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In California

evildave

Unregistered
E
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/7659831.htm

In California they're circulating a petition to make the Bible (KING JAMES VERSION ONLY) required reading in schools.

Can you visualize what will happen the first time a teacher who's "With Jesus" can't keep her mouth shut in class?

And they're talking about distributing them to every student, every grade. That's 12 years of non-stop indoctrination they want.

And students can choose not to participate? HOW? Every year, they just go back and sit (singled out) at the back of the class while the rest of the class has a <s>theological</s> "literature" discussion about why Jesus said this and Jesus said that?

And what about the Christians who don't recognize the KJV as being "right"? How do they discuss it without dragging their whole religion into class? Never mind Islamic, Jewish, Hindu, Animist, etc. students. Oh wait, they'll be sitting in the back being told to "shut up".

Lawsuits galore for the school districts.

Me personally, I don't care if they read the Bible or Grimm's fairy tales. Same content, generally. It's the religious people who'll get it struck down by the high court, and the secularists who'll be blamed for it by the fundies (if patterns repeat) when this stupid idea doesn't fly.
 
It might do some kids good to read about the incest, wife-swapping, whoring, and common debauchery the patriarchs loved to do.

Reading similar stories separated by generations may clue them into the mythmaking process.

They would not be hand-held by the clergy about which passages to concentrate. They would be able to read it through uninterrupted.

Might be a good thing.

Now if the 'teacher' announces to the class "we're going to skip this part" Then she should be removed.
 
At my California public high school, the Bible was required reading. We read parts of it during English class when we were studying classical Western literature (i.e. Beowulf, Milton, etc...). I was and am an atheist, and I had no problem with it. Granted, they didn't pass out actual Bibles, they handed out mimeographed sheets, but it wouldn't have made much difference to me.

I guess it all depends on how they do it.

It seems to me that knowledge of the Bible is essential to anyone who wants to understand Western Lit, just as you'd have to be familiar with Gilgamesh, Greek myth, etc. If they approach it from that angle, then OK.... but if they make it a part of some special non-literary "Bible unit" then we've got a problem.
 
I'm all for it. As long as it is taught as fiction and they debate alternative interpretations (Adam and Eve: Descent from Paradise or Escape from Hell?)....
 
This would be the perfect reference source for ANY such student research. Highly recommended reading for ALL biblical students, actually.
 
Required bible reading in Highschools, I'll respond appropriately with obnoxiously loud chortling...

(But if its the good old SAB, then I'm all for it... go SAB!)
 
Well, just think of the possibilities!

A student brings up a SAB quote (and let's get real, any fundy who's into spreadin' the gospel to kids will have memorized the "answers" to every SAB issue), do you really think in such a forum as a classroom that such questions would be allowed? Indeed, there'll be religiously funded "camps" over summer to train teachers how to deal with "troublesome" questions.

And of course, when the TEACHER blows a fuse (or several of your fundy peers blow their respective fuses), who's the "trouble maker" who'll be sent to the administrator's office?

And why should one book be studied year after year? Why not study the religious texts, ancient and/or foreign of many different cultures? I would say save the bible for last, with seniors in high school, when they're at their most skeptical and rebelious. Once they've been exposed to ALL of the god and demigod myths predating Christianity, (especially the GREEK ones), and get a little exposure to propaganda techniques, then let them examine the Christian's most holy book.


I remember a lot of English classes where the teacher told us to "interpret" what an author was "saying" with their story. My conclusions seldom matched what the teacher had, and frankly, sometimes I wondered what sort of drugs they were on (or the original person who wrote the study gude was on) to reach those conclusions. The historical and biographical background necessary to come up with even the remotest of guesses was usually never presented, and nor were the techniques to ferret that out. And besides, sometimes a story really is just a story, and there's no point in trying to "get into the head" of someone I've never even met, or make "Wild @$$ guesses" about what he really, secretly meant.

Of course, a syllabus can be designed where interpreting a biblical passage on a test in any manner other than that prescribed by a teacher (or administration, with or without an agenda) can be made more easily than a syllabus that evaluates responses creatively. One needs an automated mark-o-matic scanner for multiple-guess tests, and the other needs the teacher to stay up all night reading the opinions of kids. Guess which will be prevalent?

If you had a student who had strong religious ideals was taught a contrary "interpretation" of relevant passages covered in a BIBLE class, that student would probably fail the class. Repeatedly. Makes you think about the subtle possibilities for discrimination based on religious bias.

Of course, without multiple-guess testing, it can be even worse. Every answer is subjective, and every test outcome is subjective. What insidious things will creep in when the teacher simply philosophically disagrees with the opinions being cited? I bet the kids who go to the same church as teacher will generally get better scores.
 
Zep prediction: The whole idea will fall on its big fat nose before crossing the starting line.
 
evildave said:

In California they're circulating a petition to make the Bible (KING JAMES VERSION ONLY) required reading in schools.
Click to expand...

The King James Version alone of all the translations is a great work of English literature.

I was read the KJV as a child. It was instrumental in making me an atheist.

What's wrong with that? :p
 
triadboy said:
It might do some kids good to read about the incest, wife-swapping, whoring, and common debauchery the patriarchs loved to do.
Click to expand...

You are too vague. Let's see how much you really know about the Bible.

Precisely how many Philistine foreskins did David deliver to Saul as a bride price? :p
 
evildave said:
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/7659831.htm

In California they're circulating a petition to make the Bible (KING JAMES VERSION ONLY) required reading in schools.

Can you visualize what will happen the first time a teacher who's "With Jesus" can't keep her mouth shut in class?

And they're talking about distributing them to every student, every grade. That's 12 years of non-stop indoctrination they want.

And students can choose not to participate? HOW? Every year, they just go back and sit (singled out) at the back of the class while the rest of the class has a <s>theological</s> "literature" discussion about why Jesus said this and Jesus said that?

And what about the Christians who don't recognize the KJV as being "right"? How do they discuss it without dragging their whole religion into class? Never mind Islamic, Jewish, Hindu, Animist, etc. students. Oh wait, they'll be sitting in the back being told to "shut up".

Lawsuits galore for the school districts.

Me personally, I don't care if they read the Bible or Grimm's fairy tales. Same content, generally. It's the religious people who'll get it struck down by the high court, and the secularists who'll be blamed for it by the fundies (if patterns repeat) when this stupid idea doesn't fly.
Click to expand...

The Bible should be read by anyone who wants to understand most of Western literature. It is unfortunate that fundies cannot recognize or appreciate it as literature.
 
True, the Bible should be read by anyone who wants to understand why some of those bloody wars were faught in previous centuries, and to "get" some of the often used metaphors, like "Am I my brother's keeper?"

Any number of other books are "Must reads". The Malleus Maleficarum should also be mandated as read to help understand what drove all those people murder each other as "witches" and such. It provides a good example of what people believed when faith in religious authority was all that mattered.
 
IF they are going to do this they should do it properly. The bible should be studdied in it's origanal greek and hebrew
 
I happen to like the Bible, but forget that.

Gobs and gobs and gobs of literature, great literature, allude to the Bible, assume a knowledge of the Bible, or deserve to be compared to the Bible. It's the most important book in existence, from a literary standpoint.

The aritcle says that the Bible would be studied with literature. If anything, that might offend a Christian more than a non-Christian. Theology relegated to an equal status with other books? I could see how that would piss off a fundmentalist.

As usual, people are unable to disassociate their feelings from common sense. As an English major and someone who reads 5 books a week, coherency in the Bible is beyond useful on a literary level.

-Elliot
 
geni said:
IF they are going to do this they should do it properly. The bible should be studdied in it's origanal greek and hebrew
Click to expand...

Yes! Make them all learn Greek and Hebrew! By the end they'd all know Spanish really well, because it's nothing compared to either of those two languages.
 
geni said:
IF they are going to do this they should do it properly. The bible should be studdied in it's origanal greek and hebrew
Click to expand...

I think that's missing the point...

The article says it would be studied as literature. The key then is knowing the people, the stories, the plot devices and all that. It isn't a scholarly deal, or a historical deal, but a humanities deal.

Again, I think this might bother the most fundmental of Christians, who believe that the Bible is literal history. How'd a set of fundamentalist parents like it if their son was told in a literature setting that the Bible was full of great stories and was the best fiction ever produced?

-Elliot
 
I really doubt that this mystical land of California even exists! Even worse is that idea of a far out fairy land world Australia! I just want evidence!
 
elliotfc said:


I think that's missing the point...

The article says it would be studied as literature. The key then is knowing the people, the stories, the plot devices and all that. It isn't a scholarly deal, or a historical deal, but a humanities deal.
Click to expand...

But if you want to understand these would it not be better to study it in the language it was written in (Ok my course does not have anything to do with the humanities).
 
!Xx+-Rational-+xX! said:
I really doubt that this mystical land of California even exists! Even worse is that idea of a far out fairy land world Australia! I just want evidence!
Click to expand...
Are you calling me a fairy, towel-brain???
 
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