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.
It’s the same stupid “If you just inform people, they’ll agree with you” liberal magical thinking that gave us Earth Day and Black History Month. Just turned on its head.
If Texas legislators want to do a Jesus Day in school, they’re going to get the same bucket of contrarian assholes doing “Jesus Isn’t Real: Prove Me Wrong” stunts on the schoolyard lawn. Influence culture is going to twist these efforts in knots, especially when they double down and start making martyrs of smart-aleck tweenagers mogging on the course material out of the reflexive need to push boundaries.
That’s not to say this doesn’t have a secondary agenda. Someone in the classroom supply business is going to absolutely clean up, selling schools $.10 laminated copies of the Ten Commandments for $50/ea. And we’re inevitably going to see the kind of in-group / out-group clustering among privileged families with Christian ideology, resulting in more harsh discipline for non-Christian students and more non-Christian kids getting pushed out of schools for failing to prove their piety.