The Bible taped together belong to my dad.
When I graduated from high school in 1954, I had earned two elective credits, one in Old Testament and one in New Testament, from the Dallas Independent School District. They were two of the most important courses I ever took and certainly prepared me well for my major studies in religion at Southern Methodist University.
The recent news about Muskogee County being the first to implement the newly state-certified course in the study of Bible as History and Literature certainly brought back fond memories for me. Several other counties will implement the course next year. I would have enjoyed teaching such a course.
However, those who voice strong concern about the difficulty in separating fact from faith in a public school classroom setting have legitimate concerns. Although I know of several teachers who would excel in teaching this course, I can also think of a number of people I would not like attempting this task with my children. And Biblical scholars must ask themselves: how in the world do you teach Biblical facts without their implications for living today? I see lawsuits on the horizon.
I think the Dallas School System displayed the wisdom of Solomon in its offering of these studies years ago. The school system prepared the textbook with specific facts - name the books of the Bible in order, name the 12 disciples, identify these Biblical sites on the map. There was a lot of map study.
The system also administered and monitored the final exam based entirely on the lessons in the textbook. Every student then went to one locale in the city one Saturday morning to take this final exam, much in the same way school systems today administer the SAT. The system took up the final exams, graded them, then contacted the high school administrators as to which students would receive the credit based solely on the final exam grade.
Here’s the kicker, though. All of the classes were taught on Sundays at a variety of church denominations throughout the city. Churches registered with the school system to offer the course. The classes were publicized through the schools, but it was up to the students to go to the church of their choice to sign up for the class and to attend each week.
Although churches selected their own teachers, the school system certified them based on the score they earned on a systemwide test prior to starting the class. Each teacher had to maintain strict attendance rolls. No student was eligible to take the final if he had not attended class regularly. Likewise, each teacher had to verify that a student had kept an adequate notebook in which all the textbook questions had been answered correctly.
We took a ticket verifying that we had met these two criteria from our teacher to the final exam site. If we lost our ticket, we couldn’t take the final nor get the credit.
The school system specified the historical and literary information that it wanted the students to become proficient in; each church presented the factual information in keeping with its own doctrine.
Both years, my class filled the classroom. And while most participants were members of our large church, several students came from churches not offering the class or they didn’t attend any church regularly.
Because most of us were Methodists in a Methodist Church, our class discussions were lively. No question was off limits because of separation of church and state laws. Our teacher felt free to explore the faith issues each fact raised. In my opinion, it truly offered me the best of both worlds. At the end of two years, I felt knowledgeable about the information the school system wanted me to know and I felt as if the class had opened opportunities to explore my faith in ways regular Sunday School classes didn’t.
Recently, I came across my two paperbound textbooks. My, how I had marked them up. I don’t have my notebooks because the teacher took up our notebooks at end of the year, and they were never returned, thus preventing students from sharing one notebook over several years.
I don’t know if the Dallas Independent School District still offers this opportunity. From what I’ve been able to find, it, like so many large systems, now offer the same basic courses in most high schools and specialized studies in magnet schools. I didn’t find too many electives of any kind listed anywhere.
Many eyes across the country will be watching these first schools as they attempt to walk a very fine line. Some will be too eager to pounce if they falter or stumble. Others will constantly nag the system to introduce more doctrine as they see it than Biblical fact, a death trap for sure. While I hope the students in these experimental classes come away with a fine body of knowledge, I also wish that they too could have had the best of both worlds as I did.
2007
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