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Would Harrier sign up for a Buddhist or Islamic class as an elective.
Yes.
As a college student currently majoring in history, Harrier has the ability to choose his content(non-methodology) courses from a wide variety of subject matter.
He is choosing to complete 12 units in the Islamic history area, and one course that he has completed concerned the institution of Islam.
Harrier owns and reads a Qur'an.
Harrier is interested in Southeast Asian history.
Learning about Buddhism and Islam is invaluable for understanding those cultures.
So, schools should not talk about the Ottoman Empire or the Holocaust?
This is a history course.
As much as you may want to you simply cannot teach history without mentioning religion.
Try presenting much of Western Civilization and never once referencing the Church or the Bible.
Do you want children to be ignorant about why things occur?
As the books of the three monotheistic religions that have greatly influenced the last 3000 or so years of human history, such electives for both the Bible and Quran should be offered to provide valuable indepth context.
If this proposed elective class is a factual course on Biblical history or even touching on the Bible as literature and poetry, then there can be no argument it's legal and constitutional.
However, I suspect that it might be stealth strategy to use the class to promote and proselytize Christianity ... something that would be not only illegal but un-American.
Does anyone remember what recently happened in Louisiana? How a public high school promoted Christianity and it's sole Buddhist student was humiliated and ridiculed?
Is this what Christians want?
Why can't courses on Biblical history be taught in churches?
I remember when I was growing up in Broward County, Florida, the Jewish kids went to Hebrew School after their regular public school classes. Hebrew School was taught in synagogues ... not in the public schools.
As a college student currently majoring in history, Harrier has the ability to choose his content(non-methodology) courses from a wide variety of subject matter.
He is choosing to complete 12 units in the Islamic history area, and one course that he has completed concerned the institution of Islam.
Harrier owns and reads a Qur'an.
Harrier is interested in Southeast Asian history.
Learning about Buddhism and Islam is invaluable for understanding those cultures.
Any more questions?
Kudos to Harrier and college is where this belongs, but I have to wonder what the reaction would be if they offered a course in Quran history at Mustang High School.
One, the big deal is whether the course is a STUDY of a religion, or if the course is a PROMOTION of a religion. Mr Green, who is funding it, PROMOTES religion. So that's one concern.
Two, public schools are peer pressure cookers. While the function of schools is to educate students, students develop more than their minds in school. They develop their social identities and personalities there as well. If this course develops an exclusive character, like cheerleading and athletic organizations sometimes do, it can end up promoting a theology rather than promoting an objective study of that theology. So the school is obligated to monitor that aspect of its course offerings.
And three, the government is providing some of the funds that are used to provide the classroom, desks, supplies and a teacher.
Have some of you naysayers been in a public high school lately, looked at the public HS curriculum, or seen a syllabus for some high school social studies courses? The Bible as a work and comparative religion are covered now! They were covered when I was in high school in the 60s. There's nothing new under the sun.
And cheerleading as theological? I have to say, that's a new one on me. The biggest cheerleader issue at my kids' high school was cheerleaders doing cocaine in the restrooms.
Have some of you naysayers been in a public high school lately, looked at the public HS curriculum, or seen a syllabus for some high school social studies courses? The Bible as a work and comparative religion are covered now! They were covered when I was in high school in the 60s. There's nothing new under the sun.
And cheerleading as theological? I have to say, that's a new one on me. The biggest cheerleader issue at my kids' high school was cheerleaders doing cocaine in the restrooms.
Not sure what the problem is, as long as the class explores the history of the Bible from a cultural and historical context and isn't a theology class. Learning about religion is not the same thing as learning religious dogma. The real world is full of people of different religious beliefs; shielding our kids from that only perpetuates ignorance. There's no reason religion cannot be taught in public schools from a social, cultural perspective.
I think that classes exploring the cultural context of all religions should be at least electives in high school, so students can learn what various religious groups believe, learn about their customs, etc. There is so much conflict between different religions and the non-religious; a greater understanding between each of them is a good thing and can reduce misconceptions about people of various faiths.
I was completely ignorant about Mormonism until some Mormons knocked on my door and I invited them in to discuss their faith with me. I wanted to know more about their religion so I wasn't basing my opinion of Mormons off the largely negative stereotypes reinforced by TV and movies. That's all I knew about Mormonism.
Not sure what the problem is, as long as the class explores the history of the Bible from a cultural and historical context and isn't a theology class.
If the class is a historical and academic study then there is no problem. The problem comes from the fact that the curriculum is being developed by a group that has a theological agenda, and statements by the founder indicate the goal it to teach theology as fact. I am all for history of religion classes, but generally those are objected to by believers, because they treat the source material like any other book, instead divine revelation...
And there were reasons we broke away from England(UK), eh?
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