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THE QUESTION
Should Public SchoolsTeach Religion?
The Texas Board of Education, the nation's second largest purchaser of public school textbooks, is revising its K-12 social studies curriculum and deciding how to characterize religion's influence on American history. Three consultants have recommended emphasizing the roles of the Bible, Christianity and civic virtue of religion.
As America's children go back to school, how would you advise the Texas board? How should religion be taught in public schools?
Posted by
Sally Quinn and Jon Meacham on September 2, 2009 3:26 AM
FROM THE PANEL
In the Beginning, There's the Word...
It's time to acknowledge that religion - but not just Christianity - has shaped our history and that we need to educate our children through both good textbooks and real encounters.
Posted by Katharine Henderson, on September 4, 2009 4:56 PM
A Letter from a Senior Devil on Texas
Given our long-term strategy of making education as ineffectual as possible, placing the Bible in schools may do to religious comprehension what we have done to mathematical literacy.
Posted by John Mark Reynolds, on September 3, 2009 4:13 PM
Whose "Faith" is Right?
The problem is that every single religion thinks it is "the" right religion. Every single religion claims that it has the monopoly on truth, and all religions interpret holy texts as they choose.
Posted by Susan K. Smith, on September 2, 2009 1:03 PM
The Bible Is Needed for a Complete Education
A study by the Bible Literacy Project -- "What University Professors Say Incoming Students Need to Know" -- found that every professor surveyed agreed with the following statement: "Regardless of a person's faith, an educated person needs to know about the Bible." Every professor!
Posted by Charles "Chuck" Colson, on September 2, 2009 9:57 AM
Texas Heads for Shootout Over Religion in Textbooks
Regrettably, Texas religious conservatives are more determined to rule than to follow the Golden Rule. They are bent on a Texas theocracy--a form of government where fundamentalist Christian clergy and their deputies rule in the name of God.
Posted by Robert Parham, on September 2, 2009 9:24 AM
The Value of Learning "About" Religions
No doubt, there will be those ideologues, both religious and atheist, who will see teaching about religion as a threat to their narrow beliefs and views of the world. The school board needs to look beyond these fears and embrace the chance to broaden their students' perspective of the world, and its myriad belief systems.
Posted by Ramdas Lamb, on September 2, 2009 3:21 AM
Serious Flaws in Textbook Adoption Process
It is a fascinating study into the psyche of a movement in its symbolic last throes that the three right-wing consultants push for a narrative that sings of a Christian America, very different from the reality that we all know. America is in the midst of change, and the version of our country they long for is nothing more than a sepia-toned, portrait of a bygone era.
Posted by Aseem Shukla, on September 2, 2009 12:22 AM
Religion in American History, but in Public School Textbooks?
Irony: religion is back into Russia's public schools, but not into America's.
Posted by Willis E. Elliott, on September 1, 2009 11:03 PM
What to Teach Our Children About Religion
Teach our children about the wide variety of faiths and systems of value that our diverse population hold, and to respect other beliefs and non-beliefs.
Posted by Starhawk, on September 1, 2009 5:36 PM
Don't Mess With God or Texas
Texas is a God friendly state. The state lays claim to some of the largest churches in the nation. Texas is the Israel of American Evangelicalism and Dallas is it's Jerusalem. With Apostles T.D. Jakes, Joel Osteen and Ed Young, Texas and God walk conjoined at the cultural faith hip.
Posted by Samuel Rodriguez, on September 1, 2009 4:28 PM
Teach the Importance of Christianity to America
It isn't even a question of "teaching religion" in public schools. It's a matter of staying true to the facts of history.
Posted by Jim Daly, on September 1, 2009 12:40 PM
Teach Our Children Well
All major religious and non-religious groups would be invited to propose self-portraits, in effect, of their traditions, including all the material they would want others to know about them, within agreed-upon length limits.
Posted by Daniel C. Dennett, on September 1, 2009 12:16 PM
Don't Teach God at School
How much theology should be taught in our nation's public schools? None, zip, nada. And imagining it should be otherwise is as wrong-headed as banishing the story of religion's influence over our nation's founding and subsequent history.
Posted by Brad Hirschfield, on September 1, 2009 11:13 AM
Religion in Public Schools: Academic, Not Devotional
Teaching about religion is constitutional and even desirable; so much so that it's worth the risk and trouble trying.
Posted by J. Brent Walker, on September 1, 2009 11:12 AM
Can't Ignore the Fourth 'R' -- Religion
No doubt, if religion becomes a less-taboo subject in public schools, some will abuse the change as an opportunity for proselytism, and no doubt, others will complain about it.
Posted by Brian D. McLaren, on September 1, 2009 10:41 AM
Texas Should Start Over
The Texas Board of Education should start over. It could begin by replacing consultants who are overly enamored with "emphasizing the roles of the Bible, Christianity, and the civic virtue of religion."
Posted by Mathew N. Schmalz, on September 1, 2009 9:46 AM
Teaching Religions (Plural) in Public Education
To teach history without reference to religion is simply to skip part of history. At the same time, we cannot let the advocates of certain religious doctrines rewrite history as a mirror of their own desires or understanding.
Posted by Pamela K. Taylor, on September 1, 2009 9:40 AM
One Nation, Undereducated
Why should evolution or the Bible be taught so differently in Texas than in Vermont? Our system cries out for national education standards, which exist in most developed countries.
Posted by Herb Silverman, on September 1, 2009 2:45 AM
Teach Tolerance: It's the Biblical Thing to Do
The "Facing History and Ourselves", and the "Teaching Tolerance" online curricula have much to offer the Texas Board of Education about how civics education for a religiously pluralistic nation should and can be done.
Posted by Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, on August 31, 2009 4:19 PM
If You Think The Culture Wars Are Over, Think Again
That Texas, which has already weakened it 21st-century high school biology curriculum to placate fundamentalists who have learned nothing in the last 90 years, is now "revising" its history standards, is a real cause for alarm--though it is hardly surprising.
Posted by Susan Jacoby, on August 31, 2009 2:12 PM
FEATURED COMMENTS
rclab: It would be fine if they taught "religions", plural, not just the Christian religion. It would be great if students were exposed to all the...
vig_raman: Gov. Rick Perry has done a lot of good since he took over at the helm after then Gov. George W. Bush. He has skillfully guided state of Texa...
wildfyre99: Uhhhhhhhh... NO!!!!!!!!
Public schools, funded by public tax dollars have NO business teaching religion. Which one of the thousands woul...
