Nov 18, 2024
AUSTIN (KXAN) -- The State Board of Education will vote Monday on whether the English and Language Arts textbooks provided by Texas will feature stories from the Bible. In September, the SBOE listened to hours of testimony from parents and groups who both supported and opposed the curriculum. The Texas Education Agency amended the curriculum following the meeting. One critic of the proposed curriculum, a grassroots organization called Texas Freedom Network, released an analysis of the curriculum earlier this month. The analysis said the amended curriculum has a lot of improvements from the original version released in May, but still does not recommend that it be approved. The analysis argued the curriculum overemphasizes Christianity over other religions, provides a one-sided portrayal of Christianity, and uses detailed Bible lessons that are "unnecessary and unwarranted," more suited to "Christian Sunday School than nonsectarian public schools." Previous coverage: Texans have last chance to influence decision on Bible-infused curriculum One lesson critics have an issue with is Leonardo da Vinci's painting of the "Last Supper" used in a Grade 5 textbook. The analysis from TFN said the lesson, "contains the lengthy quote from the Gospel of Matthew and features far more detailed discussion about the events of the Last Supper than is pedagogically necessary for student understanding of the artwork." "Parents deserve to know whether their kids are being preached to at school. We're sending them to public school, not Sunday school," Emily Witt, the senior communications and media strategist for Texas Freedom Network, said. But not everyone feels this way. Supporters, like Texas Values, a conservative advocacy group, argue students have a constitutional right to study biblical texts in an academic setting. They argue that these texts will have beneficial impacts on students and help them increase their reading comprehension. "This is not a religious curriculum where we're studying world religions, and it's not a historyclass where we're studying history," Mary Castle, the director of government relations for Texas Values, explained. "It's a class that is English Language Arts, and any time that there is a reference, which there are several references throughout literature, where there is Bible references, they go at liberty to explain those texts for students." One example of this is a proposed lesson on Martin Luther King Jr. and his "Letter From Birmingham Jail." King uses biblical characters in his letter to clergymen around the South, which supporters argue will need some type of context for students to comprehend the letter. Critics agree that is an instance where context would be necessary, but still claim there are instances where there is unnecessary biblical references. "We do think that the Bible, in some cases, has been an important context for American history.The overall religious teachings in school when they are taught unbiased and presented in a waythat doesn't put one religion over the other is totally appropriate to give children context," Witt explained. The public will have a chance to testify to the SBOE once again on Monday. The board is expected to take a vote at the meeting. If approved, the curriculum would be ready for districts to use by August 2025.
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