The Napma Classical Academy charter school could see its doors closed because a reading list included the Bible. KIFI TV 8 reported Monday:
The charter school’s administrators said earlier this year they would use the Bible as a primary source of teaching material, but not to teach religion.
The plan prompted the commission to investigate and decide the academy couldn’t use the Bible as an instructional text.
The charter school, the third-largest in Idaho with about 550 students, is fighting that decision in federal court.
http://www.localnews8.com/Global/story.asp?S=11559056
Current recommended reading on the school’s website include:
- The Devil Knows Latin: Why America Needs the Classical Tradition
- The Great Tradition: Classic Readings on What it Means to Be an Educated Human Being
- Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know
- and Climbing Parnassus: A New Apologia for Greek and Latin
My question is: Should the bible be banned from schools if it is used for the topic of discussion and not the topic of religion? Federal officials take their oaths on the bible. It is the best selling book of all time. Shouldn’t that, strictly for educational purposes, qualify the book as a topic of open discussion? I mean honest, open discussion, both the pro’s and con’s related to the book.
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It’d be difficult to have the bible used only as a reference text, it would likely eventually turn into some sort of religious teaching, or religious bashing. It is for sure a difficult topic.
Then again, when it comes to religious texts, they do read about the ancient greek gods in school…
What a spleen-splittingly horrendous reason to shut down a school. Destroy an entire school for studying the most influential book in Western civilization and which affects every member of it still? What a GREAT idea.
Whether or not an English student believes in the Bible’s words, its literary merit remains the same! The Bible, and the religion of Christianity of which it is the cornerstone, is perhaps the single most important element of our history and culture. Remove it from the curriculum, you remove the framework around which most of the segments of our society, both good and bad, have been built and justified!
The politically-hypercorrect politicians and administrators threatening this move will be responsible for consigning those students to an incomplete understanding of their own culture.
Hm. That does not sound like “education” to me.
You know, parents have a choice to send their childrens to public, private, charter, or home school. If parents were made aware at the beginning of the school year and didn’t balk, then what’s the problem? However, if this charter school uses the bible for religious teaching, then it does cross the laws on church and state if they receive state educational funds, right?
This is just silly. The Bible should not be censored any more than Mark Twain. Give people a more rounded education, including education on ALL religions, at least in a historical sense. Whether people like it or not, religion does have a very significant place in history.
But one more reason to homeschool…
How about using the Turner Diaries? Students wouldn’t necessarily have to be taught how to overthrow the U.S. government or how to exterminate all the Jews. They could just use it as a handy teaching guide, after all it’s commonly known as the “bible” of the racist right.
Or why not the Koran? Wow, there are all kinds of books that could be taught. One need not muddle the minds of students with works by Shakespeare, James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, Steinbeck or Hemingway. No sir, not when they can study the superstitious nonsense of long ago Middle-Eastern desert tribes.
I’ve used the Bible as a source in a History of Christianity class in college. I doubt a High School teacher would have the skills necessary to use the book effectively and without spreading a religious message, but there is nothing inherently wrong with using it.
I do, however, object to the notion that it’s a “primary” source.
The bible is not fact-checked, footnoted, peer-reviewed, or factually verified, something needed for any textbook to be used as reference material.
I find it curious that the charter school is using the Christian bible as a textbook, but not the Muslim Koran, the Hindu Vedas, the Buddhist Sutras, and so on.
The fact that the only religious text that they are using is the bible implies to me that they ARE teaching religion, which is something that a publicly funded charter school should not be allowed to do.
But Rick – what if they are using it to study Christian history, which is actually the history of the Western world. I recall having a lot of very useful discussions about early Christianity using the letters to the Romans and such. I’ve also used the Koran for a similar purpose. I’m not sure High School students are able to discuss religious texts outside of a religious context, but this is one of those times where I’ll actually take the other side and advocate we look over the lesson plans before making judgments.
This charter school misled the charter school commission regarding whether, not how, it would use the Bible in the classroom. When ordered not to, the charter school sued the charter school commission. When the charter school commission asked for particular curricula and lesson plans, this school refused to deliver them. This charter school has also refused to allow an audit mandated by law. This school has been served notices of defect for failing to comply with the charter school commission rules. This charter school is also currently under investigation by the Professional Standards Commission regarding its hiring of education professionals who do not have the required certifications and credentials for their positions. Finally, just weeks after opening up its doors, the founding members got into a public row with school’s board of directors, after which seven directors resigned. Nothing about this school passes the “smell test,” and their refusal to provide information to state regulators sure looks like it has something to hide. Stay tuned.