Bible finding spot among school texts
Because classes in Colorado take a scholarly look, there has been no public outcry like elsewhere, teachers say.
By Electa Draper
Denver Post Staff Writer
May 6, 2007




Chris Hartman holds his Bible while teaching at Wasson High School in Colorado Springs. (Post / Cyrus McCrimmon)


Chris Hartman holds his Bible while teaching at Wasson High School in Colorado Springs. (Post / Cyrus McCrimmon)Colorado Springs - When a self-professed pagan priestess and a devout Christian emerge from the same high school Bible literature class equally challenged but all smiles, teacher Chris Hartman knows he's doing his job.

"Is it my job to teach you your faith?" Hartman shouts.

"No!" the class shouts back.

"Whose job is it?"

"Ours!"

In this popular Wasson High School elective, for which there is a waiting list, students from different backgrounds and religions say they can think deep thoughts about the Bible and even share them.

And no one on the right or left has complained about the class, Hartman says. In contrast, other school districts across the country that have added Bible-based courses, or tried to, have attracted scrutiny and controversy.

When an Odessa, Texas, high school added a Bible- based course last year, national news reports depicted it as a pioneer in bringing the Bible back into public schools.

But the Bible has long been taught as the foundation of Western civilization in public schools in conservative-tagged Colorado Springs - and in liberal-labeled Boulder.

Making students think (Article Continues)

I think an excellent elective would be comparative religion classes. So that every faith, from polytheism to monotheism as well as Atheism and Agnostic, would be taught to the children of the future. So that when they arrive there, they'll come with an understanding of what it means to live and be everyone else, in the same breath and in the same spirit of humanity.
And maybe then, knowing there is nothing to fear will hold faith in themselves they can live their own life, without fearing anyone else doing the same. And the education can only continue from that school period, because they'll have an understanding that what one does not know can easily be learned, in the time it takes instead to fear and hate for being ignorant of a thing.

LMAO EXACTLY right

When I was in college, sections of "the book" were included in my World Lit textbook.

All faith is personal. I remember the old testament bible says god imprinted himself on the heart of every person, so they might know him where ever they are. Which would seem to impart the message one's personal god, one's personal religion is that covenant then between believer and that which inspires through that imprint, one's personal understanding and relationship with the creator of all that exists. And since there is not one of anything in creation, how could there then be only one way to know that what is responsible for all that is created!?

It's human ego that implies god sponsors a members only club. If god believed that there was only one way to know it, it wouldn't have made so many people that know god in so many different ways and find peace and are good people, for it. A communion where it counts. From the inside, where even an old testament says god implanted itself in everyone to be as one with their creator. So that not even religion is necessary, so as to know where we came from.

I wouldn't have a problem with it if they allowed all different religions in but just the bible? You can't tell me that isn't bias.

Slightly amusing to me that these parent groups who 'ban' books for swearing or even sexual situations haven't made a fuss out of a book that at times promotes genocide, rape, kidnapping, torture and slavery is in the schools.

Of course not, all those book burning parents are fanatic christians themselves

Though... no idea why they go to libraries when the only book they really like and want is the bible anyway.

I agree with kratos, being that the only religious book they use is the bible. Though that's common in almost all R.E classes, 3-4 years ago the only religious faiths we got to look up on were in text books, oh and the bible which we all had upon entering the class... Though that all happened when a chrisitian teacher took over. The R.E teacher prior to this made no effort to tell anyone her religion as "you'll find a religion that suits you by the end of this course". I think I'd feel a bit better if that class had more than one religious textbook. Well... I wouldn't, but it'd be nicer.

History of Banned Books


Banned Books ~ How Schools Restrict The Reading Of Young People

I think religious education should cover many religions, not just one. You don't go to art history classes and only study the Impressionists. I would have liked to learn more about other religions when I was at school, but my teacher was a Christian who was obsessed with Moses. I drew a lot of pictures of the ark back then.

Can you imagine the smell in that ark!? After 40 days and nights!?

But seriously, I agree comparative religion , as an elective, would serve to educate young people as to the world they're about to enter when they become independent adults. So that, say a bible literature class, wouldn't impart the mainstream faith is the only faith worth knowing. Giving a fair and equal account of every aspect of spiritual investment, including that of free thought or Atheism, as well as Agnosticism. How lovely for pagan students to be understood, rather than presumed to worship the devil. I think it would serve to install a sense of community in every sense of the word, by teaching the children of the future that part of living in a diverse community is meeting different people that believe themselves entitled to respect for their personal lives. And the only way one engenders respect is if they set aside preconceived notions and learn what it means to be pagan, Buddhist, Atheist, Agnostic, etc... So that one sided rhetoric that implies no tolerance for what sectarian bias claims are heathens or heretics, is defeated in imparting a pervasive ignorance, by a concentrated effort in education and as such peace in diversity.
Yet, and sadly enough, there are some that believe the only way to god is through jesus, so much so that it is believed learning of any other way is simply unacceptable, because souls would be imperiled. Which would imply bigotry is not as threatening to it's care and feeding as is the ignorance that keeps people separate but equal in the eyes of that notion of a godly power. How does one pray for peace while actively working to insure discrimination in, of all things, faith!?

The only way to structure a comparative religion class, particularly from the perspective of what it means to be x is through the use of guest lecturers. But even then how does someone who is not familiar with a belief choose a good speaker for the class?

I agree, you need guest speakers... and it's tricky picking the right ones. My junior school tried inviting parents of different faiths to talk in classes, which was nice actually, but you don't really remember much of it when you're seven years old.

I wouldn't imagine a 7 year old would be ready for a curriculum the likes of comparative religious philosophy, say for what I was proposing and relative to the OT age group, with respect to high school. However, if a grade school teacher can compile a syllabus that 7 year olds can understand, with respect to social studies, for instance, an elective on comparative religions wherein it would be tenable for that age group, could as easily be effected.

My point is simply that kids in school are already in diverse cultural and social environment as it is, when attending a public school. It's contrary to honoring that sense of community to afford a bible literature class, for example and relative to the OP, and not also address every faith and spiritual practice that may be represented within that student body. It assumes a demeanor of privilege to promote the literature of one religious practice at the exclusion of all others, when the student body are not composed entirely of those that hold faith in the bible. Rather than provide preferential attention to one faith, why not address all spiritual practice, as an elective, so that kids truly can find their faith for themselves, as was touted in the original piece.

Finding representatives or lecturers for such an enterprise would take just as much effort, and discretion, as would seeking out any lecturer for any other class. And it would be worth while, if undertaken, because it would show kids what the world they shall eventually enter into as adults, while cultivating a sense of understanding of those different religious and spiritual practices, so that education then engenders tolerance from an educated perspective. That can never be a bad thing, considering what ignorance effects in our society for lack of knowledge, or the respect to acquire it so as not to believe there are so many enemies in the world waiting to challenge one's only sense of self worth.

If we're going to teach our children how to grow into functioning well adjusted adults, educating them about diversity in something as far reaching as what is implied in religious/spiritual faith, is the least we can do to better equip those children of the future, if we expect it to be any different than the world today.

We could always save some time and money and encourage kids to be inquisitive rather than just pounding information into their heads.

Oh Nelly! Now you're talking extremism!

I think that's why charter schools are so popular. Think, rather than learn by rote. What an excellent opportunity to change the future.