Texas State Ed Board Approves Curriculum That Emphasizes Biblical Teachings

Critics say the curriculum borders on outright proselytization. 

Could Texas public elementary school classrooms soon be teaching lessons on the Bible? This week, the Texas education board voted 8–7 to approve a new curriculum that frequently incorporates religious teachings into typical lessons. While supporters claim that the curriculum doesn't proselytize to children—and covers multiple religions, not just Christianity—critics argue that the curriculum amounts to unconstitutional religious instruction.

The Texas State Board of Education approved the state-developed curriculum, which will be optional, in a preliminary vote on Tuesday. The curriculum, called Bluebonnet Learning, contains largely typical elementary-level lessons. However, the smattering of religious references in the curriculum is far from subtle, and tends to focus on Christian teaching while leaving education about other religions in the background.

In one kindergarten lesson about the Golden Rule, for example, students learn about the Sermon on the Mount and are even given a quote from scripture. "Beyond the Sermon on the Mount, there are many lessons included throughout the Bible," the lesson states. "Jesus said the Golden Rule sums up all the important teachings from scripture. 'So in everything, do unto others as you would have done unto you.'"

In one fifth-grade lesson on Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper, students get an extended description of Christian theology: "The ceremony is central to Christian belief that the blood of Jesus was shed as the last sacrifice that would be needed to live in connection with God," reads the curriculum. "A painting about the story of the ceremony's origin would be widely recognized by Leonardo's audience."

While stories from many different religions are included in the curriculum, stories from and about Christianity take center stage. For example, one report on the curriculum from Rice University Professor David Brockman notes that the curriculum's "Kindergarten art appreciation unit in [Bluebonnet] still includes lengthy quotes from and discussions of the Genesis creation and flood stories, and still includes the 'Sequencing Activity' asking students to identify the order of creation—material far more appropriate to Sunday School than public schools."

This is far from the first time Republican-led state governments have attempted to infuse classrooms with Christian messages. In June, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry signed a bill that mandates that all public school classrooms in the state display a poster of the Ten Commandments, though that law has been blocked in federal court. That month, Oklahoma's State Superintendent Ryan Walters announced that public school classrooms in the state would be required to stock Bibles. Walters came under particular fire after it was revealed that the only two Bibles to meet proposed regulations were expensive volumes endorsed by Donald Trump.

For now, Texas seems to be pushing forward with a curriculum that, according to Brockman, "verges on Christian proselytism insofar as its extensive, lopsided coverage of Christianity and the Bible suggests that this is the only religious tradition of any importance." 

"That is not a message that Texas public schools, which are called to serve a religiously diverse population, have any business conveying," Brockman adds.