Sean Current Event Posting Number: 3
Topic: Education
Title of article: Arizona Bible Course Bill To Teach Elective In Public Schools Passes Senate, Goes To Gov. Jan Brewer
Author: Emmeline Zhao Date of Publication: April 12th, 2012
Publication Name: Huffington Post
Length of Article: 500 Words
On Thursday April 12, Arizona state Senate approved House Bill 2563 with a vote of 21-9. House Bill 2563 creates a high school elective course for public and charter school students. The new elective course will be titled "The Bible and its Influence on Western Culture," which will include lessons on history, literature and influence of the Old and New testaments on laws, government and culture among other aspects of society. The new course must also follow state and federal law in maintaining religious neutrality, although many view the courses ability to do this as unrealistic. Current Arizona state law doesn't ban the use of the bible or other religious texts in the classroom as long as they are being used for academic purposes. Advocates for the bill include Republican state Rep. Terri Proud, who supported the bill by saying, "there are people out there who hate the Bible and everything about it. That's fine, but don't deprive our children off biblical literature because of your personal feelings." Amongst the advocators are critics who argue that teaching religion and the Bible are tricky, and many teachers are under qualified to do so.
In conclusion, Bill 2563 is headed to Republican Gov, Jan Brewer's desk for final approval, after its passing through both the House and the Senate. If Brewer signs the bill Arizona would become the sixth state to allow districts to offer high school courses regarding the Bible. These six states include Georgia, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and South Carolina. Other states have introduced similar bills, but the bills have failed to become law.
Personally, I believe that Arizona is traveling down a slippery slope. Allowing religion to be taught in public schools as an elective is clearly against many landmark cases that ban the practice of religion in schools, wether it be voluntary or not. It is also ironic that Arizona only months ago banned Ethnic Studies from its curriculum on the bases that it promoted segregation, and now they are promoting a class that will do exactly that.
House Bill 2563 was approved in Arizona by a vote of 21-9, mandating the option of an elective course to be made available in public schools, which is going to be called "The Bible and its Influence on Western Culture", and must be taught with a view that is neutral to religion. The combination of people with interest to teach this course being likely to be religious, and arizona already having religious tendencies bring up the possibility that religious neutrality will be hard to enforce. If the bill passes to the next step it will make Arizona the 6th state to teach bible related courses in high school. The whole separation of church and state seems to be taking a step in the wrong direction.
ReplyDeleteI think people are over-reacting. House Bill 2563 creates an elective course to be taught in high schools, meaning it is optional. The elective teaches how the bible influences Western Culture, its laws, government and culture. The class does not promote religion, but will show how religion affected human kind. I think the class sort of combines history, philosophy, and literature into a single class based on historical facts. In fact, if anything, I think if the class remains neutral it may show the bible in a positive and negative light. Finally, I think the class will help students understand what influences the perspective/morals of many people in the world.
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