Did you hear about the issue before the Texas Legislature right now dealing with Texas public schools teaching classes using the Bible as a textbook?  Well, it’s been toned down a bit.

A committee passed a bill that would make those Bible Literature and History classes optional. The original legislation would have required schools to offer those courses as an elective.  I’m not sure if the schools would use protestant or catholic Bibles, though — or if the students could use whichever translation they’re most comfortable with.  I do know the bill requires specialized teacher training and religious neutrality during the courses.

I took Bible Lit as an English elective during my senior year in high school, and it was one of the best things I ever did.  I also took a Greco-Roman mythology class in high school.  That was 30+ years ago.

The information I learned in both those courses was invaluable when I got to college.  During grad school, when I was immersed in medieval British literature as a doctoral student, I rarely had to look up the biblical or classical references in the works I was studying, due in no small part to the hard work of Mrs. Pickens, my much beloved high school teacher.  And it’s not just Malory and Chaucer!  If you don’t know those allusions, you’ll never understand Milton, Shakespeare, Frost, Dickenson, and the rest, either.

Go get ‘em, Texas!  Your students will have a distinct advantage in college and in life by knowing something of the richness contained in that wonderful book.  I wish every state would follow this example.