Oklahoma state schools superintendent Ryan Walters recently issued a mandate, that the Bible “will” be taught in every classroom in the state, grades 5-12, and there “will” be a Bible present in every classroom. He speaks in very stern language that every district, every school and every teacher will comply.
This is the latest in a long string of moves by Walters to, my mind, needlessly engage the culture wars, always from an extreme right-wing direction. I wind up wondering how he came into the office he holds, and how he presumes a mandate to do these things.
Eight large Oklahoma school districts have indicated they will not comply. Litigation is pending.
And the mandate is likely to meet resistance from the vast majority of teachers, except for the very few who relish the idea of imposing their own religion upon children.
About the same number as those who want to groom their children to transition.
Meanwhile, Walters’ office has issued “guidance,” or “standards,” as to how the Bible-teaching mandate is to be implemented. The length, detail and language of this document persuades me that Walters did not write it himself. On the one hand, the language of the guidelines is so obtuse that I cannot see how they will serve Walters’ evident purpose. I don’t want to presume to read minds, but it seems clear that Walters really wants evangelical Christian inerrancy taught in public schools.
Whether one “teaches the Bible” or instead “teaches about the Bible,” it is also unclear to me how this teaching is supposed to fit in — in every course, in every classroom. Algebra? Geography? Chemistry? Its only possible role in a Biology class would be the teaching of young earth creationism.
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