religious beliefs. Taking a look at religious diversity in schools, we can pull away two very different religious beliefs and examine those closer. In any given school, we can justly assume that there will be, in most cases, at least one individual believing in Christianity and one individual believing in Islam. If we are going to allow prayer in school, then we need to accept all prayer, correct? While Christianity may be as simple as a clasp of the hands and a re-read of Bible verses, Islamic beliefs tend to follow something very different. Islamic prayer refers to a practice called the Salat, which is a practice of ritualistic prayer referencing the Five Pillars of Islam. Salat is to be preformed five times a day and it is to be performed by reciting something called Rakat, "which consists of the prescribed movements and words followed by Muslims while offering prayers to Allah [1]." Each prayer from Salat is five-to-ten minutes long which, by doing it five times a day, would be a minimum of twenty-five minutes. Not to mention, Rakat follows a very distinct form of prayer, utilizing the legs and arms for their daily prayer. With this being said, are we to allow this religion to take a minimum of twenty-five minutes out of a class time to perform their prayer? Are we going to allow a clean environment for these individuals to commit to their prayer, as well as a quiet place of belief for them to say their prayer? Let us also remember that this is one religion, but there are many other religions out there that have different prayers and different beliefs. If my opponent suggests that public prayer be allowed, then we must allow all religions with a large diversity in religious scripture and prayer, both of which have different duration and circumstances for their practices, which could very well be a problem for an educational facility already having a time restraint on school-hours. Let us move away from that, though. Let us look at the educational system and what it does for us and our countries. We are expected to learn in a facility like this, we are expected to show up and soak in information that will better our future. I forward this question to my opponent; how can we effectively teach children and teenagers alike about certain subjects when we are taking breaks for prayer? How are we expected to use the full amount of our educational system's time whilst we are busy setting up the next religious prayer exercise? There is simply not enough time in the school day to assist everyone in every prayer there could potentially be in any given school. We need to also remind ourselves that there are religious-based schools out there that allow this behavior (prayer, religious beliefs, etc). I assume that my opponent means public school for this debate, so I reference these religious schools as a healthy alternative to the frequent praying individual; there is a school that is designed to balance religious beliefs and education, public education is simply not molded in that same sense. That is why they are different locations entirely, they were made for separate purposes. My point remains that we are treading dangerous ground with this one. It would be more beneficial to keep prayer out of public schools, to allow the prayer-friendly individuals to attend churches and other religious educational facilities instead. It would also be beneficial to keep prayer out of public schools to continue with education, not take breaks for every student who needs to practice their religious prayers. If I am to shorten my point to the bare minimum as an attempt to make an understanding conclusion for all to comprehend, I will share the following. With the diversity between religions being sporadic and moderately large, we can assume that this diversity will cause a fluctuation in the duration, circumstances, environment, and monetary aspects of this practice within a public school. Such diversity and fluctuation can cost public schools time, money, and resources - the things needed to keep the educational facility up-to-date and running smoothly. Public prayer should not be allowed in public schools for those reasons.