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Texas School District approves Bible class

T'ai Chi said:
Learning about the Bible's influence doesn't mean your hypothetical student would have to give up anything, since "elective" doesn't mean it is a required class.

Newton comes to mind as an example of a student who studied the Bible (heck, most of his writing is on the Bible) and turned out pretty good (understatement of the century) in math related subjects.
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What do you think should be tossed out in favor of a Bible class?

A biology class? A physics class? A math class?

You have X classes during a semester. When you add a class, you have to take another out.

Something's gotta go. What class did you have in mind?
 
eri said:
I'm again' it. But look at it this way - I didn't have any major problems with religion until I took theology at my (admittedly Catholic) high school. 'We're supposed to believe WHAT?' That was the end of religion for me.
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Hey, me too! Although the final straw for me was the World religions class. I figured they can't all be true, so none of them are.

Chris
 
LawnOven said:
Hmm part of me wants to agree with the last couple of posts. Part of me wants to say "hmm, yeah that could be an interesting learning experience if it is kept secular".

Then the other part of me is saying, "Come on people... it's Texas".
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Aye, there's the rub.

Ifit's kept secular, it's fine. But I doubt very much that it will be. I will follow the story with interest.
 
ceo_esq said:
I wonder if most college religious studies professors - or indeed in many areas of the humanities - would agree. A quick and non-scientific poll of two English professor friends of mine suggests that many of their students, despite having gotten into prestigious universities, have woefully inadequate familiarity with the Bible or with the major religious themes and narratives of Western thought. And these are the English majors.

Both of these professors (one at least semi-religious, one nonreligious) opined that, from their perspectives, it would be a boon for high school students to take a properly administered Bible-as-literature course.

And they have a point. As has often been noted in this forum, and as I specifically wrote in a similar thread last year, "the vast majority of the Western artistic tradition is in some way responsive to the Bible. Indeed, the Bible has had such a profound influence on Western civilization - art, literature, history, philosophy, jurisprudence - that it's unrealistic to aspire to any comprehensive understanding of such things in the absence of a deep familiarity with the Bible." And someone who shows up at university with a good grounding in the subject - whether gleaned from a high school course or independently - will certainly be better off than many of the poor students in my friends' English courses.

There's no doubt that a potentially serious cultural literacy problem has been identified; query whether courses of the sort proposed by the New Braunfels school district are the best way to address it.
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Oh, I agree that a critical study of the religion is necessary to an understanding of Western Civ, both history and literature, and also art, and certainly philosophy.

But I think it's not appropriate for the high school level because in high school, academic freedom is not championed. Professor A can tear up Christ all he wants: he's a college professor, and has tenure, and in college that sort of thing is expected. High School Teacher B, however, would find herself in a hellstorm of controversy, suspended from her job, and a media feeding frenzy surrounding school board denunciations, town hall meetings, threats of violence, and politicians and lawyers and parents rioting in the streets.

And that's just the teachers. High school does not encourage students to challenge the status quo, argue with the teacher, or even to really think critically. It should, but it doesn't. High school is about passing classes, getting the important things on your transcript, and scoring high on standardized tests so you can get into a college where you'll finally be free to actually take an active role in your education, rather than sit there and parrot back what the teacher and the text book say. If a high school student challenges the teacher's interpretation of anything, he's liable to be disciplined as well as earn failing grades, and that would jeopardize his future chances of college admission and scholarship money.

And, of course, since public high schools are run by the government, and attendance is compulsory unless you're in a private school, you run the whole obstacle course of state (and now federal, how did that happen?) oversight and regulations and control and observation. It would be a thousand times the pain to attempt such a course in a public high school, whereas it's as easy as Joan Collins in college.

eta: As for the college professor complaining about the quality of education in high schools, well, the college admissions policies are what drives that. If Pretentious University wants critical thinkers and not just grade-grubbers, why the hell does their admissions board care for nothing but SAT scores and the GPA? They're getting what they ask for. If they don't think the students are properly educated, well, isn't it their job to fix that?
 
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CFLarsen said:
What do you think should be tossed out in favor of a Bible class?

A biology class? A physics class? A math class?

You have X classes during a semester. When you add a class, you have to take another out.

Something's gotta go. What class did you have in mind?
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I vote for science or math classes. Everyone hates those anyway. And the asians can take care of science and innovation from here. they've beeon outdoing us for a while now anyway.

and its not like most of them will ever use that stuff.
 
TragicMonkey said:
A subject like religion, any religion, is not suitable on the high school level.
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I think high-school students are quite intelligent enough to study religion and related topics.

From http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7656551/

In Big Spring, Texas, about 50 miles from Odessa, the public high school has offered elective Bible studies classes for more than six decades.
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and

The Bible class will be taught as a history or literature course elective.
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and

Vasquez also added that the class is likely to focus on the Bible’s impact on America’s founding fathers. It will also instruct on the influence of the Bible in art and culture. Geography of Middle Eastern countries could also be taught.
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and

...over 1,100 public high schools in the United States currently use the councils’ developed curriculum for the study of the Bible at the high school level.
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ceo_esq said:
Due to a likely oversight by the Framers, we have no Separation Clause. We only have the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause.
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Due to a likely oversight on my part I posted before checking to see if the word in my head was the correct one.

I apologise.
 
fowlsound said:
Due to a likely oversight on my part I posted before checking to see if the word in my head was the correct one.

I apologise.
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Not to worry. If the Framers had included a Separation Clause, though, it might have saved some trouble later on.
 
T'ai Chi,

What do you think should be tossed out in favor of a Bible class?

A biology class? A physics class? A math class?

You have X classes during a semester. When you add a class, you have to take another out.

Something's gotta go. What class did you have in mind?
 
CFLarsen said:
T'ai Chi,

What do you think should be tossed out in favor of a Bible class?

A biology class? A physics class? A math class?

You have X classes during a semester. When you add a class, you have to take another out.

Something's gotta go. What class did you have in mind?
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Maybe the biology class and this new religion class should be merged together to form some sort of new class; then everyone will be happy.
 
LawnOven said:
Maybe the biology class and this new religion class should be merged together to form some sort of new class; then everyone will be happy.
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In which case, you have acknowledged that Intelligent Design has scientific merit.
 
Seriously though, I think you have a point. Given the nature of the public school system, something would probably have to be cut. Quite frankly in light of that, 'religion class' can probably wait for college (and again this is Texas we are talking about, call me skeptical but...).
 
Pyrrho said:
The textbook was specifically planned for such courses.
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That supposedly non-religious textbook is more Christian that the textbooks that we had in high school for our supposedly Lutheran religion classes.

A textbook about Bible as literacy without a mention of the question of its authorship? Non-religious? Yeah, right.
 
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Saw something in the news last night about some schools in Georgia looking at this same option..

I'll try to find a direct source...


I can't believe the Bible is even allowed in school libraries, with all the porn and violence in it.
 
Diogenes said:
I can't believe the Bible is even allowed in school libraries, with all the porn and violence in it.
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Ah, but now you're applying Georgia-style book-banning standards of the sort that result in challenges to Toni Morrison novels and such in public school libraries. Somehow the Bible gets a pass. In fairness, "porn" is too strong a term (and yes, I believe I'm familiar with the relevant passages).
 
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