Challenging legal norms, Texas proposal would use Bible to teach kindergartners
State board considers curriculum reminiscent of new Oklahoma directives
If you want a clearer idea of exactly how Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters is trying to infuse the Bible into public classroom instruction, you need look no further than curriculum being proposed by education leaders in Texas.
A big difference, however, is that while Walters’ plan is intended to expand use of the Bible beginning in the fifth grade, the proposed Texas curriculum would start teaching parts of the Bible in elementary schools beginning in kindergarten.
Although the Texas proposal has received little national attention, in some ways it poses a bigger constitutional challenge than does the Oklahoma proposal, partly because it involves younger students and partly because it includes the actual education materials and instructions to teachers that would be used.
The Oklahoma plan, which takes the form of directives from Walters, is technically in effect now as the school year begins, but it remains unclear if or how Walters will enforce his directives, which have been opposed by superintendents of most of the state’s largest school districts. The proposed Texas curriculum, prepared by the Texas Education Agency, has been published online for public comment through tomorrow; it tentatively will be voted on by the Texas State Board of Education in November.
As proposed, local schools would not be required to adopt the curriculum, but they would have a small financial incentive — $60 per student per year — to do so.
Like the Oklahoma plan, the Texas materials claim to be avoiding conflicts with the U.S. Constitution, calling on teachers to avoid indoctrination. While it does appear that the materials avoid directly teaching religious dogma, their intent seems clear: to introduce students to parts of the Christian Bible regardless of the students’ religious background and to emphasize the role that the Bible has played in U.S. and Western history and culture.
The 74, a nonprofit organization covering the U.S. education system analyzed the curriculum in depth. Its findings:
But a review by The 74 shows that biblical figures and stories are central to multiple lessons across the 62 K-5 units. The curriculum not only gives short shrift to other religions — Muhammad appears to have escaped mention, despite his role in shaping a faith practiced by half a million Texans — but scholars who have examined the material say it offers a decidedly Christian interpretation of history, particularly the story of America’s founding and civil rights struggles.
Two of the teacher manuals, ones for language arts in kindergarten and third grade, were reviewed for this article.
Here is an excerpt from the kindergarten manual:
The text for today’s story of the Golden Rule features references from the Book of Matthew, a book of the New Testament of the Christian Bible, and Leviticus, a Book of the Jewish Torah and the Old Testament of the Christian Bible, along with references to Islam and Hinduism. The Book of Matthew features a famous sermon, commonly referred to as “The Sermon on the Mount.” “Do unto others as you would have done unto you” is a common English phrase to treat people like you would want them to treat you. This lesson helps students understand its origin and it also conveys an important lesson about respecting and caring for other people.
The instructions expand on the lesson of the Golden Rule with references to the Old Testament:
“Do unto others as you would have done unto you” is the version of the Golden Rule most commonly used in our country today. But there are other, similar versions. The Jewish Torah is made up of five books, and those are also the first five books of the Christian Bible. According to those books, God spoke to a man named Moses to give him laws on how people should behave. One of these laws said to “ ... love your neighbor as yourself.” The word neighbor has more than one meaning. It usually means someone who lives nearby. In this case, the word neighbor is used in a broad, or wide, way to mean all the people that we meet. To love your neighbor means to care for someone else and show them kindness and respect as you would wish to be treated. What are ways you can show kindness and respect to your neighbors in our classroom? [Pause for students’ responses and discuss.] By being kind and respectful, someone can show love.
While the teachers’ instructions mention that there are “also versions of the Golden Rule in the ancient books from other religions, including Hinduism and Islam,” they do not mention Buddhism nor quote from religious writings outside the Bible.
Portions of a third-grade language-arts lesson on ancient Rome could be more problematic. Much of the focus on Roman history involves a contrast between the pre-Christian days, when Romans worshiped “mythical gods and goddesses,” and the changes that came about as Christianity spread and Christian convert Constantine became the Roman leader. A disproportionate amount of the lesson is devoted to the New Testament, particularly accounts of the birth of Jesus and the ministry of Paul, with little mention made of the time between the time the New Testament was written and Constantine’s conversion.
The curriculum accepts at face value the Biblical account that in “ancient Rome, the census required the people of the Empire to return to the places where they were born to be counted” — even though the occurrence of such an event is not the consensus view of historians. It goes on to detail the account in the gospel of Luke:
The Christian Bible explains that on the day Jesus was born, his mother Mary and father Joseph were traveling to the town of Bethlehem to register for the census. When they arrived, they were told there were no rooms available to rent. They took shelter in a nearby stable, a type of barn where animals are kept. When Jesus was born, Mary wrapped him in pieces of cloth and laid him in a manger, which is a long wooden or stone box used for horses and cattle to eat animal feed. The Bible explains that angels appeared to nearby shepherds and told them that a baby was born. The angels said this child was the Messiah that was predicted in the Hebrew Scriptures. After the shepherds saw baby Jesus for themselves, they spread the word of his arrival.
The curriculum also conveys some detail about the life and ministry of Jesus, and includes an account of the Resurrection while falling just short of calling it a historical event:
The Bible explains that Jesus rose from the dead. Three days after his death by the Roman authorities, followers of Jesus visited his tomb and found it empty. An angel appeared and said he has risen and led them into the tomb. When the visitors entered the tomb, they found it empty. The Roman historian Josephus noted that Jesus had many disciples at the time of his death by Pilate: “But those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion and that he was alive.”
Among the list of “core vocabulary words” in the lesson are “Messiah,” “resurrection” and “disciples.”
The teacher guide also suggests that teachers incorporate religious songs into the lesson:
The prior lessons focused on Roman polytheistic religious views. In this lesson, students will read about the life of Jesus of Nazareth, the impact of Christianity on the Roman Empire, and key tenets of Christianity that continue to impact modern culture. Part of the reading includes the story of Jesus’s birth, celebrated today as Christmas. Students may be familiar with common Christmas songs that describe the scene, including “Silent Night,” “Away in a Manger,” and “Do You Hear What I Hear.” Consider playing one or more of those for students as a transition at the beginning of class, and prime students for today’s reading by explaining that the story of the first Christmas originated in the ancient Roman Empire during the time of Augustus Caesar.
The constitutional question
There seems to be little question that under traditional understandings of the Lemon test — named after the 1971 Lemon v. Kurtzman case and the ruling law for about four decades — that these textbooks would likely be found in violation. Portions of the teachers’ instructions sound more like a directions that might be given to a Sunday school teacher than would be given to teachers in public school that included students from diverse backgrounds.
The Lemon test involves determinations as to whether a government action has a clear secular purpose, whether its primary effect is to inhibit or advance religion, and whether it would involve excessive government entanglement.
It’s hard to see a secular purpose in encouraging children to sing religious songs for a lesson on the Roman empire. The same can be said about going into detail about the Sermon on the Mount when the Golden Rule could easily be presented in a totally secular fashion.
The majority opinion in the 2022 Supreme Court decision of Kennedy v. Bremerton School District — the case where the court upheld the right of a public-school football coach to pray in public after a game — suggested that the Lemon test had been abandoned, although justices did not directly overrule it. The dissent still found value in the Lemon test, however, so it remains unclear how future courts might apply it.
The court majority suggested that as a replacement for Lemon it would act in “reference to historical practices and understandings.” By that standard, the Texas curriculum, as well as the Oklahoma directives, might be approved. There is no question that some early textbooks in American schools referred to the Bible in the way that the proposed books do.
But those were far different days in the United States. The protections of the First Amendment had yet to be extended to the interpretation of state laws, and the population was much less diverse than it is today. The Lemon test and other rulings involving the separation of church and state came about in the second half of the 20th century in part because of the divisiveness that was caused by government efforts to prioritize various religious viewpoints. It’s hard to see how such divisions wouldn’t be exacerbated by the curriculum under consideration.