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Teaching Christianity in the Public Schools...

To me, teaching "the Bible" is not equivalent to teaching "Christianity" inasmuch as the Bible includes both the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) revered by Jews as well as the New Testament revered by the many Christian sects with different interpretations thereof. The Koran, so I understand, includes some of the same stories that appear in the Hebrew Bible. As a background for understanding literature, I would enjoy a class about the Bible.

I would not, however, want to be the teacher of a class with a lot of evangelical students insisting on the sanctity of the text. Here I would be telling them that the Bible is a fascinating example of a very old text which has been preserved for us and some student would asking me if it is the revealed word of God.

"Some people believe that," I would explain.
"But do you believe it?" they would ask.
"None of your damn business."
 
silverseason said:
To me, teaching "the Bible" is not equivalent to teaching "Christianity" inasmuch as the Bible includes both the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) revered by Jews as well as the New Testament revered by the many Christian sects with different interpretations thereof. The Koran, so I understand, includes some of the same stories that appear in the Hebrew Bible. As a background for understanding literature, I would enjoy a class about the Bible.

I would not, however, want to be the teacher of a class with a lot of evangelical students insisting on the sanctity of the text. Here I would be telling them that the Bible is a fascinating example of a very old text which has been preserved for us and some student would asking me if it is the revealed word of God.

"Some people believe that," I would explain.
"But do you believe it?" they would ask.
"None of your damn business."
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It would be tough to keep the two ideas apart. Evangelicals are so leery of 'Bible as Literature' classes, as some feel that by not focusing on the infallabilty of scripture, the class undermines the faith of the students, whether that is the intent of the teacher or not, I'm afraid. I think a Bible as Lit class CAN be useful for evangelical students, but like you, I'd hate to have the job of walking the minefield.
 
abecedarian said:
It would be tough to keep the two ideas apart. Evangelicals are so leery of 'Bible as Literature' classes, as some feel that by not focusing on the infallabilty of scripture, the class undermines the faith of the students, whether that is the intent of the teacher or not, I'm afraid. I think a Bible as Lit class CAN be useful for evangelical students, but like you, I'd hate to have the job of walking the minefield.
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So would that make an Evangelical parent more or less likely to send their kid to public school?
 
sparkchaser said:
So would that make an Evangelical parent more or less likely to send their kid to public school?
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Can't say. Considering the cost of private education, and both the cost and time committment of home schooling, and the sheer number of Evangelical families out there.. I'd say the majority of evangelicals have not given up on public education. And, there's a lot of evangelicals in the system teaching, in administration, and sitting on school boards.
 
If I ever find a woman [-]that's crazy enough[/-] that'll agree to bear my child, that kid is not going to public school. No way.
 
Litany said:
Impartial comparative religion has a place in the class room, a bias towards one religion over all others does not. You can teach religion as a subject, much like history, without turning the classroom into a church.
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The fact that they felt it necessary to legislate something that is already covered under a general social studies umbrella hints at a preference for the latter scenario.
 
Comparative religion should be taught in schools. It's important to achieve any sort of understanding of what's going on in the world today. Religion from a perspective of 'oh, this set of beliefs is correct and you should believe them' etc should not.

The state is not an extension of any religious body.

In the UK, I'd also get rid of all religious schools (any religion). We also have – although not to the extent of the US – an increasing situation where schools are being influenced by fundamentalists, both in terms of religious businessmen buying a stake (£2m) in a school and then being able to influence the curriculum according to their beliefs. So we've seen an increased debate on teaching creationism alongside science. Personally, I'd sack any teacher caught doing that.

Equally, in my area of London, there's a small girls' school that, about two years ago, qualified for some local government funding. It teaches 50% of the national curriculum – and 50% of the Torah. I'd have it closed tomorrow and every child in a proper school where they might, for starters, actually learn to integrate a little.

If parents want to indoctrinate their children into some set of beliefs, that's up to them. It is not the job of the state or of the education system to help them.
 
Sybarite said:
Comparative religion should be taught in schools. It's important to achieve any sort of understanding of what's going on in the world today. Religion from a perspective of 'oh, this set of beliefs is correct and you should believe them' etc should not.

The state is not an extension of any religious body.

In the UK, I'd also get rid of all religious schools (any religion). We also have – although not to the extent of the US – an increasing situation where schools are being influenced by fundamentalists, both in terms of religious businessmen buying a stake (£2m) in a school and then being able to influence the curriculum according to their beliefs. So we've seen an increased debate on teaching creationism alongside science. Personally, I'd sack any teacher caught doing that.

Equally, in my area of London, there's a small girls' school that, about two years ago, qualified for some local government funding. It teaches 50% of the national curriculum – and 50% of the Torah. I'd have it closed tomorrow and every child in a proper school where they might, for starters, actually learn to integrate a little.

If parents want to indoctrinate their children into some set of beliefs, that's up to them. It is not the job of the state or of the education system to help them.
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Private parochial schools receiving government funds? Utter folly. Now and then I hear talk about pushing for tax credits for putting kids in private schools or even for homeschoolers(which includes us), and after my initial daydream about what I'd do with x amount of dollars, I have to cringe. Wherever there is government money, there's also gov't strings. I would not want to be told what I could and could not teach in my home or in the private school I was sacrificing to afford.
 
Do you not have to cover at least a minimum curriculum already as a homeschooler? Or would you be allowed to refuse to teach your children how to read and write?
 
Litany said:
Do you not have to cover at least a minimum curriculum already as a homeschooler? Or would you be allowed to refuse to teach your children how to read and write?
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We do have to follow the state guidelines, but we have the freedom within those perimeters to teach what we like. I'm just saying I don't want someone telling what I have to teach within the perimeters of a course in health or whatever.. I don't want the state to come in with a certain book that I have to use.
 
Gotcha. If I had sprogs, I think I'd want to homeschool. I deal with teenagers just out of college and it's very depressing.
 
People that believe in super powers and talking to "the almighty".............aren't those people called schizos??? Dear "god" theyre teaching that in schools now??:whistling:











we're doomed
 
Litany said:
Impartial comparative religion has a place in the class room, a bias towards one religion over all others does not. You can teach religion as a subject, much like history, without turning the classroom into a church.
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I was gonna say that. As a Christian myself, I still believe in keeping Church and state separate.

My kids go to public school and unless they are learning the historical value of Christianity, I'm ok with it. However, start getting into the churchy talk, and I'm going to have words with the district.

There's a woman at the school with two kids the same age as mine and she's always sending her kids to school to preach some crazy ass born-again shit. I actually had to ask her to keep her preaching outside of school.

The reason being is because I respect the fact that I live in a very diverse community and not everyone in my area are Christians. It's not fair to those who don't practice my faith.
 
Isabell said:
I was gonna say that. As a Christian myself, I still believe in keeping Church and state separate.

My kids go to public school and unless they are learning the historical value of Christianity, I'm ok with it. However, start getting into the churchy talk, and I'm going to have words with the district.

There's a woman at the school with two kids the same age as mine and she's always sending her kids to school to preach some crazy ass born-again shit. I actually had to ask her to keep her preaching outside of school.

The reason being is because I respect the fact that I live in a very diverse community and not everyone in my area are Christians. It's not fair to those who don't practice my faith.
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Absolutely. The place to teach doctrine is at home or church. I don't have a problem with kids talking among themselves about what their families or churches teach or believe.. so long as it is all kept friendly..not 'turn or burn' crap. I don't know about Roman Catholic or Greek Orthdox practices, but most Protestant denominations I'm familiar with encourages kids to be bold and share their faith with their friends.. what is vital is for them to be taught is how to do this without being offensive jerks.
 
As a social studies teacher, I can't imagine teaching world history and NOT discuss religion. I've had my kids read select portions of the Old Testament concerning the Assyrians, a warlike group that did NOT get along with the Hebrews at all. I had a muslim college students discuss his faith and practices when we covered Muhammad and Arabia. It's one thing to discuss how faith influenced history, it's quite another to teach someone that it is the only truth. My principal understood that and allowed me to a lot of leeway in regards to that. Some areas would not, had I worked for them. We have become very paranoid in America about education and religion. To me, it isn't that hard to accomodate in the study of history.

At my present job, I work with girls who are sent to my facility by a judge due to a legal issue, usually assault. One of the girls I use to have was a Jehovah's Witness and was very adamant about her faith. I found her a "Bible as literature" book and counted that for some credit in regards to English class. We're to *individualize* education and to incorporate their interests, that is what I was doing and will continue to do.
 
SFG75 said:
As a social studies teacher, I can't imagine teaching world history and NOT discuss religion. I've had my kids read select portions of the Old Testament concerning the Assyrians, a warlike group that did NOT get along with the Hebrews at all. I had a muslim college students discuss his faith and practices when we covered Muhammad and Arabia. It's one thing to discuss how faith influenced history, it's quite another to teach someone that it is the only truth. My principal understood that and allowed me to a lot of leeway in regards to that. Some areas would not, had I worked for them. We have become very paranoid in America about education and religion. To me, it isn't that hard to accomodate in the study of history.

At my present job, I work with girls who are sent to my facility by a judge due to a legal issue, usually assault. One of the girls I use to have was a Jehovah's Witness and was very adamant about her faith. I found her a "Bible as literature" book and counted that for some credit in regards to English class. We're to *individualize* education and to incorporate their interests, that is what I was doing and will continue to do.
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Good point Scott. History and religon are joined at the hip. To ignore the role of religon in the events of the past is utter folly. Where it gets tricky is leaving personal biases outside the classroom..I don't know how one can completely do that...perhaps the better way would be for the teacher to be up front about their own biases and encourage the kids to speak up about theirs, thereby helping them to self-knowledge and a deeper understanding how such biases led to the very events the class is learning about.
 
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