Reading Is Fundamental

 Starting this fall, if you're going to be teaching in an Oklahoma public school you had better know your Leviticus from your Deuteronomy. According to State Superintendent Ryan Walters, the Bible is a cornerstone of Western civilization and that its use in classrooms is mandatory. From where I'm sitting, I suppose the good news is that these hardline conservatives have finally found a book that they didn't want to ban. 

In what seems to be a game of right-wing Truth or Dare, folks in many states seem to be waring their Bible Belts on the outside. When Louisiana declared that the Ten Commandments need to be on display in every one of their public school classrooms, that seemed like a bit of stretch constitutionally speaking. When I started in the teaching biz, there were a number of heated discussions about whether or not we should include the "under God" portion of the Pledge of Allegiance. Ultimately, we decided not to make a specific edict at our school and wouldn't you know it that just a few short years later no one was performing the Pledge with our without the God. There was just too many other things to try and cram into a busy day of learning. 

Of course, this was in the People's Republic of Northern California, where free speech continues to be a prized commodity. At my school, we have a wide variety of cultures represented in our student body and staff with a panoply of  religious beliefs and practices. We make every effort to be inclusive, whether it is referring to the mid-year vacation as "Winter Break" or providing classrooms for our Muslim students to spend lunch time during their Ramadan fasts, much in the same way that we mark absences for Ash Wednesday excused or allow families to choose whether of or not to participate in the heathen activities of Halloween. 

And this all comes during a summer in which the Los Angeles School District has decided to ban cell phones. Interestingly, their approach to this sea change was to phase it in over the course of the 2024-25 school year. In Oklahoma and Louisiana, their biblification of the school day begins on the first day of school. Me? I'm just hoping to keep the soccer balls off the roof and the running in the halls to a minimum. 

Oh, and I want to teach kids to read so they can comprehend important documents besides the Bible. Like the Constitution of the United States. And just a reminder that Oklahoma is ranked forty-fourth and Louisiana forty-ninth in public school rankings.