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Why Should World Religion Be Taught In Public Schools

Thesis: World religion should be taught in schools because it would be a great opportunity for
students to learn different religions, Students can learn the different types of traditions that
certain religions do, and allows teachers to become a more tolerant and compassionate towards
this generation.

I. One World religion should be taught in public schools because it would be a great

opportunity for students to learn different religions

A. When teaching students about religion it most likely allows teachers to grow up the

upcoming generation of tolerant and compassionate citizens.

1. Religion is one of the biggest parts of our society and us ignoring it in schools

does not diminish the fact

2. Teaching religion can help bring an understanding of the main similarities

between many of the world's religions.

B. Helping students understand the history, culture, and also currents events today.

1. Parents think that religion is all about the Bible and scripture but in reality is

really not true.

2. Having a basic religion background also allows children understanding current

issues that are on the news

II. World religion should be taught in public schools because it gives and opportunity for

students to learn the different types of traditions that certain religions do.

A. Understanding the basic logic behind the yearly events and celebrations that certain

religions have.
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1. With certain occasions (New Years, Valentines, Holy Week/Easter,

Thanksgiving, Halloween, Christmas) people celebrate these holidays not

knowing what the true meaning behind it.

2. Help explain the reasons to students the reason why these religions celebrate these

holidays.

B. The U.S. is a multi-faith country

1. Our faiths are expected to grow based on several studies

2. It’s all because of immigration that is a result to a multi-cultural, racial, and multi-

faith, community that the country has now.

III. World religion should be taught in public schools because it allows teachers to become a

more tolerant and compassionate towards this generation.

A. Teachers can help students from bullying.

1. Every school contains students with all different types of races and

beliefs/religions.

2. Can promote understanding and respect among students and teachers.

B. Students can become more diverse

1. To ensure students of less familiar cultures and religious traditions to make sure

they feel to include and safe in their learning communities.

2. Teachers need to be able to provide opportunities for students to be able to share

unique aspects of all identities.

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IV. World Religion should not be taught in public schools because religions should not be forced

upon a student.

A. Too many controversies

1. Any form of disagreement can often soon to start an argument

2. Public schools are not a place for more disputes to be made over religion/

B. Can create problems

1. They will argue about more what is true in their own upon than willing to hear out what

people have to say.

2. Teachers cannot force a student to think of a certain belief.

C. Response: teaching religion does not always involve having an argument, it's basically

teaching someone about the studies around the world and not arguing.

1. Teaching religions in school is basically teaching students what the religions are and

what they believe not having an argument.

2. When teaching religion, students get the feel of getting to see what religions are like

around the world and giving a basic study about the different types. Also it’s a great

opportunity to learn different types around the world.

Sarah Woodall

English IV
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Mr. Cullen

11/20/18

Should World Religion should be taught in public schools?

Teaching religion in schools can be a very risky thing for teachers in today’s society.

When talking about religion, it can have an effect that could be a positive or negative thing. For

some people they believe that if teachers do teach religion in public schools, that they would be

preaching on what they are trying to teaching. In all understanding, you really cannot preach in

the public schools for respect of other students and teachers. Schools around the United States do

not have world religion being taught because of this certain reason. A father in Texas forbidden

his daughter to go on a trip to a temple with her class to a place where her and her class were

learning about. The reason being for that is because the father thought that the school was going

to make them worship at the temple at the certain location that they were seeing. The school was

not trying to do that in any way, shape, or form. They were simply trying to give the hands on

experience of what it is really like and to see up close to the temple that they were learning

about. All around the United States some schools are trying to fight for this certain topic, World

Religion being taught in the public schools. Most private schools are giving more of an

opportunity for this type of thing considering that they can somewhat do whatever they want. For

public schools, everything has to be ran by the state board and it has to be approved by so many

things. But by just giving the simple reasonings to why public schools should be taught is one of

the easiest things. World religion should be taught in public schools because it would be a great

opportunity for students to learn different religions around the world, Students are able to learn

the different types of traditions the certain religions do, and it also allows teachers to grow a

tolerant and compassionate generation.

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The first thing for the reason being to why world religion should be taught in public

schools is because it will gives students a great opportunity to learn different religions that are

around the world. For teachers are teaching about this topic, it will give the opportunity for

teachers to grow a upcoming generation that is tolerant and that are compassionate citizens.

Teachers have such an important role in any students career. For some students, they sometimes

go to teachers for problems that they are having with schools or personal issues. For teachers

having the respect from the majority of students, for them teaching religion, can affect the

student more and that will have a better understanding of this topic (D’Cruz). Going back to

religion and how it is in our everyday lives, for us United States citizens, we see religion

everywhere. We can not get away from it. For some, if we lived without religion we would not

know where we would be today. Religion is one of the biggest parts of our everyday lives and

for schools wanting to ignore religion, that is completely impossible to get rid of the fact that

religion is still there and the fact that it will never go away. If the state does provide the

opportunity for students to learn about world religion in public schools, the teaching of religion

can help bring a better understanding of the main similarities that are between of the many

religions around the world. Many have said that sometimes students get bullied just because of

the religion that they worship and or believe in. For this to be prevented, and by teaching the

world religions, it can help students get a better understanding of what the religion is really all

about. Also if a bully does make fun of someone for their religion, they can possible see that

their religion could have some similarities to the religion that they are bullying.

The next thing for students to learn about world religion is by helping them to understand

the history, our culture, and the current events that we have today (“Clinton Would Agree: These

Are Reasons Why Religion Should Be Taught In Public Schools”). Parents believe that when
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teacher do teach about religion, they are having the mindset that teachers are teaching and or

preaching the Holy Bible. In this case, that is not the case. Teachers would focus on all religions

and teaching the main ones that have the most impact our society the most. Giving the best

explanation about the religion, giving it an historical background on what the religion is all about

and giving an example of why people believe it today. For students today, each one of them have

somewhat of a religious background such as something like Christianity, Mormon, Catholic,

Muslim, etc. With having the knowledge of different religious backgrounds, it can help students

understand current events that are on the news today. One the greatest examples that is very

iconic is the 9/11 tragedy that affect American citizens for the rest of their lives. The guys who

went through the twin towers were Muslim and still to this day we define their religion as one of

the worst religions to believe. We today continue to define people who do believe in this type of

religion or who lives in the same type of culture as them, we are labeling these types of people as

bad people. We as American citizens are always labeling people for by what they believe and

what they look like when in reality we need to be more self aware of things, more concerned,

and the people around us and being very cautious of what we say. If we as students continue to

hear our teachers, our parents, and all social media influencers continue to drag people down by

what they look like and what they believe in, then they are all influencing upcoming generations

that say and think that making fun on if types of things, we will think that this is okay for us to

do.

Another reason why world religion should be taught in public schools is because it gives

an opportunity for students to learn different types of traditions that certain religions do.

Traditions for religious people are very important for them. Sometimes people celebrate holidays

and they really do not understand what they are really celebrating. One of the biggest examples
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is Christmas. Christianity believes that Christmas is all about the birth of Jesus Christ through the

virgin Mary. Most of the time, people believe that it’s all about getting presents, talking about

santa claus, and getting all this new stuff but that is really not the reason why. Another important

one is Easter. For believers of Christianity, this holiday is all about the death of Jesus Christ and

how he died for everyone’s sins and how he rose three days later. Some people think that this is a

way to come to church, dress up, having an easter egg hunt, and talking about the easter bunny.

For students to understand and comprehend things, giving students the opportunity to be able to

learn what other religions truly to during all the main holidays that are more commonly

celebrated. Another important thing for students is to do this is because it gives them a better

understanding of why all these religions think about these certain holidays. Sometimes certain

religions are not fond of certain holidays. One holiday that people are not really fond with is

because Halloween. People around the world love to resemble Halloween as dressing-up in

costumes, kids getting free candy, and having costume partys. More of the older generations that

have grown up in church and stuff believe that Halloween is all about the devil and how use kids

are worshiping the devil because we are doing these such things. As a child, nobody is thinking

that at all. What really kids think about is dressing up and as much candy as possible. There are

so many other reasonings to why religions do not believe in certain types of holidays, but the

most important thing to conclude here is that some religions are not very fond of different types

of holidays.

It can allow teachers to able to allow students to understand that the United States is a

multi-faith country (Nguyen). People always wonder why or how we became a multi-faith

country. It is because of our history. When settlers came from different parts around the world,

they brought not just themselves, they brought what they believe in. As those religions grow over
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the years they have grown into some of the biggest religions known to man. For students to be

able to learn where all the world’s religion really came from, it is great for students to have a

great understanding of the religions. Giving teachers the opportunity to actually see for

themselves how this world allow to students to understand more about where the religions of the

world came from.

Lastly world religion should be taught in public schools because it allows teachers to

become a more tolerant and compassionate towards this generation. For teachers I believe this is

one of the greatest things for teachers to do. Growing a generation that will become reasonable,

religious wise, is one of the best things. For by growing this type of generation, most of the time,

students need to be able to prevent certain things. Bullying is one of the biggest things. Students

most of the time make fun of other students because of what they believe in. Students do this sort

of stuff most of them time because of what the student believes in. With teaching religion and

stopping bullying based on religion, it will give an understanding to not just students but

teachers. Most of the time people make fun of religions just because they really do not

understand the reasoning behind the religion. In some cases some religions mean the same thing.

Another thing is that students can become more diverse. In this generation, students are

growing as a community where we think that making fun of different religions and making fun

of peoples races are okay for us to do. Students think it is right to start all of these things (such as

riots over the dumbest things) and become citizens who can never agree of things. But by

creating a course where students could learn about the different types of reasonings of why

certain religions do this types of stuff and what kinds of stuff they are against, then the

generation could potentially grow into a generation that is not diverse and that can come to

agreements and become more understanding. With giving this idea of needing to create a more
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diverse generation and growing a tolerant group of citizens, Teachers should allow students to be

able to state their opinion on things dealing with religion. Now knowing the in schools today,

some history classes do talk about religion, but it is not enough information on it. Teachers just

simply say a couple of things about it in a class and then just move on and not allowing students

to state their opinion on what the teacher has said. Allowing students to express their opinion is a

great way for students to branch out and have a voice. Now teachers only talking about religion

for as short as five minutes can not allow a student to voice their opinion about the religion that

is being discussed. Maybe a student is wanting to state their opinion about the religion because

they feel like there is a need to speak of such thing, but students can not say what we want to say

because the teacher does not want to start anything and just does not or is not willing to have an

argument about it. For a student to give their opinion about something is not focused on starting

an argument with the teacher or another student, the student that could be asking the question(s)

could maybe just want to seek more information on the religion and would want the teacher to

explain more about it. But no all the teacher will think is that it will just become one big

commotion and everything will not turn out the way that the teacher wanted it to go. So by

giving the opportunity for students to be able to have an opinion on not just religion but in our

everyday lives. Giving any student any opinion on any certain topic can allow the student to feel

more comfortable when wanting to give their opinion. Around the world, in some countries,

some people do not have any way they can state without them getting into an argument and or

getting killed for stating for what they want to say. Syria is one of the greatest example. Nobody

can never really say anything they want to say because they think that you should believe what

everybody else says. If you give your opinion and it is not what everybody else is thinking, then

they would look and treat you a whole nother way and you will not be treated the way you were
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in the beginning. With them not being able to share their opinion, they will not be able to say

what they want to say and truly say what is on their mind.

Religion overall is a great thing to learn today. Especially when we know that it can help

with us as citizens and also can help with education. Studies have truly shown that religion

should be something that should be addressed. In 2010, a group called Pew Forum asked a bunch

of Americans simple questions that were based on religions that are around the world (“Should

World Religion Be Taught in Schools?”). The response that they gave the majority of the people

that they asked never gave the correct answer. Another survey was formed in 2005, the

conducted it as the “Bible Literacy Project”. This project test teenagers to name 5 world

religions. 10% of teens could name only 5, but 15% could not name any (Laycock). Without

students knowing or understanding religions around the world, they would not know the

traditions or know what the religions are about. With some people arguing about religion not

being in schools, students have a First Amendment right to be able to express religion in schools.

In conclusion, student’s should be able to be able to learn about world religion in schools.

Religion is such a great thing to learn in our society today. Being able to learn something that is

very common and that is very educational is one of the greatest things. If it was not for religion

today than where would we as students and teachers would not be who we are today. As you

look though the news and see what is going on today, you can see that religion is all throughout

the news. Religion today is a big part of our lives and now for it to be in public schools, it would

be a great way for students to learn about what the main religions around the world and it will be

a great learning opportunity for students.

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Work Cited

Commentary. “If We Don’t Teach Religion in Schools, Americans Will Never Understand the

Rest of the World.” Quartz, Quartz, 15 Apr. 2015, qz.com/383348/if-we-dont-teach-

religion-in-schools-us-kids-wont-understand-the-rest-of-the-world/.

D'Cruz, Marieke. “Why We Should Teach Religion In Schools.” Huffington Post Australia,

HuffPost, 14 July 2016, www.huffingtonpost.com.au/marieke-dcruz/why-we-should-

teach-relig_b_8101918.html.

Friedman, Emily. “Texas Curriculum Review Sparks Debate About Religion.” ABC News, ABC

News Network, 29 July 2009, abcnews.go.com/US/religion-taught-

schools/story?id=8166798.
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Jackson, Anthony. “Four Reasons Why You Should Teach About Religion in School.”Education

Week - Global Learning, 4 Apr. 2016,

blogs.edweek.org/edweek/global_learning/2014/04/four_reasons_why_you_should_teach

_about_religion_in_school.html.

Laycock, Joseph. “Should World Religion Be Taught in Schools?” Caring Magazine, 14 Apr.

2016, caringmagazine.org/should-world-religion-be-taught-in-schools/.

Nguyen, Posted by Gary. “Clinton Would Agree: These Are Reasons Why Religion Should Be

Taught In Public Schools.” World Religion News, World Religion News, 21 Aug. 2015,

www.worldreligionnews.com/religion-news/christianity/clinton-would-agree-these-are-

reasons-why-religion-should-be-taught-in-public-schools.

“We Must Teach about Religion in High Schools.” Religion & Politics, 7 Jan. 2014,

religionandpolitics.org/2014/01/07/we-must-teach-about-religion-in-high-schools/.

Wertheimer, Linda K. “Public Schools Shouldn’t Preach. But They Should Teach Kids about

Religion.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 8 Sept. 2015,

www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/09/08/schools-shouldnt-preach-but-

they-should-teach-about-religion/?utm_term=.83b0ba325c66.