Jewish Herald-Voice (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 100, No. 16, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 31, 2008 Page: 3 of 24
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Page 3
Jewish Herald-Voice
July 31, 2008
Bible From Page 1
on the Bible’s Hebrew Scriptures and
New Testament and their impact on
the history and literature of Western
civilization. Hochberg said the original
text of the bill included the language
“every district SH ALL offer a course
and that the state SHALL NOT specify
curriculum or provide textbooks.”
“The original bill was a sort of
unholy alliance between the interests
of the religious right, at least one
curriculum vendor and some attorneys
who are looking for opportunities to
push the Supreme Court through the
wall of separation between church
and state,” Hochberg said.
In the process of taking testimony
on the bill, Hochberg learned that a
number of districts already were
offering these courses. But, there was
no standardization throughout the state.
And, there were legal problems with the
material that was being offered. Perhaps
most alarming, the courses often did
not respect students’ and families’ basic
religious beliefs.
“So, the Texas House Committee on
Education rewrote the bill shortly after
Pesach in the last legislative session,”
said Hochberg. “We unanimously
passed a rewritten bill. If districts are
going to offer this course, we felt they
should do it right. We said there would
be curriculum, textbooks and academic
qualifications for the teachers. Then,
we took it to the floor of the House.”
The bill’s original authors tried
to reinstate the original language.
They failed. Hochberg’s rewritten bill
passed the Texas House and Senate.
“Then it came time for the State
Board of Education to do its job,”
Hochberg said. “My argument was
that we develop curriculum centrally,
instead of depending on each school
district to do it. It’s more efficient and
allows us to bring in experts in the field
to develop the best curriculum possible.
In an area like this, where you must be
careful to stay in constitutional lines
and where there are many people who
would like to go beyond those lines, it’s
important to have a curriculum that’s
been thoroughly vetted.”
So, why did the state board reject
curriculum guidelines? Hochberg
said he understands that board
members thought “it was too hot for
us to handle.” Hochberg added, “The
board, instead of doing what they
oice
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Why is a Bible course in a Texas high school different from all other courses?
are required to do, passed
the hot potato down to the
school districts. The board
argued that the law simply
says they have to adopt a
curriculum.”
One might ask: Why is
this course different from all
others? In Texas, with the
exception of independent
study - which, by definition,
doesn’t have a curriculum
- every course in the state
curriculum has a detailed set
of knowledge and skills that a
student is supposed to learn.
For Texas high school
students who take the class
“Aerobic Instruction,” the
curriculum is extremely
specific. Details get down to
“the student should learn the
importance of choosing the
correct type of shoe while
performing aerobics.” A course
on “Fruit, Nut and Vegetable
Production,” offered in a rural
high school, specifies details
down to needing to know how
to create the correct kind of
compost.
Texas Board of Education
Chairman Don McElroy countered that
detailed standards are only important
“where we have a state test” - and not
otherwise. In other words, students
who take a Bible elective course don’t
need a standardized curriculum,
because they aren’t required to pass a
state standardized test.
But again, there’s no state
standardized test for “Fruit, Nut
and Vegetable Production.” Not
coincidentally, McElroy has come
out publicly against evolution, calling
intelligent design “good science.”
“This is important,” Hochberg
said. “Schools have the right to teach
courses on religious subjects. The
Supreme Court says that you can
teach about religion and religious
literature, but you have to draw a
line between teaching and preaching.
The State Board of Education has
failed to provide any guidance and
any direction on how to do that.”
The Texas State Board of Education
made a mistake, said Robert Murray
Thomas, author of “G-d in the Classroom:
Religion and Public Schools” (Rowman
& Littlefield). In his book, Thomas
stressed that educators “are obliged to
recognize the constitutional confines
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Arts and Entertainment...............................10
Business.........................................................5
Classified Shopper....................... .21
Community...................................................14
Community Calendar.................. .......17
Food and Dining.................... 20
Health..............................................................9
Israel.............................................................24
In other words................................................7
Kids and Camps.................... 8
Obituaries....................................................20
Opinion and Editorial....................................6
Simchas............................. ...11
Singles Happenings..................... .23
Sports...........................................................23
Synagogue Services...................................12
Teens............ 8
Up Close.........................................................2
Upcoming..................................... 12
that curriculum content must respect.”
Those confines include teaching about
religion, but not providing religious
instruction; being neutral with respect
to religion; and although students may
express beliefs with respect to religion,
all student assignments must be free of
discrimination and based on ordinary
academic standards of substance and
relevance.
“School districts can do whatever
they want, as long as nobody takes
them to court,” Thomas said. “The
only way to get people to abide by
the judgments of the court [related to
constitutional confines] is through a
lawsuit. Some school districts are going
to do whatever they want, unless they
are afraid they will be sued. There are
groups like the ACLU and the Religious
Action Center of Reform Judaism,
who will go to court to protect the
separation of church and state.”
To make sure curriculum stays
within constitutional confines, a school
district could create its own curriculum.
But mostly, Thomas said, districts
take on a textbook and a plan that has
worked in other places. The two leading
Bible curricula, both of which came
out in 2005, are “The Bible in History
and Literature” and “The Bible and Its
Influence.” In his book, Thomas did an
extensive analysis of both curricula.
“The one most likely to be
teaching Christian religion and the
fundamentalist position, rather than
history and literature, is ‘The Bible
in History and Literature,’ ” Thomas
said. “The people who publish this
curriculum are critical of ‘The Bible
and Its Influence’ as being too liberal.
Bible History rarely, if ever, suggests
that the Bible can be interpreted in
different ways.”
In contrast, Bible Influence
confronts the matter of interpretation.
One lesson, for example, identifies
four alternative ways Jews can read
the Bible. It identifies a plain sense
reading (peshat), which looks to the
surface, although not necessarily
literal meaning of the text; an
inquiring reading (derash), which
is a kind of interpretive reading; an
allegorical reading (remez), which
looks for parallels between scriptural
text and more abstract comments; and
a mystical reading (sod), which sees
biblical text as symbolic or a code.
The point, Thomas said: Those
who accept the Bible as literal truth
are unlikely to approve of the Bible
Influence curriculum.
A number of Bible classes have
started in public schools in recent years.
Most of these classes have not been
challenged in court. Mark Chancey,
associate professor in religious studies
at Southern Methodist University,
analyzed the Bible classes offered in 25
school districts. Chancey found most of
the courses were explicitly devotional
with almost exclusively Christian,
usually Protestant, perspectives.
He also found that teachers with no
academic training in biblical, religious
or theological studies, and who
were not familiar with the issues of
separation of church and state, taught
most of the classes.
Such findings are bound to run afoul
of the First Amendment, said Richard
Foltin, American Jewish Committee
legislative director and counsel. Foltin
also serves as co-chair of the American
Bar Association’s Committee on
First Amendment Rights. In fact, said
Foltin, this year the ABA adopted a
statement on religion and the public
schools. It basically says that, in the
schools, officials must avoid religious
indoctrination or the appearance of
indoctrination, avoid endorsement of
religion and avoid taking action that
appears to endorse.
“The framers of our Constitution
understood that, with respect to
the consciences of its citizens, the
government has to avoid putting its
finger on the scale in terms of religious
belief,” Foltin said. “Having said that,
the Supreme Court opined in 1963 that
one’s education is not complete without
a study of comparative religion or the
history of religion and its relationship
to the advancement of civilization. In
other words, it’s not the case that there’s
any intention to create a religion-free
zone in the schools or to say teachers
may not mention religion or the Bible.”
So, the critical issue becomes: Is
a course in which the Bible is being
taught one that promotes the Bible
as religious truth? Is the Bible being
taught objectively or from a sectarian
perspective?
“It comes down to the curriculum,”
See Bible on Page 4
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Samuels, Jeanne F. Jewish Herald-Voice (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 100, No. 16, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 31, 2008, newspaper, July 31, 2008; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth544155/m1/3/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .