The First Amendment and the Issues on Religion and Education

First Amendment: Religion and Education
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First Amendment: Religion and Education
Introduction
Religious issues discussed or raised in whichever contexts can cause a divide between people. Often, comments about a particular religion can be interpreted as either promoting or denigrating the same religion. Therefore, the issue of religion calls for careful and sober consideration and hence the direction by the First Amendment. As per the First Amendment, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” (Congress.gov, 2022). However, what happens in situations when this particular amendment appears to be contradicting itself? In the case at hand, one could argue that the First Amendment is indeed contradicting itself and is, therefore, not offering any sense of direction.
For a school and a teacher, dealing with grading a student’s essay or even displaying it could raise a number of legal issues. These issues could, in turn, make the school susceptible to lawsuits that could, in the end, damage a school’s reputation. As per the establishment clause, a teacher could be found liable for promoting or establishing a particular religion if they grade the essay positively. The establishment clause explicitly prohibits the establishment of religion, and the Supreme Court has been at the forefront of establishing it. In the Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe, the court made it clear that holding prayers before football games was in violation of the First Amendment (Dow, 2009). In this case, it was deemed unconstitutional to have everyone participate in another religion’s exercises. Displaying a student’s work in class could be seen as promoting a cause or otherwise seeking to establish or indicate a religion’s superiority.
According to Hick (1981), the act of grading a religion could elicit dissent as “involving a pretence to a divine perspective.” A teacher seeking to grade a student’s work and, in the end, share their opinion regarding the student’s work could suffer dissent from either the student or the student&...