The Case For Teaching the Bible,9171,1601845,00.html I came across this article today and I thought it was interesting and wanted to see what you all had to say about it.
Schools should not teach religion, but its OK to teach about religion. But only in Social Studies, never in Science.
I think it is beneficial to teach the differences, and the history of the major religions. But as Red said, only in the context of Social Studies. If the childs parents want him to learn things like the path to Salvation or Baptism or anything else, then they should take the child to Sunday School.
We have trouble teaching the basics in our public schools. Why we want to complicate the education process by teaching religion is beyond me. In theory, I have no problems with religion being discussed in social studies. In reality, it would be difficult for this topic to be taught objectively. Send your kids to private/parochial schools to learn religion.
If I were a parent (and I will be in about 6 months), the last thing I would want is a school teacher who's religous background I don't know teaching my child anything about the Bible. We have priests and reverands and churches to do that. I'm not sure I would even want my children learning anything beyond basic tenants of world religions in public schools. I remember my world history teacher in high school absolutely ripping the Catholic Church. I was smart enough to ask her for the sources she was citing in her anti-Catholic lesson plans (100 million executed in the spanish inquisiton, Pius XII a secret ally of the Nazis, the danger of electing a Catholic president). She could never respond. Other classmates were more impressionable.
My fifth-grade teacher was the wife of a preacher and the classroom was her pulpit. Her major admonition to us was that people should never marry outside their faith. The preachyness got very annoying at times, including her leading us in prayer. But it was before the no-prayer-in-public-school-laws and she could get away with it.
I do and my subsequently, academically stunted 8th grade daughter won a first place medal last weekend at the Texas Tech Regional Science and Engineering Fair for her project on surfactants.:grin:
Well done guys, saved me a lot of typing. Since schools teach Latin, it's only natural that they should offer Aramaic, right? :hihi:
If the Bible is taught as a literary form, that would probably pass muster. In other words, studying who wrote the specific books, when were they written, the process of composition, the distinct literary forms that comprise each book and the process of compilation by which the books were combined into the two testaments. I would see no problem with that, but it would have to be taught as part of literature. But it could not be taught as a science.
