School Prayers

One of my oldest memories of school involves standing in lines before classes begin in an assembly area. I, and a few other kids, would usually have to stand for longer since we came via buses that reached school around an hour earlier than the assembly start time. Those daily ~1.5 hours of standing gave me many memories. But the one that sticks with me the most is the idea of singing and chanting prayers during assembly. This was, and still is, the norm in schools across India.

There are many historical reasons for having a session of prayers and pledges in schools. These sessions have strong effects on children, some unintentional, many by design. This would not be a problem if the effects were neutral or mixed, but they are not. Most of these prayers discourage understanding of broader patterns beyond individual minds. They are essentially mind-numbing words that discourage questioning around how the world works¹. This is a mockery of true education. Though considering how so many schools pride themselves on producing well behaved, disciplined, and socially well integrated citizens, it's no surprise that they would use compliance tools like these.

Whatever minor positive effects prayers might be producing, they are not enough to justify the negatives. I know not every child will directly trust whatever is written in prayers, but influencing their default view on concepts like God, Nation, hierarchies, or free will by prayers is something I strongly stand against. Without first infusing children with rationality and critical thinking, taking on difficult and delicate philosophical topics with an enforced view is just plain wrong.

Most of the educational institutions I am aware of in India either prioritize money and/or try to push some fixed ideology in young minds so it's obvious why we end up in states like this. But things like these need to change for rationality to survive outside the confine of 1-2 hours of 'science education'.