Title: School prayer in the United States - Wikipedia
Headings: School prayer in the United States
School prayer in the United States
Contents
School prayer prior to 1962
A Turning Point: The "Regents' Prayer" and Engel v. Vitale
1963 and after
Controversy
Public opinion
"Moment of silence"
Yoga
See also
Notes
Further reading

Content: Elementary and secondary schools are covered because students are required to attend, and are considered more at risk from official pressure than are older students and adults. The Constitutional basis for this prohibition is the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which requires that...
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...
The first part of the amendment ("Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion") is known as the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, while the second part ("or prohibiting the free exercise thereof") is known as the Free Exercise Clause . Although each of these clauses originally applied only to the central US government, the Fourteenth Amendment extended the scope of the entire First Amendment to all levels of government, including the state and local levels, thus compelling states and their public schools to adopt an equally detached approach to religion in schools. Since 1962, the Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that school-mandated prayers in public schools are unconstitutional. The Supreme Court has also ruled that so-called "voluntary" school prayers are also unconstitutional, because they force some students to be outsiders to the main group, and because they subject dissenters to intense peer group pressure. Contents
1 School prayer prior to 1962
1.1 A Turning Point: The "Regents' Prayer" and Engel v. Vitale
2 1963 and after
3 Controversy
3.1 Public opinion
3.2 "Moment of silence"
3.2.1 Yoga
4 See also
5 Notes
6 Further reading
School prayer prior to 1962
In the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, it was common practice for public schools to open with an oral prayer or Bible reading. The 19th century debates over public funding for religious schools, and reading the King James Protestant Bible in the public schools was most heated in 1863 and 1876. Partisan activists on the public-school issue believed that exposing the Catholic school children to the King James Bible would loosen their affiliation to the Catholic Church. In response the Catholics repeatedly objected to the distinct Protestant observations performed in the local schools.