You may have noticed that we start each day of school the same way: a prayer, the Pledge of Allegiance, a song, the Honor Code, and a recitation. Have you ever wondered why? You should. For as Albert Einstein is credited to have said: “Any fool can know. The point is to understand.”
So, over the next few weeks, we’ll consider the what and also the why of our Morning Assembly. The goal is that you will not just know but also understand what we are doing here.
First, we begin, always, with a prayer . . . and not just with any prayer but a particular prayer. And there’s a reason for that.
In 1951, the Board of Regents of New York State drafted a non-denominational prayer that they proposed should be recited each morning in New York’s public schools. Various school districts adopted the proposal and began their school day saying the Regents Prayer, just as we do. But in 1962, the Supreme Court ruled the practice unconstitutional, making it impermissible for American public schools to offer prayers to start the day.1
Many Americans believed strongly that the Supreme Court was wrong about our Constitution and about our nation’s history. Catholic Cardinal Francis Joseph Spellman said it plainly: “The decision strikes at the very heart of the Godly tradition in which America’s children have for so long been raised.”
And so, when CCA was founded sixty-one years later, we chose to begin our school day with the Regents Prayer. It serves as a reminder of a couple key items. First, the Regents were right—an acknowledgement of God before we begin the school day is good and right and important. Second, for most of our nation’s history, the citizens and the government shared that understanding.
So, why am I telling you this? Well, as I said at the start, you should not only know but also understand. Also, whether you say the prayer out loud yourself or not, as a CCA student, you are part of restoring the “Godly tradition in which America’s children, [once upon a time, had] for so long been raised.”
We’ll look at what the Regents Prayer says throughout the rest of this week. But for now, have a wonderful day.
- Leo Pfeffer, “THE NEW YORK REGENTS’ PRAYER CASE (ENGEL V. VITALE),” in Journal of Church and State 4, no. 2 (Oxford University Press, 1962), 150–58. ↩︎