I attended public schools in Montana, South Carolina, Massachusetts, North Carolina, North Dakota, Illinois, and Florida. 1963-1976. Some really good school systems, some not as good. Not once did we have prayer in schools.
Personally, I object to the POA. I usually decline to participate. I don't pledge allegiance to inanimate objects (i.e., the flag) because I consider that idolatry. I also find all manner of coercive public displays of patriotism similarly objectionable.
I attended public schools in Illinois in the 1960s and '70s. No prayer (except for "under God," which was added to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954).
My two older brothers attended Catholic elementary schools. They're the reason my parents sent me to public school.
Same but in the 70s and 80s. In fact, at my high school, an evangelical student club tried to bring a pastor on campus during school hours to lead prayers and they were told in no uncertain terms that was inappropriate.
This nice Jewish girl was born & raised in Oklahoma. I had a 4th grade teacher who made us say the Lord’s Prayer everyday & had to read the Old Testament in my Senior Honors English class. Supposedly, it was only as literature. My Southern Baptist teacher called me an atheist because …
Were you like me? Shocked to find out prayers and Bibles were ever a thing in schools at all? I went to school in CA in the 60s too, and then OR in the 70s. Never heard of it.
I was talking with my dad about this, and he said in Portland back in the 1960's they were forced to walk across the street to the church to do Bible study.
I went to school in rural Oregon in the 70s so I don't know about the 60s. No religion or inkling of religion in crazy Grants Pass. The Supreme Court decision about prayer in school happened in 62 I think.
I was is school 60s and 70s. On certain days, the Catholic children left the classroom for a period of time for "religious education." If someone had to do it, it was because their parents said so.
Small-town New Hampshire public schools in the 1970s. No prayer in schools, ever. Pledge of Allegiance, yes. Religion was taught in either the one of the two Protestant or the Catholic Churches in town. There was no question they were separate entities (education and religion).
I'm in the Lakes Region now (school in MA). Why are so many screaming, "Bring back prayer in schools!" when it was never a thing to begin with?? It's baffling to me.
Misinformation, I guess. Prayer has never been "removed" from public schools. Anyone is free to pray in school on their own time. Study hall, lunch, between classes, etc. It just cannot be mandated as part of the day/curriculum.
I'm a church-going Christian and I am 100% fine with that.
Unless you went to public school before 1962, I doubt you would have had recited classroom prayer. The SCOTUS found it unconstitutional that year. The next year they declared school-sponsored Bible reading also unconstitutional.
Thank you for clarifying my memory. I do remember praying before eating lunch and at the end of the day in kindergarten and first grade, which would have been 1959-1961, but not after that. Now I know why.
Tennessee public schools had The Lord’s prayer recitation in the 60’s. I was exempt on religious grounds, one of the few good things about being raised in a doomsday cult.
My maga-leaning, nonreligious dad was going on about this ("We need to get Jesus back in the schools"), and I asked him how exactly Jesus was in the schools in 1948-60. Were there Bibles? A crucifix above every doorway? Ten commandments hanging on walls? Prayer? Mass?
Hell even here on Kentucky there wasn't any official prayer in schools in the 60s or 70s. There was a bit of unofficial prayer because some teachers & principles beat us kids like we were rented mules. I kid you not, one used a boat oar, another had holes drilled in the paddle...
Ok, I agree beating draft animals like mules, rented or not, or indeed any animal, is more than wrong it is a sign of disturbing psychological deviation at best...
I keep yelling this every time someone says bring back prayer to schools! I went to schools in CA, MN, SC, SD, TX, FL & a DOD school! We did not pray in any schools that I went to.
I did, too. Never, ever was a prayer uttered. It would have been like saying the Pledge of Allegiance during Mass. Wasn’t done. There was separation of church and state. The Christian Right wants a theocracy here.
My parents attended HS in OK in the 60s and they didn’t have prayer. I attended HS in OK in the late 80s and very early 90s and we didn’t have prayer either. He’s lying.
Had a great-aunt that taught English in the late 1930s-1970s. Very religious woman. She had a fit when they added "under god" to the Pledge of Allegiance.
I went to schools on Air Force bases in the 50's and 60's--no prayer in schools. For a few months while waiting for housing. It was segregated, named for a confederate colonel, and my 5th grade teacher and the principal were anti-Semitic. Prayer and Bible verses were mandatory. It's not patriotism.
We didn’t have prayer in our schools either. Prayers and Bibles were banned from schools back in the 60s because they were declared unconstitutional under the first amendment
Same here for public school but my parents sent me to private school. I don’t remember praying in the Evangelical school I went to but we did have Bible Study as the first class for an hour. For High School I was sent to Catholic school. No Bible Study but we did start off with a Hail Mary.
I attended school in Arizona so, yeah... It was prayer then changed to a moment of silence so we could all pray to "our God of choice" but different teachers decided which God that was. And were never confronted by anyone. #DontObeyInAdvance
I attended parochial school (Lutheran) in the 60’s and we were taught the importance of separation of church/state. This bible stuff is full on evangelical grifting. They don’t know it yet, but that earns you a seat in hypocritical hell.
Nor in the late 60s and early 70s when I attended school in Georgia. There was a prayer club for those so inclined, but never a public prayer and never saw a Bible that I can recall.
I attended FL panhandle schools from 1978-1988 & they squeezed in prayer whenever they could: before school sports events and practices, at student assemblies, at pep rallies, in “clubs” and extra-curricular. A lot of individual proselytizing by coaches and teachers.
Sure by that time there were Supreme Court rulings to remove organized prayer. Although any student could say a prayer or lead a prayer group. Before the 60s though, I guess it was pretty common in the South at least.
Actually they disguised it as “a moment of silence” and I saw students get harassed by staff (yanked out of chairs and forced to stand with their heads bowed) if they didn’t participate.
In the 70s my high school had a daily devotional read over the intercom. Students took turns reading Bible passages and saying a prayer. Big controversy when they let a Catholic boy lead it. 🙄
Massachusetts, 70s-80s, never once said a prayer or saw a Bible in public school. My Catholic parents would have raised a stink if we had, I'm sure. Church and public schools are supposed to stay completely separate.
Massachusetts, early '60s, remembering saying "Our Father" in school, w/Pledge. Moved to Ohio in '64 and remember saying "Our Father" in school and having to learn a longer ending including something about "the kingdom and glory forever."
If your god is so weak it can't go eight hours without a classroom of kids being forced to recite something they don't care about, can you really call it a god?
Though I am okay with them reading the bible. Nothing makes more Atheists than reading the bible for yourself. Especially as a woman/girl.
Prayer in some state schools started after the Birch Society convinced Catholics and other christian groups to join their war on drugs. Under God was only added to the Pledge of Allegiance in the 1950s. Beware there are millions "home schooled" today. See the John Oliver spot on it.
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My two older brothers attended Catholic elementary schools. They're the reason my parents sent me to public school.
I'm a church-going Christian and I am 100% fine with that.
He was...nonplussed (OG def).
Separation of CHURCH and STATE !
In fact, I had no idea what religion most of my classmates practiced, if any.
Maybe that's one reason why my class is still very close 45 years after graduating.
Unless that’s what that early “Home Period” thing was, a class you sat in for 15 minutes early in the morning
Just because public school-led prayer isn’t permitted, it isn’t correct to say “no prayer in public schools in Tennessee”.
Though I am okay with them reading the bible. Nothing makes more Atheists than reading the bible for yourself. Especially as a woman/girl.
Those kids will be out of school, like TFG did last time.