In bummer news for all fans of the separation of church and state, this Tuesday Texas lawmakers “signaled their support” for a new public school curriculum that will include lessons from—wait for it—the actual bible.
The state-commissioned syllabi, dubbed “Bluebonnet Learning,” is aimed at K-5 elementary school students. Lesson plans are holistic, designed to combine history (well…), language arts, and reading comprehension. The program was submitted for public review this summer. And as the Texas Tribune reported, many since have noted the curriculum’s heavy Christian bias.
Parents, educators, scholars, and other concerned citizens tasked to review the materials noted consistent allusions to Christianity, and also “questioned the accuracy of some lessons.” You can read some of those lessons and the civilian quibbles right here, thanks to a state-prepared report.
As of this writing, Bluebonnet has accepted certain public-suggested revisions. Objections to a lesson plan asking students to “Point out Jericho and Jerusalem” on a “map of Israel,” for instance, was revised to include Palestine. Another lesson that instructed teachers to “tell students that many of the Founding Fathers, like Washington and Jefferson, realized that slavery was wrong” has been addressed. But other semantic concerns have been rejected.
In one such case, a reviewer flagged a lesson plan that “repeatedly refers to Jewish characters as ‘Israelites,’” and noted the “anachronistic use of the term.” But the old word was allowed to stand.
Elsewhere, a reviewer flagged an erroneous distinction between “the Bible” and “the Jewish Torah” in a lesson that begins with…the Book of Genesis.
All objections to the inclusion of religious content in general have been rejected on the grounds of a Texas precedent that forces public schools to include information on “religious literature.” Which the section basically defines as “the Hebrew Scriptures (Old testament) and New Testament.”
Publishers used this precedent to reject general concerns. As when several reviewers noted that two out of ten lessons in a unit called “Parental Rights and Responsibilities” were Bible-based. Or when dozens of others expressed concern for references to our “Biblical origins.” This is particularly bad faith (ha) in light of the curriculum’s diminished presentation of other world religions. Kindergarten lessons on the Golden Rule and the Good Samaritan, for instance, have managed to situate kindness as a specifically Christian phenomenon.
You’d also be right to guess that the Bluebonnet curriculum goes pretty soft on the “Founding Fathers.” A public comment asking an early America unit to include the fact that “colonists did not treat the Native Americans well” was rejected flatly. And elsewhere, the pilgrims’ benevolence was emphasized while the effects of chattel slavery were, um. Downplayed.
As the Tribune reported, “The state will have until late Wednesday to submit revisions in response to concerns raised by board members and the general public before the official vote takes place Friday.”
Public comments are also welcome until that time.
