You know the ACLU is just on fire over this. The fact of the matter is that 'freedom of religion' is just that. It's not freedom from religion. Also, Texas can do whatever they want. They want to secede and if the US pushes them they will. So be nice to Texas.
WHITEHOUSE, TX (KLTV) - The school year is almost here, and if literature of the Bible is not already offered in your child's school, it will be this fall.
Books are a common sight in classrooms around the nation, but the Bible is one book that is not. Come this fall, a Texas law says all public schools must offer information relating to the Bible in their curriculum.
"By the end of the year, what they begin to realize is that it is pervasive. You can't get away from it. The kids came back and were like 'It's everywhere,'" said John Keeling, the social studies chair at Whitehouse High School. Whitehouse already offers a Bible elective. "The purpose of a course like this isn't even really to get kids to believe it per say. It is just to appreciate the profound impact that it has had on our history and on our government," said Keeling.
3 comments:
Is it really school that should teach morality? And if so, this could obv. be teached without the bible, right?
I agree that it is good to learn some things about the bible, but also about the koran and the torah and other big religious texts.
You can absolutely learn about morality without the Bible. Certainly. And yes, school should teach it. I'm of the belief that public schools simply shouldn't exist, that schools should be able to teach whatever they want, and that colleges should then choose whether or not to accredit them based on objective criteria.
Also, the Torah is the Bible, the first five books of it, specifically. I had to learn about all of the major texts in religion class. I also learned about what constitutes a religion and what doesn't, which also gave me a leg-up. Most folks mistakenly believe that Islam and Buddhism are religions, but they simply aren't, not by any definition of the term or stretch of the imagination. Buddhism actually provides a great example of how morality can exist independently of religion, though. I just don't consider a secondary education to be complete without that stuff. I also think that's what made the difference between the way my sister and I ended up. She's a socialist who thinks the world owes her everything. She also has almost zero logical faculties, despite being incredibly intelligent. She could have used some more time learning about Abraham's smashing of his father's idols.
I think this is great for Texas, but in a sense it really isn't "news" apart from the fact that they're doing it. Despite the Big Lie that religion cannot even be mentioned in classrooms w/o breaking some law, it has long been perfectly legal to teach from the Bible as literature, even history where more recent history touches upon it (as with the Scriptural reasons for the dispute Martin Luther had with Rome, which I taught last year). Big Lie that Texas is violating kids' rights begins in 3...2...
Yay, Texas!
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