 "Photo: Allina Espinosa")
A new law soon will require all Texas public school districts to offer a Bible literature course, but one San Antonio public school has been offering a course for more than 30 years.
Churchill High School in the North East Independent School District has offered the Bible as literature since the 1970s, when English teacher Frances Everidge pioneered the course. Last year, Reagan High School, also in NEISD, added the course. New Braunfels High School has offered the course for a year, and Seguin High School will begin offering it in the fall.
In the spring, the Texas Legislature passed House Bill 1287 along with two other bills regarding religion in public schools. The bill, which Gov. Rick Perry signed into law June 15, states that all school districts must offer the course as an elective at the high school level by the 2009-10 school year.
Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, Appropriations Committee Chairman and bill author, said if 15 or more students express interest in the Bible as literature course, districts must offer it.
"A lot of schools don't know they can have the course, and this bill notifies them that the Supreme Court ruled school districts can offer it," Chisum said. "School districts should know they can offer the course because it better prepares students for college literature and history classes."
In 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a case involving atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair that Bible reading and prayer in public schools was a violation of a student's First and 14th amendment rights. The court did not, however, prohibit the teaching of the Bible as literature.
About 10 years after the Supreme Court ruling, Everidge, while teaching at Churchill, investigated the possibility of teaching the Bible as literature. Since then, Churchill has had hundreds of students take it, some years having several sections, some years none, depending on student interest and staffing availability. Everidge retired from teaching after 15 years at Churchill, and moved to the school district's central office as English program coordinator. She now works as a part-time research consultant for North East.
"I heard about a summer seminar funded by Eli Lilly & Co. at Indiana University from a colleague, so I called and received an application, which I filled out and won a grant," Everidge said, explaining how she developed the Bible as literature course in 1973. "There were about 40 teachers there, mostly high school English, and we met every day and were led through how to teach the Bible as literature in public education."
The group was visited for four weeks at a time by various specialists, such as a rabbi and a Jesuit priest, to better understand their students' religious backgrounds.
"I made a commitment that if a student asked a question that had to do with their religious belief, I would not put him down, but try to bring him back to the literature aspect of the Bible," Everidge said.
Everidge said at the time she was the English department chair, and there was a lot of curriculum development going on in the district.
"I went back to Churchill in the fall, but I didn't put it into the curriculum right away," Everidge said. "I spent a year guest teaching. I taught the book of Ruth, for junior gifted English I taught the book of Job, for humanities I taught the book of Ecclesiastes to get a climate of how students reacted to that. I got a lot of feedback from parents and students, and it was very successful."
Carol Ann Britt has taught the Bible as literature at San Antonio College for seven years.
"The Bible is important to becoming a well-rounded, informed person," Britt said. "I think you miss too much in literature if you don't see behind it."
Britt assigns students projects in which they must bring in biblical references from everyday life.
"They're always surprised with the pervasive Bible influence there is everywhere," Britt said.
Although colleges allow for the teaching of religion, Britt exemplifies that the Bible can be effectively taught in a literary context.
"The teacher who teaches it must be committed to literature," Everidge said. "Any good English teacher knows there's good literature in the Bible. They have to understand the course and be willing to go into the depths of literature with it."
The Legislature addressed the issue of teaching requirements for the course. "Where practical," according to the new law, teachers must have a minor in religion or biblical studies.
"'Where practical' means that if they have no one who has a minor in religion/biblical studies, other teachers can teach the course," Chisum said.
The law also requires teachers to have an "understanding" of "court rulings and current constitutional law" and "expertise in how to avoid proselytizing."
"The coordinating board or districts, as well as TEA (Texas Education Agency), would have to make sure that teachers are well-versed," Chisum said.
Chisum said the measure doesn't cover exactly how teachers' "understanding" or "expertise" will be evaluated.
Kevin Franck, senior educational policy analyst at People for the American Way, said his organization monitors how Bible courses are taught, but said his group is not against teaching the Bible in public schools.
"The Bible bill is notable in that it doesn't include provisions to help teachers learn how to teach the material correctly, without proselytizing," Franck said. "Teachers often come in to teach with no know-how on how to navigate that educational minefield."
People for the American Way joined with the American Civil Liberties Union to sue Ector School District in Odessa for teaching the Bible in a religious context, preaching religious beliefs in a Christian, specifically Protestant, way.
"The Bible is a text that should be evaluated for literary context, not to learn lessons from it," Franck said. "Some material produced in the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools makes finer points with a clear anti-Catholic bias."
According to the National Council's Web site, its curriculum is being used in 395 school districts in 37 states. None of the local Bible courses use the council's Bible materials.
Franck said People for the American Way Foundation is prepared to litigate in any case in which separation of church and state is violated in any public school in the country.
Since the law mandates a school district offer the Bible as literature course if 15 or more students express interest, what if 15 or more students express interest in the Quran or any other religious text?
"The bill applies to the Bible as a text that has historical and literary value," Chisum said. "It can't go off into other religious philosophies because then it would be teaching religion, when the course is meant to teach literature. Quran is a religious philosophy, not of historical or literary value, which is what the Bible is being taught for."
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