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Korea (South)11599 Posts
http://www.kltv.com/global/story.asp?s=10933571
+ Show Spoiler +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.
The law actually passed in 2007, but this will be the first school year it is enforced because the bill says, "The provisions of this act pertaining to a school district do not take effect until the 2009-2010 school year."
This has gained mixed reactions from East Texans. "I think it is a good thing because a lot of kids don't have that experience, and they already want to take prayer out of school as it is-- and you see where our kids are ending up!" said Tyler resident Laura Tucker.
Tyler resident Havis Tatum disagrees with Tucker. He said, "I don't want anybody teaching their religious beliefs to my child unless they want to send their child to my house and let me teach them my religious views. There is no difference."
School officials tell us schools haven't enforced this law because of confusion over the bill's wording and lack of state funding.
For now, each school district must find a way to fill the requirement before the seats are filled with students.
Cliffnotes: Texas is requiring all public schools to incorporate the bible into their curriculum.
What happened to church and state being separate? I'm not a christian, and I know there are people in Texas who are not as well. So this is going to be a huge burden on people on having to learn both creationism and darwinism. No matter what they believe.
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Wasn't Texas suppose to secede from the states like two months ago?
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This has gained mixed reactions from East Texans. "I think it is a good thing because a lot of kids don't have that experience, and they already want to take prayer out of school as it is-- and you see where our kids are ending up!" said Tyler resident Laura Tucker.
lol -_-
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United States24788 Posts
The bible is still a book that can be studied from two perspectives: literary, and historical impact.
The question is, is this a state requirement in order for a student to demonstrate satisfactory completion of age-required schooling (the same as math or any other major discipline) or is this actually a law which bypasses the usual method of indicating what students should learn within a given state.
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Why not pass a law requiring every school to be catholic and everyone to have to have a firearm with them at all times in texas? Honestly, sometimes the legislature there confuses me to no end. How is Texas a part of united states again?
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On August 17 2009 15:31 micronesia wrote:
The bible is still a book that can be studied from two perspectives: literary, and historical impact.
The question is, is this a state requirement in order for a student to demonstrate satisfactory completion of age-required schooling (the same as math or any other major discipline) or is this actually a law which bypasses the usual method of indicating what students should learn within a given state.
Exactly what I think. But teaching bible(?) is a gray area.
Is bible capitalized?
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On August 17 2009 15:36 Wala.Revolution wrote:Show nested quote +On August 17 2009 15:31 micronesia wrote:
The bible is still a book that can be studied from two perspectives: literary, and historical impact.
The question is, is this a state requirement in order for a student to demonstrate satisfactory completion of age-required schooling (the same as math or any other major discipline) or is this actually a law which bypasses the usual method of indicating what students should learn within a given state. Exactly what I think. But teaching bible(?) is a gray area. Is bible capitalized?
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bible
o hi
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motbob
United States12546 Posts
This is not the worst thing that could happen, tbh. My high school had a required half-credit course on the bible, and although I'm an atheist and the course was split 50/50 between real history and a study of the "story" of the bible, it was interesting. If I had never had that course, I would probably be getting a lot more angry at this law than I am.
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United States44233 Posts
I think almost everyone can agree is bad. Education shouldn't be brainwashing into religious views. If there is already a secular course studying the impact of Christianity (as the article claims there is) then there can be no educational merit to teaching this. I don't mind people learning about their religion but public education should be teach you the skills you need to live in the world and inform you about the world. Religious education for the sake of it achieves neither.
If people wish to be privately educated about a religion then they can feel free to, it's their time and money. But public funds would be better spent running a class learning about stuff that exists in a tangible way and actually effects the day to day lives of people.
That and your separation of Church and State which is a good idea for countries which can't be secular without rules telling them to. Obviously more mature countries don't need it for the same reasons as they don't need constitutions or separation of power but while extreme religious views still dominant much of a society it's good to have rules to keep them at bay.
On a slightly related note, a great many schools in Britain are partnerships between voluntary religious organisations and state funding and as such do teach this kind of religious education. As well as prayer in schools and mandatory religious services for the pupils. Any organisation can set up a school in partnership with the Local Educational Authority, from Islamic groups who can dedicate part of the curiculum to oppression studies to McDonalds who can dedicate part of the students time to learning why they should spend money at McDonalds. Kind of insane but that's how our education system evolved. However our society is so overwhelmingly secular that the widespread indoctrination of Christianity into our children completely fails to sway anyone because nobody takes it seriously.
Just one of the things that makes me proud of Britain. Despite being a monarchy with no constitutional limitations on the power of the sovereign, no separation of powers within our government and no limitations on the power of the executive we still manage to achieve a fair imitation of a modern state.
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Is there a curriculum offering lessons on the Torah, and the Qur'an as well?
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motbob
United States12546 Posts
On August 17 2009 15:43 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
Is there a curriculum offering lessons on the Torah, and the Qur'an as well?
That's not the issue here. Even if there were lessons like that, it would technically still be discriminatory against all the various other religions. If you say teaching about only 1 religion is bad, you can't say that teaching about the "big three" is any better.
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On August 17 2009 15:46 motbob wrote:Show nested quote +On August 17 2009 15:43 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
Is there a curriculum offering lessons on the Torah, and the Qur'an as well? That's not the issue here. Even if there were lessons like that, it would technically still be discriminatory against all the various other religions. If you say teaching about only 1 religion is bad, you can't say that teaching about the "big three" is any better.
if they teach facts about even one religion, it's something positive
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this is a bad idea. it will set precedent for many more bad things to come.
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motbob
United States12546 Posts
On August 17 2009 15:52 29 fps wrote:
this is a bad idea. it will set precedent for many more bad things to come.
No, it won't. Even this law is apt to be challenged in court, obviously on the provision of seperation of church and state. I can't imagine that anything more extreme wouldn't be struck down.
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On August 17 2009 15:54 motbob wrote:Show nested quote +On August 17 2009 15:52 29 fps wrote:
this is a bad idea. it will set precedent for many more bad things to come. No, it won't. Even this law is apt to be challenged in court, obviously on the provision of seperation of church and state. I can't imagine that anything more extreme wouldn't be struck down.
i mean, it's bad assuming that it stays. it will definitely be challenged. if it stays, then more shit will happen later.
education is going to hell. must they waste more academic time?
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texas gave us hold'em poker, fuck off haterz
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Honestly, I can't make a judgment on this right now. On one hand, it seems bad, but we don't know the way it's being taught. If they're teaching religious views, than obviously it's a bad idea. If they're teaching about the historical impact and it's impact as literature - and face it, the bible has had more impact on American society than any other religious literature, like it or not - then it will probably just be more history - which can't be too bad.
It all depends.
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It really depends whether they're going to study it from a religious perspective or treat it as a work of fiction, the same way they treat greek mythology.
As an athiest, I'd have found a month spent studying the bible as a work of fiction fascinating.
Atleast I can dream that they're going to study on nonreligious terms >_<
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I don't like this. It's extreme religious bias in a government institution.
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EPT
