The constitution is a set of laws established by the government to protect the rights of the nation. One of these rights is the First Amendment which deals with the prohibition of established religion and allows the free exercise of religion. Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter on the separation of church and state, which led to much debate about the limits of religion in public schools (Hamburger). There is research that supports both the arguments that students can benefit academically from the influence of religion and from keeping religious teachings separate from public schools. Early in America's history, when it became a country, public schools were run by Protestants. As a result, Protestant prayers and services were integrated into the school curriculum. Even though it was a long time ago, there was conflict over this issue because Catholic students in schools were being taught that Catholic teachings were not true. This caused many Catholic parents to sue public schools, but no change resulted. This is one of the reasons why there are many private Catholic schools today (Irvine 187). Years later, the theory of creationism (based on the Christian belief that God created man), which was taught in schools, was challenged by Darwin's theory of evolution. Scopes c. Tennessee is a court case that arose from this dispute between creationism and evolution. One teacher, John Scopes, was charged by the state of Tennessee with teaching evolution as part of the science curriculum (Settle 121). Today, religious ideals and practices are not taught by public school teachers, although there are extracurricular activities and clubs. based on religion. Regardless, there are many people who... middle of paper ... constitutional law separating religion from public schools should guarantee that. Works Cited Dworkin, Roberts. “Bad Arguments: The Roberts Court and Religious Schools.” » New York Review of Books. March 12, 2010: eBook. Hamburger, Philip. Separation of Church and State. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002. eBook. Irvine, Jacqueline and Michele Foster. Growing up in Catholic schools. New York: Teachers College Press, 1996. 187. King, Pamela. “Religion and identity: the role of ideological, social and spiritual contexts” Applied Development Science 7.3 (2003): 197-204. Internet. April 25, 2011.< http://www.informaworld.com/10.1207/S1532480XADS0703_11 >Marzilli, Alan. Religion in public schools. Chelsea: Chelsea House Publishers, 2004. eBook. Settle, Mary Lee. The Scopes Trial: The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes. New York: F. Watt, 1972. 121.