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Texas's new required school reading list includes stories from the Bible
Texas is the first state to establish such a list, as others generally give wide latitude to school districts and boards to select their own texts.
There are fourteen stories, listed in order of grade level: Jonah and the Whale (Jonah 1:1-5, 10-17, 2:10), David and Goliath (excerpt from The Children's Book of Heroes), Daniel and the Lion's Den (Children's Adapted Version), The Necessity of Humility (Luke 14:7-11), Moses (Exodus 3, 14), Do Not Be Anxious (Matthew 6:25-34), The Shepherd's Psalm (Psalms 23), Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12), To Everything There is a Season (Ecclesiastes 3), Lamentations 3, The Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32), Job (Job 1-7, 11, 14, 19, 28, 38-42), Adam and Eve (Genesis 2-3), The Definition of Love (1 Corinthians 13).
They also select a variety of translations: the New International Reader's Version, which is for a third-grade reading level, the English Standard Version, the King James Version, and the Jewish Publication Society. The ESV/KJV have their own history as evangelical texts; this is why there are so many parochial Catholic schools, though it's doubtful whether modern Catholics (who make up ~22% of Texas's population) care as much.
Teaching Biblical stories as cultural or historical texts does not violate the 1st amendment. Certainly the Bible is the most influential book in Western thought and has relevance to any serious study of literature and history. That being said, certain passages err on the side of theology and perhaps should be avoided outside of a comparative religion course. And some atheists will be disappointed that the more controversial passages have been excluded.
Side notice: Goldilocks and the Three Bears and the Grashopper and the Ants seem both a bit heavy-handed for kindergarden.
Also, the Texans (or Americans) really seem to love their founding fathers and presidents. Though I will also notice that Texas had the good taste not to make a hagiography of The Greatest President of All Times required reading. And I do not even want to speculate what kind of dirt Bennett (whose Children's Book of Virtues provides texts no less than seven times) has on the state board of education.
I think that religious background knowledge is often important context and the school should probably try to teach kids the basics. Quite a few of the great writers did have an education heavy on both Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman mythology. If Melville's narrator introduces himself as Ishmael, he is implicitly assuming that the reader knows of the biblical namesake.
On the other hand, there is a thin line between education and indoctrination. Jonah (author credit: Jonah in the HC article, which is amazing, like crediting Odysseus with writing the Illiad) is basically a story about God railroading some unwilling guy (whom he gave free will for some reason) into delivering some ultimatum to some city, then chickening out when it came to follow up on his threats (remind you of anyone? Sadly, God does not always chicken out.), leaving Jonah pissed for a lack of fire and brimstone. Kindergardeners might not understand that the character of God is every bit as fictional as the character of the Grandmother Spider from How Grandmother Spider Brought Fire, because adults around them take one more serious than the other.
On the third hand, there is also merit to letting kids discover for themselves that the adults are full of shit. I got a bible in fifth grade (German schools have opt-in religious education), which is the book I credit with turning me atheist around ninth grade or so.
Also, it seems likely that blue states will retaliate by finding out what stories are most effective at turning kids away from Christianity and making them required reading. They can even co-opt Texas guise of providing Judeo-Christian context, the story of Lot should be enough to give most teens the Ick.
Jonah is essentially about the mercy of God. Your claim that God 'chickens out' is embarrassingly backwards - the people of Ninevah clearly respond as required to Jonah's warning, which is why they are spared. What's interesting is that Jonah doesn't want them to be spared. That's why he initially tried to avoid God's call, not because he was lazy but because he hated the Ninevites and hoped they would be struck down. The ending of the story is the whole point - that God can destroy or give mercy to whomever he wants, and it's not for humans to complain because we have a limited perspective. Jonah tried to avoid God's call because he disagreed with God's plan, and it's only when he repents of that in the depths of metaphorical hell that he's saved. It's quite an interesting and layered story.
I get the vibe that you're some kind of angry atheist type? It's possible that if you'd been properly taught Jonah and other Bible stories as a kid you would have more respect and understanding for them, and maybe less hostility towards God.
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Jonah is a wonderful piece of satire, and it's a shame it will just be used as "kids, look at this time a whale vored a dude". Basically every other prophet suffers rejection, humiliation, and violence from their own people. Meanwhile, Jonah is sent to Israel's mortal enemies, tries to get out of doing his job, walks through the city giving the most half assed proclamation ("Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!")... and it works perfectly. Even the cows cover themselves in sackclothes and sit in ashes. Absolutely brilliant.
That said, it's unclear if teachers will present the narrative excerpts as clearly work of fiction, like Aesop's fables. Is that too close to establishment of religion? Schools are obviously allowed to teach evolution even though it offends young earth creationists.
The beautiful part of Jonah is the prayer, which is unfortunately not part of the reading. It acts as a sort of maximum externalization of salvation from a rock bottom psychological state, with Jonah poetically describing himself as being barred into the bedrock of the ocean (literal rock bottom). Many of the metaphors we use today to describe being in psychological disaster — can’t get above water; trying to stay afloat; drowning; out of our depths; swallowed whole; confined; in hell; fainting / dying; flooded with work; suffocating — these are all found or implied in the small little poem-prayer. In my view this is the real utility of the work, with the tale of empathy placed around it for added tropology. When the ancient Israelite found himself in disaster, he would remember Jonah, and in remembering Jonah he would remember what Jonah did. Jonah’s salvation comes from three behaviors:
His cessation of avoidance (no more fleeing from the Great Ought)
His expressing out of his troubles in words, imagery, and emotion (extremely useful psychologically, functioning as catharsis and rubber duck debugging in one)
His orientation toward hope and eventual deliverance from his troubles (“(though) I have been banished from Your sight, yet once more I will look toward Your holy temple”)
These are great behaviors. If you were to teach these behaviors in a class, it would be an advantage to those students who would otherwise avoid, ignore, and despair over their troubles.
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What even is the moral of Goldilocks, other than that burglary is bad?
Moderation is best. Be neither too hot nor lukewarm; walk the middle path.
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I actually have a book that's the sequel where the bear family shows up at Goldilocks' suburban house while the parents are out. They trash the whole place while she's frantically running around trying to fix all the messes. Then the parents come home from grocery shopping and there's her long explanation of what happened, starting with 'I know I'm not supposed to let strangers in but technically I knew them I've been to their house...'
Fun variation, maybe something to do with [large, furry] brown home invaders. They're not like us, tell you what.
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I actually have it in a collection of preschool books. Small kids love hearing the three voices ("Papa Bear said in his great BIG voice...") It teaches concepts of hot, cold, lukewarm. Big, small, medium. If there is a moral it might just be: looks can be deceiving. A nice cottage may look inviting, but maybe a family of bears lives there! Remember kids, don't take candy from strangers.
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"Don't wander around in the forest" and "don't take other people's shit" seem sufficiently didactic for a old children's story. (The first in particular is a very popular theme)
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Sometimes things aren't the right fit for everyone?
More pointedly, I think the image of "trying Papa's things and Mama's things and then realizing that the Little One's things are just right" is supposed to lead children away from messing around with their parents' things when they're home alone. Which is less of a moral lesson and more of a practical, avoiding-accidents-in-the-home sort of lesson. The story doesn't actually illustrate that lesson, so much as wrap the image in a fun little story that'll stick in kids' minds.
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