Should Creationism Be Taught in Public Schools?

Being the United States of America, people say this is supposed to be “The Land of the Free,” but why is there are rules on what should be allowed to be taught in the public school system? According to the United States Constitution, here in America we have the right to practice any religion that is best suited for what we believe in. Clearly this means that any man, woman, or child could worship what they seem fit for them. Did you know that in 2012 that 78% of all Americans claimed to be a practicing the faith of Christianity? This means that almost 3 in every 4 Americans believe in a form of Creationism.

So why is that students across the country are being forced into learning the theory of Evolution? Is this fair of justified to people who believe in the Creationism? Absolutely not fair because this belief should be a choice that a student and his or her parents can make for themselves.

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Why are public schools not allowed to offer an optional course on the belief of Creationism or even make this a class one can take the place of a science class? Teaching this class can help families who cannot afford to send their children to private school to gain a similar experience.

In addition many students can have a better understanding of the religion and parents should be able to agree on what they find right for their child. Then we have people who don’t have care towards the fact of the belief of Creationism.

These people like to make sure that nothing with the bible has anything to do with anything to do with anything that is government funded or even anything that is in the public. While it only takes one person to deem this teaching unsuitable and then a whole line of people will jump on the bandwagon. Usually then people begin start with all the reasons this class should not be offered at public schools. Some of the reasons on why they don’t agree on why the belief of Creationism should be allowed to be taught in public schools is that is because it would private school out of business, opens up to the arguments of why schools do not teach background knowledge on origins of other religions perspectives, and that it should be taught as a social studies course, not science because it deals with culture not on how a certain idea has come to be.

If you go around asking an older person about what school was like in their day then they will tell you that they use to be able to have God in schools. In the year 1962 the United States Supreme Court had ruled that saying a prayer in public schools was “unconstitutional.” So now this left it up to the states to decide what they seem fit for the beliefs of many Americans. Pennsylvania had made a statement about prayer in public schools that follows: “Brief period of silent prayer or meditation which is not religious exercise, but an opportunity for prayer and reflection as child is disposed.” By the understanding this means schools can have “moments of silence” are permitted and the student can take them how he or she would like. Now a day’s students and teachers no longer start there day off with a prayer, but in fact the Pledge of Allegiance. The sad part is some schools in the country do not even say this anymore because it has the verse of “Under God” in it.

Sometimes it becomes a little annoying to some people that there is always one person who has to pick a fight about everything when it comes the issue of religion in public schools. Does this mean that anytime something comes up about religion that someone cannot be able to say it out loud in a public place? In today’s world many private, Catholic, or Christian schools a significant amount of money that many parents cannot afford. A select few of these schools can cost upwards in the cost of sending their child to a community college, if not more. According to the website of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart High School (OLSH) the cost of one child attending for a year would cost about $7,950. As a little reminder OLSH is by far one of the cheaper private schools in the Pittsburgh region. Even with financial aid that can still be more money that many families cannot afford to put towards a high school education.

Many parents already fear on what they are going to do when their child reaches college with the cost. So why should parents have to start worrying so soon about doing what has to be done so there child can get the “best” education. If we this belief was offered as a class allowed to be taught in than more children would be enrolled in public schools. This can help some struggling schools that deal with a decreasing number of students every year. For an example two schools usually have to combine when the government does not thing that enough students are graduating from this school. Then kids are forced into a huge change that they had to have no say in. This also would be able to create more jobs because more students means there is going to be more of a demand for teachers. Also it would mean the school would have to hire at least one teacher to be able to teach Creationism.

So why don’t we just allow this belief of Creationism to be taught in public schools because it can do so much more than anyone could have figured. If the belief of creationism is allowed to be taught in public schools, then what will happen to all the private schools? The teaching of the Bible is one thing that a lot of families like when they choose to send their child to a private school. Does this mean that if we allow the teaching of Creationism that private schools are going to lose money and eventually shut down? When this happens then we have people losing jobs that they worked so hard to get. Then they are forced to find a job and in today’s economy finding a teaching job is really scarce. The rate of increasing teacher jobs is in the state of Pennsylvania is a mere 2.6%. With how many jobs will be lost this is not a large enough percent to fill all the jobs that will be lost. What will this mean for the economy? This means that the economy will not better, but in fact get worse.

Is this what is right for the country? A large number of people are “atheist” because they have never had the time to study a religion or attempt to understand the workings of one. Not every family has the time on Sunday to go to church. This gives children who don’t have room in their home life schedule to learn about how it works. Also not every single family has a way of getting to church. We have some people whose family does not own a car, so they cannot make it to church on Sunday. Then you have the child who is the only one in their family believes in Creationism, but they have no one to take them to church cause they think the child is “weird.” How is this fair in anyone of these situations? There are so many children who thrive on learning something. This may also be able to help troubled ones as well. In some prisons they have people come in from missionaries to speak about God, but this is not allowed to be done in public schools.

So we can encourage prisoners to read the bible, but can’t tell a troubled teen to read one. Does this make any sense to you? That is right it doesn’t make any since to most people. Could teaching Creationism eliminate some of the problems that some of the troubled teenagers have? We will never know because this has not been allowed to be taught in public schools for almost 50 years. As if public schools do not have enough on their plate then the work would just be beginning if they allowed creationism to be taught in public schools. This means if you teach Creationism then you must teach the how the religions have come to be. Some religions have a different view on how they think the world had started. For an example the Muslims religion and the religion of Christianity does not even believe in the same God, let alone on how the world came to be. How fair and just would this be for non-believers to have to take a class on something that they don’t find right for them.

One example of argument made about the teaching of Creationism occurred in Colorado. A gentleman of the name who is not mentioned stated that he believed in a flying spaghetti monster that created everything. He said that if schools can teach Creationism, then they can also teach on what he believes in. Although this idea is farfetched from reality this shows on how many different views there can be on just one issue. This just one of the example of what can come to be out of teaching Creationism in the public school system. Teaching the belief of Creationism should be an option that public schools should offer. With this being an option, it gives a student and his or her parents the choice to decide on what they find if it is the right decision for them. This means anyone who practices another religion and does not believe in Creationism then the students do not need to take a course on something that they don’t agree on.

For some people they offer a wide variety of elective courses such as cooking to computer programming, but the school does not allow a simple class of Creationism to be taught. The class does not even have to be offered as an elective, but it could be taken in place of a science class. Many students suffer from the struggle of a course in science, but would excel in a class they agree on with more. If students were able to do better in this then they would have a better grade, which means a better overall GPA. What does all of this mean then? That means they have a better chance at getting into a better college. Who would complain about that? After all this should be an optional course that any school can offer. Does the belief of Creationism fall in the category of being a science or social studies course? This would not fall into the category of a science class because Creationism has never been scientifically proven.

This should be kept out of science classes because it has nothing at all to do with how things work. In fact this should be a social studies course because of the fact that it is teaching about a group of people and their culture. Teaching this as a social studies course would also eliminate the amount of debates that can occur throughout the class. Also this will be able to allow more in depth teaching of the theory of Creationism. After all if this class must be offered then may as well make it a class where things cannot get too out of hand. Overall, there are many reasons on why and why not public schools should teach the belief of Creationism.

Well this class should be an optional course for any student who chooses to take this class. Some find this as a science course as others will find it a social studies course. You can decide this for yourself. In conclusion the belief of Creationism should be allowed to be taught in the public school system because some families cannot afford to send their child to a private school, students will gain a better understand of how the works of Creationism has come to be, and it will be an optional course.

On the other hand the belief of Creationism should not be allowed to be taught in public schools because private schools will go out of business and jobs will be lost. In addition those schools would have to teach on the beginning of how other religions got their start and this should be a social studies course because this will allow more in depth conversation about it, with few debates. In conclusion each person can decide on what they deem is best fit for themselves and their children.