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.
I mean, that’s what they tried to do with me and my fellow students at my private christian school, but it just raised questions, and when the adults didn’t like our questions it was very insightful. Most of the people I went to school with are no longer evangelicals, in fact I don’t think a single one is.
My kids’ mother’s family are Muslim, so the kids were offered Islamic instruction when they were young. When they were teaching about the 99 prophets who preceded Muhammad, my daughter said “hey, wait a minute, this can’t be right, none of them are women.” So the school called me, I had to take her home from class early, and she never went back.
They also told her that her Barbies had djinn living in them, which she immediately realized was ridiculous.
My other kids also figured it out, but in a lower-profile way.
All my kids were also given the opportunity to be instructed in Christianity and to attend Jewish services, and all but one took that opportunity, but didn’t buy what they were selling either. All are now atheists.
You’re anecdote is nice and all, but it’s an anecdote.
I couldn’t find much data specifically on rates of students of religious schools leaving that religion, but what little data I found says more people stay in the religion when enrolled in religious schools than not.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/4621974
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S073805932500238X
Most students in religious schools have very religious parents who indoctrinate them from early childhood, and my anecdotes are different from yours. Few students decide that losing their friends and support system are worth leaving the religion, and remain in it even if they have doubts. The more you force religion to be a part of a person’s social support system, the tighter you hold them in.
I agree that if they start reading and studying it honestly the more disillusioned they’ll become, that’s my personal experience also. But most people in my experience do not have the critical thinking skills or the ability to study independently to come to those conclusions, they rely on the religious text being interpreted for them, and they accept a figure head (priest or pastor or Imam or Rabi) to answer difficult questions and reject anything that makes them “question” their faith, because they’ve been warned about the evil world that will try to get them to question their faith their whole life. They don’t begin engaging critically with counterarguments because religious apologetics give them comfort.
Cult members might be fooled, but cult leaders aren’t stupid, they know what they’re doing. They’re targeting people who aren’t in religious schools, and don’t have religious indoctrination already, so there’s no effect on “leaving” the faith to consider here, any hooked student is a success.