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First Amendment of the Constitution.
The infamous statement "separation of church and state" are no where to be found in the First Amendment. Neither does it appear in the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, nor any other official historical United States document. We have already seen that our founding fathers never believed in the separation of church and state, if that meant that religion should not mingle with politics, government, and education. So where did the phrase come from, and why are we under the illusion that the First Amendment teaches separation of church and state? What authority does congress and Supreme Court have to separate religious principal from education: none! "Congress shall make no law---- prohibiting the free exercise (of religion) thereof".
Even before September 11th's crisis in America, the issue with religion in school had been discussed numerous times. In 1940, the case McCollum v. Board of Education came about. This case addressed the questionable practice of "released time" which was used as a method of teaching religion. Local Jewish, Roman Catholic and some Protestant groups formed the Campaign Council on Religious Education. In order to participate you have to have a signed permission slip from your parents. The classes were held during the day and you had a choice on which denomination to study. Mrs. Vast McCollum was a mother of one of the students that had the option on taking this class. She claimed that the program violated the separation of church and state amendment. First Mrs. McCollum was atheist and had good reasoning on why her child should not attend the classes, but the classes were also optional. By a 6-1 vote the Supreme Court agreed with Mrs. McCollum. Reasons being that they agreed, had nothing to do with the "separation of church and state." The court had to rule this way because the students were required by state truancy laws to go to school and attendance was monitored by state officials to make sure that children were either in these religious classes or study hall during this time.
