Education Religion And Education - 2010 Words

Religion in Education Public education in America was first founded April 23, 1635 at the Boston Latin School in Boston, Massachusetts. However the â€Å"first town in the U.S. to establish a free, tax-supported public school† was founded in 1644 in Dedham, Massachusetts (Walking Tour, 2010). Coincidentally though the teacher in Dedham, the first tax-funded public education, was Rev. Ralph Wheelock. Reverend Wheelock tied together education and religion to efficiently nurture youth to become contributing civil, community members of society and not just to advance technology and science. As the seed of education in America, Dedham antedating exemplified our current educational system; tax-funded, open to the public, and advanced society as a†¦show more content†¦Disconnecting the relationship of church and state is an issue of government endorsement and religious freedom. This public policy has become an issue of government endorsement as tax dollars are utilized to fund â€Å"hospitals operated by religious organizations, [and] chaplains are provided in the armed forces as well as in Congress† (Dye, 2013). The supplement of these services are direct endorsements of influencing religion and an even more threatening association of respecting a denomination. As the government funds these programs they construct a relationship between which religions they are funding, furthermore impeding other religions as one is favored more than the consequent. Addressing Religion in Education In the 1925 the Supreme Court case Pierce v. Society of Sisters, the court struck down the Oregon Compulsory Act of 1922 which â€Å"forc[ed] [students] to accept instruction from public teachers only,† and therefore were not allowed to attend private religious schools as they were private. The court interpreted this as in impedance of â€Å"free exercise† found within the First Amendment and Due Process clause within the Fourteenth Amendment (Dye, 199). In the 1947 Supreme Court case Everson v. Board of Education, the court upheld â€Å"bus transportation for parochial school children at public expense on the grounds that the wall of separation between church and state does not prohibit from adopting a general