Bible becomes mandatory reading in Texas public schools from grade 1

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You win, Veggie Tales . The Bible is officially making its way into the Texas public school curriculum. This decision comes after the Republican-led State Board of Education approved a new mandatory reading list on Friday, in a decision that also facilitates the rewriting of middle grade social studies lessons to skew…well, I bet you can guess.

What’s on the syllabus in our brave new state of Church? As William Brangham at PBS reported , starting in the first grade, Texas students will now be assigned “at least one mandatory Bible passage per year” along with more typical English class fare, like Charlotte’s Web , Night , and Hamlet .

Approved bible excerpts include stories like Adam and Eve’s, David and Goliath’s, Job’s, the eight Beatitudes, and the parables of the Prodigal Son and the good Samaritan (respectively).

Certain gospels will also be framed as companion reads to contextualize non-religious literature. As the Times reported Friday, Lone Star 12th graders will now have to analyze the “ Definition of Love ” from First Corinthians alongside Austen’s Pride and Prejudice . Even though Jane’s definition really needs no punch-ups, in this reader’s opinion.

As Jaden Edison at the Texas Tribune reports , the new social studies lesson plans aim to emphasize American exceptionalism, narrativize the country’s origins as explicitly Christian, and “minimize racial, geographic, and cultural diversity.” Angry historians have noted that the new plans will de-center world events, and downplay the significance of race-related events in American history.

This also bears out in English class, where certain familiar tomes with “controversial themes” have gotten the ax in favor of Jonah and his whale. To Kill a Mockingbird , that corner stone of English lit, is now gone with the wind for Texas high-schoolers.

Though the evangelical lobby has been on a long, multi-state quest to bring Christian, white supremacy back into public schools, this mandatory reading list is the first of its kind in the country. And though legal backlash is marshaling as we speak, the new precedent marks a big win for conservatives.

Especially considering that Texas public schools are also now obliged to display the Ten Commandments—in case we had any doubt as to whether the Bible was being taught alongside comps.

Rachel Laser, the president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, is part of a largely angry citizen response. As she told the Texas Tribune , “This policy is part of a broader movement to misuse public schools to impose one narrow set of religious beliefs and indoctrinate a new generation of Americans in the lie that America is a Christian country.”

And to add insult to social and cultural injury, the new policies also present a logistical nuisance. English teachers told the Tribune that many of the books on the new syllabus “do not align” with existing tentpoles in the curriculum, even though the new material will take up “roughly 36 weeks of instructional time” in the academic year.

The math doesn’t math. But perhaps with this move, the BOE is taking another inspirational cue from the God who allegedly made the world in a week.

Texas has more than five million enrolled public school students, who made up 11 percent of the total U.S. public school population. This is a lot of children to leave behind when it comes to actual American history and literature. And as many have already hastened to point out, the effects of a pure classics , Christian-heavy curriculum aren’t only philosophical.

As Brendan Gillis, the director of teaching and learning for the American Historical Association , put it to the Times , “Do we want the next generation of Texas students competing in a global economy never having really learned very much about China?”