The Bible in public school

[USSRGirl]

True. And you may still get teachers telling kids it's all a bunch of fables. I think the best way to go about this would be to present the historical evidence - both the pros and cons of the inerrancy of scripture or its historical content, and let kids decide on their own. Of course, whatever you do it really just comes down to whether or not the teacher is going to have a bias. Banning debate really didn't work for my class. When you're dealing with something like the Bible it's just hard NOT to debate anything.

[oro!]

This course is going to be offered next year at my school. I am really excited/somewhat nervous about how it will turn out. We'll see if it can be in that median. In any case, I do like the spiritual talk it may spurn outside of class with my fellows.

[Technomancer]

True. And you may still get teachers telling kids it's all a bunch of fables. I think the best way to go about this would be to present the historical evidence - both the pros and cons of the inerrancy of scripture or its historical content, and let kids decide on their own.

I've never been a fan of that kind of approach, at least as it pertains to arguments that attempt to establish something as being factual or not. The problem is that high schoolers (and most adults) simply do not have the education necessary to evaluate many of the claims being made by either side. I think it's far better instead to teach what is the broad consensus of archaeologists, linguists and other scholars on these matters as being authoritative. Where meaningful controversies exist (and are pertinent to the curriculum) these can and should be explored, although probably not in depth.