Dear Future President,

I would like to address the problem we Americans have pertaining to religious topics shared in classrooms at schools in science and history classes. For the purpose of this letter I am not going to share my religion because this is a school assignment. I have been doing research on this topic and no where in the constitution does it ever mention the words “separation of church and state”. I see this as an issue because now a days we are told that religion is not allowed to be shared, but when in reality it is not allowed to be forced upon people. Religion in schools is being frowned upon by my people because they don’t want to have conflicts with parents and students because of what they personally believe.

I believe that if religion is not allowed to be taught,students should not be forced to learn theories like evolution and the big bang theory, so people can also understand those religious beliefs. An alternative for public schools is to have classes available for students to take based on the main religions of the world versus just what science says because you cannot disprove faith. Another reason why I think that this should be an option is because religious books can be used as primary sources as a part of a lesson as long as they correlate with what another piece of writing is saying.

Also this conflict deals with the first amendment of freedom of religion and freedom of speech, everyone no matter the circumstance, should be openly able to talk about their beliefs because in the real world people all believe different things. This would help prepare younger generations for what the real world is like instead of confining them to only learn what can be proved by science. Americans need to be able to more freely talk about religions because they play a key role in the beginning civilizations because their governments were based off of their religious beliefs and they are touched upon in world history. In order to understand the early world we need to understand religion.

Finally we need to have religion in school because kids get bullied for their beliefs. If people better understood what other people believe, they would be less apt to bully them because they could realize that they have some similarities with each other. Bullying does not only happen in young audiences, but brutality is bullying among the adult audience. Understanding religions will reduce lots of tension between all people.

In conclusion, religion needs to be taught as an optional course in school by a choice, because our nation was founded upon it and it was added to the Pledge of Allegiance so that it reads; “...One Nation under God...”. Also all of our US currency contains the simple phrase “In God We Trust”. If when we say the pledge we already mention God and our currency mentions God, why is it that we don’t have classes for students to learn about it in a public school?

Sincerely,

Keturah D

The constitution:

http://www.senate.gov/civics/constitution_item/constitution.htm

Bring your Bible to school:

http://media.focusonthefamily.com/bringyourbible/LegalRightsMemo-BringYourBibletoSchoolDay.pdf

First amendment guide:

https://www.aclu.org/other/statement-bible-public-schools-first-amendment-guide

God’s Not Dead 2: behind the story:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt_RRpPPjq0

Reason for religion in school:

https://www.onfaith.co/discussion/7-reasons-we-should-teach-more-religion-in-public-schools

The pledge of Allegiance:

http://www.ushistory.org/documents/pledge.htm