Bibles for every schoolchild

[zakur]

Story (http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/metropolitan/education/2396693) A drive is under way in California to have the state government provide a Bible to every public elementary school student in the state and suggest that schools use the books as texts for the study of literature.

The ballot initiative, sponsored by an Orange County lawyer, could meet constitutional standards that allow use of the Bible for instruction as long as it is part of a curriculum in subjects such as literature, history and archaeology.

[...]

Sponsor Matt McLaughlin, 34, said he intentionally excluded any specified curriculum from his initiative, leaving decisions on how to use the Bibles to school officials.

"It is such an important part of our culture," McLaughlin said of the Bible.

[geni]

Will Gidion be doing the honors?

[Samus]

I wonder which version of the Bible they are going to use. I think an interesting literary exercise would be a comparison of all the different versions of the Christian Bible, plus the Torah and Koran for good measure. I would take that kind of class if it was offered, just to get a good perspective on it all.

Of course, I doubt anyone would propose such a measure, since it allows for competing bibles. :)

[Zero]

Are these the same people who got angry when a North Carolina college wanted freshmen to read a book about Islam?

Hypocrits.

[Checkmite]

Yes, Bibles! In schools! That would rock...

...what?

...'what will we use them for?'...

....who cares, just BUY them! We'll figure that out later...

[Segnosaur]

I'm all for the use of using the bible in schools...

As long as its used properly... To crush bugs with.

There is some validity to using it as a form of literature, but I hope they don't pass over the more, well, "negative" aspects. Imagine how parents will react when their kids come home and tell them about all the killings, rapes, incest, etc. in the bible.(skeptics annotated bible anyone?)

[Grammatron]

Originally posted by Segnosaur
I'm all for the use of using the bible in schools...

As long as its used properly... To crush bugs with.

There is some validity to using it as a form of literature, but I hope they don't pass over the more, well, "negative" aspects. Imagine how parents will react when their kids come home and tell them about all the killings, rapes, incest, etc. in the bible.(skeptics annotated bible anyone?)

Now that you mention it, one can probably make a very profitable movie from the "fun" parts of the bible.

[Brown]

Hmmm. I remember my Literature classes, and every work we read was subjected to criticism at one stage or another. It didn't matter whether the author was Shakespeare, Heller, Voltaire, Austen or Steinbeck. Every work had its clarity, composition, plot, character development and themes subjected to critical questioning.

I suspect it is unlikely that those who are so gung-ho for this measure are also gung-ho for the idea that the Bible might actually be criticized. After all, many of its passages are inconsistent, parts of it are historically inaccurate, a good deal of it is incomprehensible, and a good chunk of it is simply poorly written.

To be blunt about it, any good lesson plan using the Bible as a text would have to delve into some of the very uncomfortable and unflattering aspects of the Bible.

[shanek]

Well, they do need something to learn good posture with...

[Withnail]

I wonder if they would be okay if those Bibles were used in mythology classes, which to me seems more appropriate. Somehow I think that wouldn't fly though.

Withnail

[Checkmite]

On a more serious note, I recall my own elementary school days. Our classes were spent learning to read and write, doing math, and art....things like that. In our history classes (which were called "social studies" and weren't until advanced grades) covered American and Texas history.

I do not recall having taken any archaeology, eastern civ history, or classical literature classes in grades K-5. The books we did read were childrens' books, written specifically for our grade level. It's all fine and dandy that the Bible has relevance in topics like "literature, history, and archaeology", but what does that have to do with elementary school? In order for this proposal to work, they will have to invent subjects to teach, just so they could use the Bible in them.

The best place to deal with the Bible would be the latter half of high school. But by that age, kids aren't as gullible or naive and may begin questioning the content, which is why this measure is aimed at innocent first graders.

[nightwind]

They were given out in mass yesterday at our local school system.

[Brown]

Originally posted by Joshua Korosi
In order for this proposal to work, they will have to invent subjects to teach, just so they could use the Bible in them.I suspect that this is the idea. The proponents of this bone-headed maneuver probably think that the Bible would be treated more or less the way it is treated in Sunday School, in which selected stories are presented as factual or morally instructive, and are to be accepted without question.

In high school, one of my English teachers assigned the book of Job as part of a Literature course. During our discussion of this book, we explored the idea that parts of the book did not make any literary, logical or moral sense. We also discussed the possibility that perhaps the ancient work had been corrupted. These discussions infuritated at least one Christian student, who did not like the idea of questioning any part of the Bible.