- cross-posted to:
- news@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- news@lemmy.world
Walters’s guidance, which follows a June announcement of the mandatory biblical curricula for grades 5 through 12, says that lessons on the Christian text should emphasize its historical context, literary significance and artistic and musical influence. The guidance also says a physical copy of the book should be in every classroom, along with copies of the Ten Commandments, the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.
What gets me is that the last ten years has been this myopic fixation on standardized exams. Laser focus on teachers getting kids ready for the next round of grueling high stakes exams. No time for experimentation or labs or school trips. No time for art or music or athletics. Just exams. All the time. Forever.
Now we’ve got these far right demagogues insisting everything needs Christian pastiche. So I have to wonder… will the Pearson Exams be rewritten to grade kids on Bible Literacy? Is this just bonus material kids are expected to absorb on top of their regular course load (in a state that can’t afford a five day school week for 55 of its schools)? Or is this literally just window dressing - changing out my school mascot for the Fightin’ Jesuses?
That is the thing, they won’t! Teachers that don’t follow the Bible guidance will be fired. Those that do will have their students fail.
The end result will be “the schools are failing and parents want to put their children in christan schools, so let’s take the best students out of failing public schools … and now they are failing more! Time to totally abandon public education.”
I’m European, but I think this goes against the First Amendment of the American Constitution:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
i did no see them obey their constitution yet. did they start to do so recently?
Not sure if that’s sarcasm, but I’ll explain regardless:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion
This part means that the government is not allowed to favor one religion above the others. A state releasing a mandate would fall under this. A mandate is “an authoritative command or instruction”.
Yes but our Supreme Court also goes against the Constitution, so it’s a toss-up if this is legal or not.
It super is. They don’t care
Everyone is well aware, but they are throwing spaghetti at the wall, hoping they can get something before the Supreme Court, which has controlled by people capable of shamelessly rationalizing any possible partisan decision, regardless of what the Constitution says.
Per Dan Dennett, I can get behind teaching religion.
I’m reasonably confident that’s not what the OK legislature meant to have happen, but it’s the only constitutional way to do this. I think.
To do “this”, meaning what?
The goal is to create a Christian state…
This = teach any aspect of Christianity.
The constitution won’t allow favorable treatment, so if they want the Bible, they get Satanism too.
I had a religion class in my public high school. It was an elective and they covered all the major religions since the beginning of written history. I think they started with Zoroastrianism. It was a pretty interesting class. However, don’t think even a class like that should be mandatory.
I agree generally on not making it mandatory.
That said, I wish more people were exposed to other forms of thought and this would help. To me, an elective seems fair.
I dunno that I’d be sad about philosophy and world views (with religion being embedded) as some kind of civics class that enhances one’s high school diploma.
I think it’s unfortunate to constrain it to written history. Linking the commonalities between the proto-Indo-European religions like the Germanic, Greek, Persian and early Hindu traditions and just how they interacted with things from the semitic and then Buddhism to taoism and neo-Confuciusism which also influenced back West.
The history of religion is incredibly convoluted but really teaching how syncretized religion is would be a great value. Not to Christian nationalists of course.
a genious man once said:
“they should(!) teach them the bible !! … and then also point out precisely where and how the catholic church evilish manipulated some parts to enpower them to abuse even more where the bible really told people how to see through their lies to get rid of such demonic abusers.”
or so i’ve heared once long ago.
i think this is called “to howl with the wolfes” ;o) so why revolt when acting in 100% conformity solves the root problem even better ?
I agree. Plus all the socialist bits should be highlighted.
Oklahoma parents are going to go apeshit if their kids read the Sermon on the Mount.
And all the bits about gays. Although there’ll be no need for the highlighter on that one.
Sure, go ahead and teach the Bible in public school.
That’s when you cross the state/religion line and stop getting the publics tax funds to indoctrinate your shitheel children. It is a free country after all, the choice is always yours, OK.
Thou shall not kill, yet Oklahoma has a death penalty. Don’t work on the Sabbath, yet everything is open on Sunday.
Even better: it doesn’t say what not to kill. So don’t kill anything!
Looks like meat’s off the menu boys!
Plants are alive too!
5 Your breasts are like fawns, twins of a gazelle, grazing among the first spring flowers. 6 The sweet, fragrant curves of your body, the soft, spiced contours of your flesh Invite me, and I come. I stay until dawn breathes its light and night slips away.
Solomon 4:5-6
It’s aboutta get spicy in Oklahoma
What we need are drag queens reciting these verses to children instead of that smut like Charlotte’s Web. That should make conservatives rejoice.
That might be a little bit too much"on the nose". But maybe the slaughtering of a live animal as a sacrifice would be more fun.
Let’s be real, conservatives don’t actually do “Bible stuff.”
LOL, wait till you read Ezekial 23:20 - There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses.
check out all the different ways they paraphrase donkey dick:
Oh yes, the Bible says Big Dicks are the Best!
the bible endorses donkey junk literacy :D
Damn I didn’t know it said I come in the bible
I grew up pretty Christian. That particular section (or book) has some pretty spicy stuff in it. There’s also other questionable sexual stuff in other areas. Like you’re supposed to impregnate your brother’s widow if they die without an heir, polygamy etc … It’s a book that’s incredible forward thinking for it’s time, but it’s time was like 6,000 years ago.
Oh man there is a ton of crazy sex in the Bible.
King David getting wood looking at one of his general’s wives bathing on the rooftop and starts an affair that would eventually split the kingdom of Israel in half and start a war between brothers.
Onan refusing to impregnante his dead brother’s widow and being struck dead for pulling out.
And don’t even get me started on the incest…
I’m sure there are not many PG ways to interpret this passage but if there was it’s not going to come from a teacher with no background in theology. The best part of this silly mandate is that teachers apparently have free reign to make the Bible say whatever they want. Make Jesus sound like the compassionate socialist he actually is.
Do you think the repugnicunts that pushed this through want anyone learning about the_real_ Jesus?
Nope, it’s Supply Side Jesus they’ll be teaching.
I’d teach all the raping and incest and send homework in which parents need to participate finding the answers.
A statistics class where your grade is determined by “drawing lots” as it shows God’s desired grade…
To: Springfield High Educators
From: Springfield High School BoardIt has come to our attention that some of our staff have been teaching Bible verses out of context. This has made some parents, particularly our esteemed LEOs, uncomfortable.
I hereby remind you that your contract binds you to a strict adherence to the Chart of Christian Values of Springfield and the Glorious State of Oklahoma.
For your next mandatory Bible Reading Session, please make sure to select passages that are in-line with those values.
Kind Regards,
Teacher just need to strike. People lose their minds when they have to deal with their own kids and teach them. Covid really showed that
Thank God there’s some sanity in that terrible state
I won’t wear my OU stuff in public anymore.
It’s not really a mandate so there’s no revolt. As per The Friendly Atheist blog and podcast, this superintendent dumbfuck has no authority to enforce what he said. School officials may be saying fuck that, but it’s not a revolt when he made a completely empty statement.
The first to push back happened last month. The superintendent’s office, when asked by press, replied: “Oh yes they will.” With no language about how they would make that happen.
Fuck this christofascist, but this story / headline is bullshit. (I didn’t read the story because I already know that the headline doesn’t match reality thanks to TFA.)
https://www.friendlyatheist.com/p/oklahoma-superintendent-rejects-bibles
https://www.friendlyatheist.com/p/more-oklahoma-school-districts-are
It is a revolt for districts have to reject guidance from a superintendent en masse. That’s not a normal way for an education system to be run. So it’s not bullshit; you just are a bit too strict with your semantics, but that’s your issue.
What!? There are no pedants on the Internet! How dare you
A guy with no authority to mandate teaching the bible mandated teaching the bible. Everyone said haha. That’s not a revolt.
OK politicians sure do like wasting taxpayer dollars on unwinnable court cases.
unwinnable court cases.
Under any other Supreme Court regime, I’d agree with this.
But under this Supreme Court…remember that a lot of these previously-unwinnable cases are being brought up at the urging of Clarence Thomas and others on the court who have openly said they’d like to “revisit” these cases. We are talking about a court who has used foreign countries’ laws, and medieval history to justify their rulings, and there’s no reason to believe they won’t do it again. Remember, they just got finished conjuring up the idea of near-absolute Presidential immunity out of thin air.
The case is definitely not unwinnable.
Alito and Thomas should be removed from the supreme Court, Thomas’s wife is a traitor and you’re judged by the company you keep and Alito is either a treasonous coward and blamed his treasonous wife, or he also keeps company with traitors. They have no right to be on the court and their decisions specifically should be vacated.
Edit: not to mention all of the ethics violations.
The Constitution is clear that keep their position in good behavior. The vast majority of people can see that accepting bribes is bad behavior. The question is who goes about removing justices? IIRC that isn’t specifically laid out.
Id suggest that removing corrupt justices could be an “official act” by the president?
Its an investment 💀
Now that the Lemon case is overturned, who knows just how unwinnable the superintendent’s case is.
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Least bias?
The Hill?
Lmao
This bot needs banned. The site is garbage. Almost every time I see it it’s heavily downvoted. Biased spam.
I guess you would comply with that if you were to compare the bible to other religious scriptures everytime it is talked about and show how they influenced society. I don’t see why this should be not allowed.
You should read the article. They already teach about the Bible in such contexts. This directive would require every classroom to have a copy of the Bible and find ways to integrate it into their lesson plans, whether it was relevant or not
Then he made the sea of cast metal. It was round, ten cubits from brim to brim, and five cubits high, and a line of thirty cubits measured its circumference.
- 1 Kings 7:23
Pi is 3, not 3.1415… Oklahoma cannot teach geometry anymore
In the article it does not say that the bible has to be portrayed positively so I guess you could look for examples of how Christians misuse what is written to justify horrible actions. There are probably also enough examples of how current (repulican) politicians are actively acting in anti christian ways while claiming to be following god.
Malicious compliance mode activated: hey kids, today we’re learning about cults! Get out your Bibles!
Malicious compliance is likely to get your license suspended or revoked though.
I’m not a teacher and never have been, but isn’t part of the point of malicious compliance to make it a complicated matter of intent as to whether someone is breaking the rules in a way that can be punished? It forces the leadership to make “because I said so” rulings that start to raise the question of the validity of the leadership that has placed the unreasonable rules in place originally.
None of that works when “because I say so” is supported by a majority of the electorate. I’m not sure where the numbers come up exactly on Walters and this specific issue, but the Oklahoma electorate is not gonna be as clean cut against this as you might hope.
If it has any place in public education it’d be alongside other mythology lessons. It’s absolutely not being taught that way under these rules.
It is already being taught along other myths in the context of their impacts on society without teaching them one was correct. This law was changing that to requiring indoctrination.
In college I took a 100-level western ancient literature course that examined the origins of the text and sources of the bible. Simple facts did fantastic work of dismantling the ‘infallibility’ of the work. Can’t imagine a faster way to make a generation of atheists.
Because in the goddamn US Constitution it makes a point about separation of church and state. Also what if there’s someone who doesn’t believe in your version of God or if the invisible sky wizard isn’t real.l, you intolerant fool.
One of these days my home state will make headlines that are outright embarrassing. Not any day soon… but someday
Eventually, the tectonic plates will be rearranged such that Oklahoma is no longer on the surface of the Earth.
I’d be willing to teach the Bible:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asimov’s_Guide_to_the_Bible
Cliff’s Notes:
https://archive.org/details/kensguidetobible00kens/mode/1up
“Ok kids, here’s everything the Bible gets wrong!”
Republicans: “Wait, not like that…”
Or, only teach the rape and incest. In elementary schools.
Teachers would just be fired and replaced with TVs playing “The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible” cartoons on a loop.
That’s what’s so insidious about the Christianization of public education. It is, at it’s heart, an extension of the privatization movement. Find schools that resist and destroy them, so you can justify cutting your overall education budget by claiming you’re defeating Woke Leftist Teachers.
Even schools that do faithfully comply will inevitably get harassed and defunded. Because the goal isn’t to teach the Bible, it is to loot the budget.
The goal is also to keep the population ignorant so they keep voting against their best interests
Some of the most “ignorant” Americans became fixtures of the late 19th/early 20th century labor movement.
Public education is about building a shared culture and academic understanding of the world. That can be one rooted in secular scientific reason, Christian mythology, or fascist bigotry. But the important thing (from a government level) is that it’s a consensus capable of being reproduced from generation to generation.
The anti-Communism of the 50s/60s that took place alongside the foundation of the modern higher education system was instrumental win building the Reaganite consensus that won the Cold War.
But if American plutocrats are just going to tear the wiring out of the walls and sell it for scrap, there’s no knowing what kind of consensus will form in the wake of educational collapse.
Maybe we get New American Communism. Maybe we get an elite informed entirely by ads on TikTok and Facebook. Maybe an Islamic Renaissance as the Saudis / UAE simply buy us out with our own Petro dollars. Maybe GenA and B go back to the Christian church.
Idk, but it appears Oklahoma State government is giving up the reins and making it someone else’s problem.