Stacey Keating

Prof. Richardson

English Composition II

18 Jan 2019

Research Proposal

I first decided that I wanted to discuss the broad topic of the separation of Church and

State when I remember a conversation I had with my mom a few weeks ago. My mom works at a

public elementary school and we had been telling each other about how our days had gone. She

works at the same elementary school that I had gone to, so I was asking her about how some of

the things I remember doing had changed. I had asked my mom if the school still has fifth

graders sign up to lead the school in saying The Pledge of Allegiance before school, because it

was always a big deal to us students. My mom then informed me that the elementary school

didn’t say The Pledge everyday anymore. I was so confused by this because I didn’t know why

our school would stop saying it. My mom then told me that it was because The Pledge had the

word “God” in it, and not everyone believes in God. After hearing that, I could see why some

people wouldn’t like it, but it’s the National Pledge so I didn’t know why it was just now

becoming a problem. Ever since this conversation, I’ve been interested in what things are being

seen in this sort of way, and where the separation of Church and State is.

I feel that this topic can be very controversial. This is a topic that people can very

strongly for and is a problem that might never have a solution. Personally, I think that the

separation of Church and State is necessary and the Establishment Clause is needed, but I think

that it is being used too high of an extent. I think that there are some things, such at The Pledge

of Allegiance, that shouldn’t be excluded from public places because they are nationally owned.
I believe this topic should be looked into because there are some unnecessary changes that have

happened because some people are sensitive about religious aspects. The downside is, even if an

action or decision is made, there are still going to be people who disagree with it. I know that as

our country become more diverse, that would mean this would become more of a problem

because of the new religions being introduced or becoming more popular.

I would need to know more, relevant example of the separation of Church and State. I

would also learn about both sides of the argument, so that I would be able to come up with a

solid counter argument and multiple pieces of evidence to support my side. I think it would be

interesting to learn how different age groups view this topic and I could then possibly use that in

my paper. To start, I am going to look on websites that cover national controversial topic, such as

CNN, New York time, or The Washington Post. One possible research question is, has the

separation of church and State become too big? Another possible question is, how has the

separation of Church and State changed overtime?