Do you think you know enough about God? Oh well, if you're a kid going to elementary school in Texas, you might get your fill in public school. We have a ja to fill us in on this what you got for us?
You know, we have covered several stories here on a nonprofit about states attempting to pass legislation that requires public schools to display some sort of Christian doctrine in the classrooms. But Texas is ready to take it one step further. Earlier this year, Texas passed law that allows the Texas Education Agency TEA to create its own free textbook. So what did they do? They created the Blue Bonnet Textbook. This is a kindergarten through fifth grade curriculum that includes
biblical teachings and lessons. Unfortunately, there has been an update since dividing of this article and the textbook has been fully approved. But here's the kicker. Though it is allegedly optional, there is one caveat. If a school adopts the curriculum, they get money, money, money. The government is using funding as a dangling character to indoctrinate children. Color me unsurprised. This is his story from apn us by Nadia Leyton on November nineteen, twenty twenty four.
I know we've seen something similar to this in Florida before, where they were trying to incentivize teachers going to continued education any getting paid for it, and also for the curriculum to be used in their classrooms. I see this move towards financially incentivizing it, which I do find interesting considering we're talking about a god that has everything right. But AJA, going back to you for a moment, what's really wrong with kids learning about things like the Golden
Rule or something like that. I mean, isn't that a good thing?
There's a lot of bad things about it. I me in Texas, So I was really invested in seeing how problematic this curriculum could be. So I looked up the document and I started searching the word Bible. In each one of the units in the kindergarten curriculum, there is a lesson about the story of the Good Samaritan or from the Bible. Right, So in this pitia of document, the phrase good Samaritan appears nearly one hundred times in
reference to the Biblical story. It even goes as far in depth as to indicate to teachers how to teach these lessons. And one of the quotes that I found from the book was explain that this story is from the Christian Bible. It is from a very long time ago, and in the Christian Bible it was told by a man named Jesus. In the Christian Bible, Jesus gave many talks like the Sermon on the Mount, and he used the phrase do unto others as you would have done
onto you. The Christian Bible says that Jesus told this story to people from Judaea, which is the region where Jesus himself was from. You did you, guys hear on the panel. Notice in that very quote, the sentence Christian Bible appeared four times. I am just absolutely appalled at the extent to which this is taken. Is teaching blatant misinformation, is made up history that isn't backed by historical evidence. So it's hugely problematic for me.
I'm a little surprised I didn't mention didn't come in for peace. I came with the sword. I'm pretty sure they'll miss that one. But Scott, going to you, this Christian influence that AJ was talking about, how do you think that plays out to the politics, that are they challenging core principles of the First Amendment with this? So are they crossing a line in your mind?
Well, I think it's clear that they definitely are crossing that line. To your point that you were talking about before, you asked about you know, what's the harm in having a story about the Golden Rule? But it's not just the stories, it's the context that those stories are presented. If we agree that these stories are talking about good things, then what they're saying is that good things come from
the Bible, or good things come from Christianity. Here's where you get these good things, which is clearly not the case. I mean, obviously, you know, the Golden Rule is something that a lot of people, even non Christians, hold valuable, and there are variations of that you know pretty much anywhere you go. However, so is this challenging the core principles of the First Minute? Yes, definitely it is. It's
holding one religion above all others. Religious freedom means that you don't have to necessarily read the stories about the Bible all the time. You can talk about other religion as well, or have no religion at all. And so I think the way that the Constitution is being interpreted these days is different. I hesitate to say that it's unconstitutional, because technically the Supreme Court is there to tell us what's constitutional and what's not. Their job is to interpret
the Constitution. So at the very least, though the constitutional message or the constitutional core is kind of drifting, is drifting here, and so we're definitely seeing a change here. I will say that it goes against what the Constitution used to be interpreted to say, and that is that things like this have to fulfill a secular purpose. They have to not promote a particular religion over other religions, that kind of thing, And so I think we're seeing definitely.
I don't know how you could get a more direct attack on that aspect of the First Amendment. I only wish that as much attention we're paid to the First Amendment as is to the Second Amendment by many of these people.
And so it's very frustrating.
And you know, the sad thing is, I think we're going to have to it's going to have to get much worse before things get any better, and so it's going to it's going to be a bumpy ride.
Well, obviously you're right about the reality it's Supreme Court is going to make that decision, and the fact that this law exists is a good end that at least some people in Texas think there's a possibility that they have a Supreme Court that's receptive to this type of thinking. Now, I wish I disagreed with you, but like you, I'm
not so sure that they're not right about this. But you mentioned also the Golden Rule and it being something that we can find in other religions, even older religions, And I think it's very telling, as Aj brought out, that they're branding it with the Bible says, the Bible says, the Bible says. And there's a reason for that, because if they were trying to teach some type of religion they start world religions, that's one thing, but that's not
what they're doing. They're branding a certain religion and selling it to kids. Right now, Steven, about that selling the kids.
Like I'm not a German historian, but like mindcom talks about like loving your country and being really patriotic, and those are really good things, right, Like shouldn't we also be like introducing mind coomp coloring bookstart fucking students. Wouldn't that be a great idea? How much longer until we get onto that?
Give it time, Give it time, don't don't.
Give them suggestion, Stephen, I know you're lucky enough to live in the United States, but damn but, Stephen, how do you think this incorporating religious teachings into public education? How do you think that undermines fat and based learning and critical thinking.
It definitely dilutes it. And it also is an attack on the trust of educators, the fact that they can be like the fact that they aren't even saying that this is a belief system that it's believed that a guy named Jesus was the one who said this thing. It's just the fact that this came from the Bible
and this is a fact. And this, like the fact that it is just completely dilutes any kind of evidence based learning that we want to be instilling in our kids in favor for what in favor for for dogma about a system and outdated, you know, bronze age myth based system that just happens to benefit power systems like it.
It completely confuses, it should confuse the children about what is a reliable information and what is just propaganda, and unfortunately, these children are being robbed of the opportunity to think critically about what they should and shouldn't be swallowing because the same people who they trust to teach them that one plus two equals three and that C A T spells could act to is also the people who are telling them that these myths are real and that magic
is real and that shouldn't have a place in their life. And I'm sorry, when it comes to protecting children, I get a little bit fired up. I'm not too sure if you can tell so. Stories like this are especially troubling to me because we as a society need to be protecting the next generation and not hobbling them with stories as myth dressed up as fact.
You're here, that was a righteous fire. By the way, Stephen, that was a righteous fire.
One thing I have to say is that you're you're absolutely right about the fact that when you mix in this myth along with facts and reality, you weaken the education that that child's getting. And if you tell them factionally correct things just by watering it down with honesty, you make everything suspect. And you also are literally taking away time where children could be learning things that are viable where they could be growing. Instead, they're learning as you put about bronze as myths.
You know, it's a very it's a very biblical stance to prioritize the Bible and Christianity over the education of the children.
I mean, that's there's a shifting of the priority there.
The goal then of the of the school becomes not to produce thoughtful, knowledgeable children ready to take on the world's problems.
It teaches them to be Christians.
You know.
It's goal oriented rather than process oriented, and that's just a recipe for trouble and it's frustrating.
You know. I bring this up a lot that you know, if you teach kids that that Jesus welcome water and that we need to drink water to survive in the same level of factualness, then kids are not going to be able to distinguish fact from fiction, right.
Studies show that to be the case too. Studies show that to be the case.
Yes, it does now ont you aj though? What do you think this promise of extra funding you mentioned for adopting this religious curriculum, what does that say about the influence of money and education in general?
You really bothers me. But this, aside from the obvious violation of separation of church and state, that they're teaching myths as facts and showing Christianity and now thoughts, what bugs me is the fact that this is claimed to be an optional curriculum and it's not mandatory yet, but at the same time, schools that adopt the curriculum are going to receive extra funds. It's this good old paid and switch that Christians seem to love so much. Oh you want some money, here you go, but you got
to indoctrinate the children first. As I mentioned at the beginning of the show, is this dangling carrots for schools that are underfunded. They need the extra cash, and sadly the targets the most vulnerable and they on the skids. That's why they focused on kindergarten.
Through fifth grade.
It's disturbing that when it comes to Christianity, they somehow get to bypast the legislation. And you know, it's meant all these legislations are meant to prevent public schools from promoting or advancing any particular religion, and they get to buy past that.
Yeah, I think that also, unfortunately, there's a goal of ruining the educate public education system in this country. I think that that will help feed their voucher program that they've been promoting everywhere, because as long as schools continue to I mean, if they've got to pay for Christian education to people, that's more resources that they already don't have. Even if they're getting additional resources far, this is going
to take time. This is going to take effort, This takes away, and I think we'll just further devolve the public education system in general. And I think that's part of the goal.
But you know, they're spinning, Sorry, they're spinning this as we're offering extra money for schools that buy into this. But I have a suspicion, call me a cinec here. I have a suspicion that it's what it's going to turn into, is that schools that don't adopt it will see their budgets diminish rather than the other schools getting boosted, and it'll be all in under the guise of, you know, we're boosting their budget, and it's really I don't think it's really going to turn out that way.
Sorry to interrupt, I just wanted to slip that in there.
But no worries. I remember back in when I was much younger, when they were raising the drinking ages here in the United States. Louisiana was one of the last states. And finally what they did is is they tied it into road funding US federal Front road funding, and that's why they finally got Louisiana to raise the rate. And I kind of think that's what they're doing here. It's kind of like, Okay, we're going to put more funding on this side. Right, you don't have to do it,
but you're not going to get this. I definitely think that that's part of what you're talking about. But Scott, what do you think that this says about the rise of christian centric policies in public institutions and how is that going to alienate atheists and non Christians people whoor of other beliefs.
Well, I mean, clearly, students come into a public school with influences already in their lives. They have their parents, they have their church, if they belong to a church, they have their community. So they're going to be coming in already having some ideas along those lines, and the Christian students they're going to feel right as rain. They're
going to feel perfectly comfortable in there. They're going to make a perfect transition from Sunday school to Monday school, and the stories are going to be the same and
it's not going to be a problem. But for children that are of different religions, they're going to see different stories, sometimes conflicting stories, and so this is going to undermine what they're learning at home and what they're learning at church, which, to be honest, it doesn't really bother me all that much that somebody won't be learning a religious message or that they'll have a religious message in their life that's
being undermined. But you know, those families have a right to raise their children the way they want to, and if they want to raise them in a religion that's outside of Christianity, they should be able to and they shouldn't have their public school undermining their efforts to do so.
Within reason, of course, and especially atheists.
Who don't accept the you know, who don't buy into the religious beliefs at all, their children are going to be at a disadvantage when they go to those schools. They're not going to be able to address the information. And it's a question of we're just starting to realize the effects that representation has out in the public. We have many different marginalized populations who are fighting for representation in the media and the schools and you know, in
every aspect of life. And so what we're seeing is a pairing down of that representation. And really it's one step in the process of making everybody Christians. And even the broadest interpretation of the of the Constitution now I think it's it's really silly, and so I think there's
an opportunity here that they can't pass up. And so that's why we're seeing all this coming out, and it's really going to put a rift between Christian families and non Christian families, and that's not the kind of thing that we need added into the mix here right now.
I completely agree with you, Scott, And you know, as the more read this document, the more shocked I was at how deeply inductrinating it is. Like another example I can give was in the fifth grade reading unit, they were discussing artists of the Renaissance period, and the lesson began by naming da Vinci right, and it was mentioned in that one of his greatest paintings was the Last Supper, but it wasn't just mentioned in the painting like it turned into a whole Bible study, I can you know.
It was indicated that in order to understand the painting, one must understand the story of Jesus' last Meal. So it went on a two page in the description of the biblical story the Disciples God, how Jesus predicted his betrayal during the Last Meal. It was, without doubt, a Bible lesson, and the world then was presented as fact, not as myth. There was nowhere that clarified that this was not true.
Well, of course, because we all know that Jesus had a last Supper, and well, you know, the truth is a thing that I've always wanted to know is who is that favorite disciple of his that was leaning up and lay up on his chest during the Last Supper. That's who I want to know.
Who is that?
No Christians never want to talk about him.
That's the elated version.
They should let me teach Sunday school and schools. Daryl, Now, Stephen, this strategy. Do you see this blending of education and religion serving just to reinforce existing power dynamics and discouraging critical thinking.
Absolutely absolutely, yeah, Like, I full heartedly believe that this is I think one of the side benefits of a strategy like this is the creation of scapegoats, so that you'll, once we have the more we're able to clearly delineate the difference between the good Christians and the heathen non Christians.
I think that once society encounters increased hardships from collapsing capitalism, I think the people who have been bought into this, the people who have been on the on the receiving end of perks from the from this crumbling system, they will need to find a bad guy to pin these
crimes on. And I think that, you know, this is how we create scapegoats that we can you know, we can huddle up and decide who is on the inside, and then it's more clear who is on the outside and who we can point our rage at and who we can blame for the woes that we're facing. All the while, the people who have been perpetrating the system, the real criminals behind this, they're behind the scenes, they're laughing their heads off, they're off on Elon's spaceship to Mars.
They're doing whatever the fuck they want because they've got the money, they've got the power, and they've got the stupid people to support them. And meanwhile, it's the disenfranchised, it's the marginalized people who are going to bear the brunt of the downfall of whatever it is that is coming down the pipe for us. So I feel like, absolutely, this is just a matter of controlling the masses and giving them a common enemy.
As a kid, I was raised in a very conservative sect of Christianity, and so there were things that when I went to public schools that I was not allowed to be involved in because they were considered too worldly for the lack of a better way to put it. And I can't help but think now how it's reversed, because I can't help but think that they're going to be kids who aren't allowed to be involved in this in these classes, and they're going to end up being optionecized.
They're going to be the ones sitting in the library, or they're going to be the ones doing the busy work nothing, the ones who didn't get to go to the field trip or do whatever was fine. And I think that that in itself is going to cause a negative feeling towards those people who did nothing other than not be Christian. Are parents who are Christian, even who are smart enough to realize, maybe I don't want somebody else teaching my kids what version of Christianity I believe.
So I think they're just open a whole can of worms. But one thing I wanted to open up to all of you, and I'm going to start with you.
Aj happen.
Communities advocate for educational systems that prioritize inclusivity and critical thinking over this type of religious doctrination.
I think the most important thing that people need to do is to be aware, to keep their eyes open and stay involved in the local legislative processes. I don't think a lot of people realize how important it is to vote in local elections and propositions being passed by the school boards that they're zoned into. And this specific textbook is so problematic. There were about fifteen out of sixteen units that had these biblical lessons, even as far
as referring to God as the creator. So if you're someone of any faith other than Christianity, or if you're not religious at all, this shouldn't matter to you because the people at the top are working with really hard to infuse Christian nationalism everywhere that they can. This curriculum was approved thanks to that sneaky move by your very
own governor, Greg Abbott. What happened was he placed a temporary board member on a seat that was going to be empty until twenty twenty five, and so the board voted seven eight, meaning that his appointee broke that tie in favor of approving the curriculum. So stay informed, stay involved.
Scott, I would just echo what AJ said.
I mean, yeah, stay informed, stay involved, don't be afraid to speak up, you know, talk to your school's principal, talk to your district superintendent. The downside of this is that the ability for the public to make a difference in this is slipping away. You know, as we get further and further into this process, as this kind of thing gets more and more normalized and engraved or you know, kind of pushed into the system, it's going to be
harder to fare all of that out. And so yes, it's important to stay active and stay involved, but it's also important to make sure you do that sooner rather than later, and pay attention to how larger election platforms can affect down ballot platforms.
As well.
So the ideas that are presented at the top often trickle down and are worked with at the lower levels. And so just be aware and don't be afraid to say anything, because the more people that speak up, the harder it becomes for them to continue progressing, especially at a local level, when if the whole community is pushing one way, it's going to be hard for those community leaders to justify their pushes in the other direction.
Absolutely, and Steven, anything you want to close out with, just homeschool your kids.
That's the only solution.
Get them out.
It's fired.
Get them out.
It's a drop like this is a very like this still is. This is a parallel to me and my situation with my kids where I don't have full autonomy control over the messages that they get exposed to. That's just a reality. And the key isn't for me to be in control of all of the messaging that they'll be exposed to. The key is for me to just value teaching my kids critical thinking skills and really embedding
and viuing them with those qualities. So you know, regardless of like I mean, I'm my influence, my control isn't going to extend out into very far into the greater world. The places where I have the most impact are the places within my hands grasp right, So I can be influencing my kids, and I can be speaking about the importance of being responsible parents that are actually engaged in
helping educate their children. But that's the We definitely need to be thinking about bigger, bigger solutions to these problems as well. But I know the most important thing for me to do is to just own the choices that I have, and those are the things that happen under my own roof. So just being engaged and teaching my kids so that they can do the work themselves, so no matter what they are exposed to, they still have the undergirding of being able to think things through for themselves.
Yeah, and you see you mentioned homeschooling, but it doesn't have to be a formal homeschooling setting. It can be just having conversations with your kid about what they learned in school that day. You know, you can undo much of much of the indoctrination just by having conversations and breaking them out of that repetition that you know they would just regurgitate what they hear in school. You can break them out of that, and you can still encourage critical thinking at home, just yourself.
Without a doubt. And I think that's one thing that's very important. You know, the Christians do have a handle on the fact that you get them young and you raise them young this way and then they will never depart from it, as it says, but obviously that's not completely true. But the reality is is that like Steven, like you said, and like Scott you pointed out, it's a matter of we have the opportunity to impact our children.
We have an opportunity to impact the people that are within our sphere because the truth is that if they learn how to think for themselves and not just what to think, because that's what they're going to learn, and oftentimes in these classes, they'll figure it out themselves. So I think that that is one really good takeaway is the schools can teach whatever they want to, but that doesn't take away our ability to impact our own children.