Posted on 03/27/2006 7:01:17 AM PST by LouAvul
......snip.......
The Georgia legislature seems poised to endorse just such a course. Though students in many states enroll in classes related to the Bible, Georgia would become the first to require its Department of Education to put in place a curriculum to teach the history and literature of the Bible. Schools would use the book itself as the classroom textbook. Specifically the bill would establish electives on both the New and Old Testaments.
It has overwhelmingly passed both chambers, but needs a final vote on a minor House change. The vote is expected as early as Monday. If it passes, the state's Department of Education has a year to establish Bible elective courses in the curriculum.
In the late 1700s, Congress thought enough of the Bible as a textbook that it printed 40,000 copies. But the bold effort here in Georgia to use the Bible in today's secular curricula may be about presenting it as a moral code rather than a foundation to better understand the biblical allusions in literature, critics say.
"Behind this is the tension around the country about how to go about doing a Bible elective, and a lot is at stake," says Charles Haynes, director of the First Amendment Center in Arlington, Va.
The Bible is already being used as a course study in as many as 1,000 American high schools, according to the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools in Greensboro, N.C. The US Supreme Court allows it as long as it's presented objectively, and not taught as fact. But the Georgia legislature's unprecedented decision to wade into what is usually a school district initiative has created concerns.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
The text can be studied, however in a secular manner. I don't see anything wrong with that. It would violate the Constitution for class to turn into a religious service.
I think it's a great idea and I applaud Georgia for their boldness.
No prob teaching it as an elective. Well, they're going to have to teach other religions, too, though.
Our school district has Comparative Religions as an elective.
I wish I'd had a course in New Testament stories to prepare me for my 11th and 12th grade literature courses. Allusions to Christ and Bible stories are rampant in literature.
Georgia is going to have a hell of a battle picking the "approved" Bible for this course, though. They're going to have to hedge on issues like the Ten Commandments where there are clear differences between different versions. I don't envy the people called upon to write this curriculum, who are going to draw fire from every religious faction involved.
The Koran will be next!
I just assumed they already taught the Koran!
I've been sorely disappointed in most of my children's teachers. The majority of my own teachers at Georgia schools were rotten. Personally, I don't want any of these "educators" teaching the Bible to my children.
Too much room for an agenda driven atheist to have classroom discussions that would enrage many of us.
Reading, writing, math, science, history - those are the things I expect my children to learn in school. The legislators need to drop the social engineering programs they're forcing on us (character education, for instance) and just go back to the basics.
Would you care to point to the text in the Constitution that makes it unlawful to hold a religious service in school.
I'm sure they were never banned--we read snippets from Tyndale's bible and the King James Version in my British Literature course in a much more liberal state than Georgia. They appeared in our textbook. There simply was no course completely dedicated to the Bible before this.
And needless to say, students were free to conduct Bible study and have prayer meetings in school on their own.
How can you study a religious text in a non-religious manner??? Georgia is just begging for the Supreme Court to give them a well-deserved slap across the face.
Religion in schools? No way! The same people who applaud this move will sneer at the suggestion that maybe the Koran should be studied as well.
I can barely stand them teaching my kids the basics, and they can barely do it. I sure don't want them teaching the Bible.
Especially when they've got government teachers who are members of the NEA teaching them!
I'm sure there are plenty of dedicated atheists already teaching who will gladly seek out a position to teach this elective, and I'm sure their interpretation of the Bible will be the one that dominates the class and the young minds full of wonder.
I'm already having to un-learn my children of the erroneous history and poorly taught math every evening, now I'll have to explain to them that their teachers are wrong about the Bible, too.
Amen sister!
I grew up with the Bible and am familiar with its stories. That knowledge helped me immeasureably in my college literature classes. I had some students approach me to tell me how much they envied my knowledge. No number of footnotes can substitute for knowing the stories in western literature. I personally think that ALL college literatue majors should include an introductory mythology and a Bible class. Until lit students know these stories, they will never understand western lit.
This is completely different from simply making the school's physical facilities available for religious services to all denominations.
Nope, no text out of the Constitution here....
I took a few classes about the Bible at a fairly liberal University. I still have that copy of the Bible I purchased for said classes. They were very instructive and informative, in a secular way.
Y-Club.
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