Required readings would include passages from Old and New Testament for students in middle school
The conservative-majority Texas State Board of Education is considering adding at least 15 passages from the Bible to a required reading list as part of English lessons in public schools – the latest push from conservatives to implement Christianity into school curriculums.
Beginning in middle school, Texas students could be forced to read stories from the Bible including Jonah and the Whale, David and Goliath, and Lamentations 3 in addition to passages such as The Definition of Love from the New Testament, according to the list reported by the New York Times.
The new proposed changes have raised concerns from advocacy groups and academics who believe the changes will teach children a one-sided history lesson and “indoctrinate” students.
Bible is referenced by countless other books. Of course it should be studied as part of any literature course. As long as it’s treated like any other work and not as holy scripture there’s nothing wrong with reading bible in school.
And add koran and tora to it.
Are koran and tora references as common in western literature? Greek mythology references are very common and we sure learned about it in language courses. But koran? I can’t think of any important work that you would not be able to understand without learning about koran. It sure would be nice to expand the language courses and add books from other cultures but this would be a major re-work, not simply adding koran and tora. Early education also tends to focus on things kids are at least somehow familiar with so I’m not sure if adding books from Asia or Middle east would be a good idea.
Well then your argument is that you’re just a supremacist who wants to keep his inherently superior culture on top by unorganically indoctrinating people.
Jesus… (or should I said ‘Allah’ not to sound like a supremacist?) Accepting reality has nothing to do with supremacy or indoctrination. I’m as against the church as anyone but the fact is that Christianity had huge influence on our culture over many centuries. If you just purge it all out of the education you will be lying about history and creating ignorant people who will not be able to understand most of our history, art and literature. And yes, understanding history of the countries we live in is more important that understanding the history of other countries. Obviously I don’t really expect you to understand any of it. You sound like an angry teenager who’s rebelling against the whole world without understanding half of it.
Eh, maybe a college course on ancient literature or something.
It should be taught in history class along with the rest of them.
Depends on the education system, I guess. In Poland Greek mythology and the Bible are studied in primary school. That’s because many other works studied in primary school reference them. Prometheus, Icarus or David are considered basic references everyone should know. If you think it’s OK for people with high school education not to know basic mythology then yes, you can only teach in college.
You know that for example this is a Bible reference: