Bible classes in public schools?

[cdw]

Boca Raton High School wants to offer two "Introduction to the Bible" classes as electives this fall. Is this appropriate in a public school?

That is a poll running in the local paper here....
The votes so far are running in favor of allowing the electives...56 to 44%.
I voted no. How would you guys vote?

[Coot]

Sure it's appropriate as long as the school isn't pimping the religion, but just teaching about it. Of course, that opens the door for An Introduction to the Koran, an introduction to the Baghvad Ghita, an itroduction to the Talmud, an introduction to the Tao Te Ching........

[Frodo Lives]

We have a Bible study in the High School I went too. It was part of the Mythology course. As long as it remains there, that's fine.

[Necore]

Sure it's appropriate as long as the school isn't pimping the religion, but just teaching about it. Of course, that opens the door for An Introduction to the Koran, an introduction to the Baghvad Ghita, an itroduction to the Talmud, an introduction to the Tao Te Ching........If you'll remember back early last year, the Koran has already made it into college classrooms.

[RRedline]

That is a poll running in the local paper here....
The votes so far are running in favor of allowing the electives...56 to 44%.
I voted no. How would you guys vote?Let me get this straight...many schools are banning books that contain acts of violence, slavery, etc...and others want to teach the Bible, which is full of misogyny, slavery and violence? Strange.

I see absolutely no problem with teaching about the Bible in public schools as long as it is done in a perfectly secular manner and other major religious texts are studied as well. Given people's belief in (or aversion to) the Bible, I doubt very much that this can be done by too many teachers in a secular, educational way. I am not saying that it can't be done. I just think it will inevitably lead to preaching Christianity. I wonder how a devoutly Christian teacher would feel if a student remarked that the Bible is a great work of fiction?

Perhaps a single class that taught the basics of the Bible and other religious texts at the same time would be a better idea? I just think the best idea would be to leave religious studies to universities and, of course, religious institutions. I can see the benefit of teaching about people's diverse beliefs in public schools, but teaching a course on Christianity does not accomplish that, elective or not.

[ShinyTop]

What Rredline said. Well put. It won't work as neutral instruction and anything else is wrong in a school. I like the idea of the class being several or many religious texts.

[joseftu]

We have in our course listings here a "Bible as Literature" course. It hasn't been taught for years, not for fear of controversy, but because we haven't had anyone volunteer to teach it.

I've been wanting to offer it, but there tends to be a lot of resentment when one person gets to teach two electives (we're not allowed to offer many electives...one of the few problems of teaching in a community college), and I've been reluctant to give up my Science Fiction course.

I think (at the college level, at least), it's appropriate to teach the Bible as literature in a single-"author" course, just because it's so big and complex. We teach Shakespeare as a single-author course, and we're hard-pressed to cover a significant amount of Shakespeare in one semester.

If I were to teach the Bible as Literature course, I would certainly want to bring in excerpts from other religious works for comparison, but it would be hard enough to really do a good job on the Bible in one semester, without having to cover the Koran, Bhagavad-Gita, etc. We don't have courses on those books--but they'd be fascinating, and would fill quickly. A comparative religion course (we offer that), or a survey of world literature (we've got it), necessarily sacrifices depth in favor of breadth.

I think studying religious texts in a neutral, academic way is completely worthwhile, and an important path to understanding culture and history (as well as aesthetics)--like any other study of any influential text. I think neutrality in such a course is certainly difficult (probably more difficult in high school than college, but not always), but not impossible.

[cdw]

I'm with you...that's why I voted no. Religion in general in a public school, IMO, is fine if not mandatory but offered as an elective. Other than that, I don't see why we should be paying for a "bible" class. College, ok...they pay for that themselves.

[Stiofán]

Cyd, there are public colleges. I remember taking a course at Santa Monica Community College in the early 80s on the new Testament. We started critiquing each book from start to finish. There was also a course on the Old Testament as well taught by the same Protestant pastor. I needed a humanites credit before transfering to my four year school.

Santa Monica College was state funded, as are all community colleges in California. I think my tuition at the time was about $50 per semester course, hardly paying for the class.

[joseftu]

How was the course, InsAgt? Did you feel it was promoting Christianity, or studying the New Testament as cultural text? If the latter, I have no problem with it in even a public college.

We can read Marx without promoting communism, right?

[Stiofán]

I'm not sure how you can separate the two really. When the teacher, who is a pastor, tells the class this passage means this, and here Jesus was saying this, well.....:angel: