A Republican state legislator in Tennessee has introduced a bill that would ban public schools from teaching “religious doctrine” any earlier than the 10th grade. The reason: Because students might be taught about Islam.
You may now do the obligatory facepalm.
State Representative Sheila Butt brought the bill forward on Monday, and as written it would delay teaching of “religious doctrine,” as determined by the state board of education, in history courses, until grades 10, 11, and 12.
So you aren’t mature enough in 9th grade to learn about world religions, but suddenly in 10th grade you are? Something tells me Ms. Butt would have loved to propose a bill that would have disallowed students learning anything about Islam at any age if she thought she could get away with it.
Butt says the changes to curriculum are needed because:
“I think that probably the teaching that is going on right now in seventh, eighth grade is not age-appropriate. They are not able to discern a lot of times whether it’s indoctrination or whether they’re learning about what a religion teaches.”
Yet haven’t we seen on numerous occasions that Republicans have no problem at all calling for a return of Christian prayer in schools? How is that not also indoctrination? Apparently it all depends on whose god you happen to be pimping for.
Not everyone in the Tennessee educational community is pleased to see Ms. Butt making such an ass of herself and their state. Metro Nashville Public Schools social studies teacher Kyle Alexander remarked:
“The reality is the Muslim world brought us algebra, ‘One Thousand and One Nights,’ and some can argue it helped bring about the Renaissance. There is a lot of influence that part of the world had on world history.”
And the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) also said the legislation is nothing but fear masquerading as concern:
“Islamophobes like Rep. Butt fail to recognize that there is a big difference between teaching students about religion as an important part of world history and promoting particular religious beliefs. The education of children in Tennessee should not be delayed because of anti-Muslim bigotry.”
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