Because it is in many ways an integral part of our culture. I think it's a good idea, but agree that students should be exposed to other religions' works as well.

Well, in many ways, lots of things are part of our culture -- like sex.

Word.

While the classes proposed are elective, I see this as the beginning of a slippery slope. We start letting electives in, and then folks will feel like they can start teaching Christian ideology. I just dont see folks stopping at "The Bible says this"...at some point some "Christianity is the way to go" is gonna sneak in. Even if a child does take the class to learn about historical and literature references, its not a time to preach the virtues of Christianity.

Bible as literature classes and creationism ("Intelligent design") in science have no place in the public schools. I'm sure the ACLU will have a field day with this, even if it is sponsored by Democrats.

you know a lot of things have been cut out of the public school curricula and I think that has led to a severe problem in terms of the kids' overall exposure to the world around them. I think this course should be included as well as courses in the other religions. It could even be a course that teaches the cornerstones of all the religions at the same time. There are only 7 major ones (I think). I also would like to see courses come back like basic Civics classes and courses that teach kids how to manage money and go more in depth with American and world history. There are SO many things American children need to learn and the more that is left out, edited out and cut out, the less educated and exposed kids will be which will eventually lead to more ignorance and bigotry. Good citizenship skills and patriotism are learned young.

So, you all think that a high school kid shouldn't know what a Jezebel is, or a Pandora's box, Mother Earth, or karma? Because each of these are phrases that are part and parcel of our daily vocabulary.

I gave a few examples of some of the Biblical phrases that I remembered from high school. The Rolling Stones called a greatest hits album Through the Past Darkly as a play on "through the glass darkly", while the Byrds used "To everything there is a season" from Ecclesiastes in their song Turn, Turn, Turn. The tv show My Name Is Earl is BASED on karma, for pete's sake!

I would be totally against the teaching of the actual religion itself in a public school, but I think a kid who doesn't know these type of phrases is already years behind in literature.

So it's a right flank?

I don't really like it.. both parties competing to see who can be the most religious will turn this place into a Jerry Fallwell paradise within 10-15 years.

Eh, I never learned religious stuff in school and I know these things. I mean, I wouldn't want to expect most people to be so brilliant, but these seem like the kind of cultural catch-phrases that can be taught by parents or picked up somewhere.

What she said. Didn't learn or hear about these specific things in school. Kinda common sense if you ask me. You just catch onto them sooner or later.

COSIGN!

I have a problem with teaching religion in school. You can have morals and teach morals and how to be a responsible adult without "endorsing" a particular religion, or set of religions. Its not the public schools place to do the job of a parent, and if a parent doesnt teach a child about religion, perhaps there is a reason for that.

To me, what you're advocating would be stepping on the toes of the parents. A parent has the right to expose their child to the religions that they see fit, and the schools should not be contradicting that.

And I don't know where Civics is omitted, but in my school district (where my sister is still a student) it is required to graduate.

I'm not talking about ADDING another course, I'm talking about having a portion of an ordinary literature/English class discussing/teaching the etymology of different phrases. This maybe takes 2-3 weeks of class. If there's a teenager who would be absolutely wounded by learning from where any phrase came, then that child needs to be taking the short school bus in the first place!

In a public high school, my world history class taught me about various countries as well as the religions that were practiced. Some kids in class were able to provide more information on certain religions or countries because that's where their family came from. Somehow my friends and I made it through this class unscathed with such an open exchange of ideas.

In public grade schools, there used to be classes in deportment (sp?)and citizenship. Considering how much kids are acting up in and out of the classroom, parents who are working too many hours to put food on the table may need the school to come back in and bring these classes back.

We had this in high school. It was an elective, and it provided an overview of the history and belief systems of the major world religions. Some of the English classes read Bible stories (for instance, I think my fiance's class read the Book of Ruth in their unit on ancient myths and legends). While in my classes, we never directly read the Bible, I definitely used it a lot. I mean, for poetry explications and the like, it was pretty necessary - you try to make sense of John Donne without it!

I don't know about having an entire class on "The Bible as Literature" - that does seem a little extreme (and like catering to conservative Christian voters that really shouldn't be catered to, imo), it's something that does need to be included, in reasonable ways, in our curriculum. What I think is funny, though, is that most fundamentalist Christians will spit and scream if you tell them that the Bible is a literary and historical work and should be taught in schools in the same way that we teach Greek and Roman mythology ...