A new charter school is opening in Idaho.
It will use the Bible as the primary source for teaching material. It will be introduced to ninth graders in western civilization classes.
Officials with the yet-to-open Nampa Classical Academy say the Bible will be taught for its literary and historic qualities, as part of a secular education program.
School headmaster Val Bush says students will also explore several versions of creationism as part of their studies.
Unless this is part of a mythology class — and I doubt it is — this school is heading down a self-destructing path.
As reader Scott points out, I didn’t realize there were multiple ways to say “God did it.” And evolution isn’t mentioned at all on their website.
Nampa Classical will teach Latin and Western classics, including the Bible. The school will not teach “certain sex ed,” will eschew anti-American rhetoric and troop bashing and will impart the “good of America, the good of Western civilization,” [founder Isaac] Moffett said.
Teachers will also discuss where America has failed to live up to its principles, he allowed, without being “presentist,” or judging earlier epochs with modern values.
“In its proper context, the kids will learn about Native Americans,” said Moffett, who will teach American history and geography. “If we’re talking about westward expansion … you can’t understand why they were conquered so easily without understanding their culture.”
Christopher Columbus will not be judged for introducing disease to the New World.
“In reality, he didn’t do anything, it was a natural consequence of biology,” Moffett said.
Well, they won’t be hiring me anytime soon. All I teach in my math classes is how to add the bed, subtract the clothes, divide the legs and multiply. (Ha! That joke never gets old).
And troop bashing? What public school teachers are currently doing that? They’re building up a straw man and doing a pathetic job of knocking it down.
It not only sounds like a push for Christianity, it sounds like a general miseducation of what scholars are actually saying.
Many of the people running the school or advising administrators are closely tied with conservative Christian religious groups. They don’t have a very good track record of separating their faith from the public sphere. While they profess that they’re following the rules, it shouldn’t be hard to catch them in a lie.
I don’t know if the school will be deemed illegal and shut down before the September 8th opening, but I hope students remember to bring recorders and keep track of what their teachers are saying in the classroom.
