Separation of Church and School?

I'm sure we're all familiar with the phrase "separation of church and state." However, in the past decades, religion in schools has been a definite hot topic, even leading to legal matters in some states. Religion has been and will always be an extremely controversial topic, no matter the situation; people will always have opposing views. ( And they should! That's what makes us all individuals!) I decided to focus on religion as a legal issue in the schools today because it is definitely something that needs to be addressed.

Senator Phillip A. Hart (Michigan): "I'm a Catholic and I hope a devout one, but I think that the public school classroom is no place for me to try and impose my world formula for prayer on children who don't share it, and for that very reason, I don't want my children in a public school classroom to be exposed to someone else's religion or formula." source


Coming back to the idea of separation of church and state, this has a tremendous role on a lot of government institutions in the world, but most importantly in public schools. hools. "In 1948, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that religious instruction in public school was unconstitutional. In 1963, it ruled that mandatory reading of Bible verses or prayers are similarly unconstitutional."source. "However, that same 1st Amendment gives students the right that they may engage in many forms of non-disruptive personal religious expression, including the wearing of religious clothing and jewelry. They can pray (individually or in student-led groups) on the school bus, at the flagpole, before lunch, in the corridors, in the classroom before and after lessons, at sports events, etc. They can talk freely about religion to other students outside of class. They can distribute religious literature. If there are any student-led clubs in the school, they have the right to organize student-led Bible prayer clubs. Teachers are not allowed to teach any religion as truth. However, they can teach about religion, as long as they meet certain requirements. Finally, public schools cannot require students to recite prayers from a specific religion each morning." source
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All in all, in my opinion, religion should not be taught in public schools. Of course it must be taught when it comes to the history of the world and country because religion played a tremendous role in the development of our society. At this point, and with our generations, religion is becoming a more personal choice, instead of a "requirement" from society as it used to be years ago. With our world not focusing as much on religion as it used to, our lesson plans should help teach our students about things that are affecting our society today, as there are many other factors besides relion. After all, what are private, religious schools for?