Comments on: Bible Literacy Bill Advances Out Of Kentucky Senate Education Committee

By: Clever Badger

Clever Badger — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 04:48:10 +0000

It honestly just occurred to me that in order to honestly teach a course like this in the neutral, non-sectarian way that the bill claims to require, it would necessarily discuss ways that the Bible has been used to justify (among other things) slavery, genocide, oppression of women, oppression of minorities in general, and the sweeping rejection of huge amounts of science.

By: Clever Badger

Clever Badger — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 13:06:42 +0000

Part of that, I think, is a consequence of teaching to standardized tests which require students to do little more than regurgitate memorized facts. Teaching students to think critically and analyze and synthesize information is more difficult.

By: sirhcton

sirhcton — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 17:24:00 +0000

Darn it, the OT has all the juicy bits!

By: JRR

JRR — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 19:54:38 +0000

The wider problem is cultural illiteracy. The same kids who don’t get references to ‘the writing on the wall’, don’t get ‘opening Pandora’s box’ either. Unfortunately, efforts like this one which is good in theory (elective, non-sectarian) fail when narrowly applied.

By: Clever Badger

Clever Badger — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 22:22:29 +0000

Very little of that has found its way into the Catholic liturgical structure, so it doesn’t surprise me that many (Catholics) aren’t familiar with it.

By: Clever Badger

Clever Badger — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 22:15:49 +0000

It ends up being a bizarre game of Whack-a-Mole. I don’t think this particular piece of legislation would survive a court challenge, but you never know.

By: sirhcton

sirhcton — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 21:13:14 +0000

. . . They didn’t expect a story about bears mauling kids to be in the Bible.

I am glad you had a change of pace from the murder, rape, and incest.

By: sirhcton

sirhcton — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 21:09:46 +0000

I think “thinly disguised” is exactly correct. The parts about displays echoes the other thinly disguised efforts for getting the Ten Commandments into courthouses. Naturally, the supporters cannot restrain themselves and their comments give the lie to their protestations that it is for secular purposes.

Unfortunately, this seems to drop much implementation into the laps of individual districts and schools, so that anyone any opposition will end up being so piecemeal that a lot of questionable (at best) “instruction” will slip by. I suspect that is the whole point.