Views from Crestmont Drive

Miscellaneous items today, including a few from a couple weeks ago.

• Oklahoma, insisting the Bible be taught as an historical document, seems intent on mis-educating its children and ill-preparing them for life in the 21st century;
• How conservative attacks against DEI is the modern-day Jim Crow;
• More about why Americans think crime is going up, when actually it’s not;
• Christians in Australia let a child die by preferring prayer over insulin;
• And how little things change that we don’t always notice: climate change push-alerts; the death of the necktie; how few people answer their phones (and the consequences for polling).

Race to the bottom. How un- and mis-informed can we make our children? And ill-suited for life in the 21st century?

AlterNet, 27 Jun 2024: Oklahoma now requires all public schools to teach from the Bible as a ‘historical’ document

The State of Oklahoma appears to be poised to outdo Louisiana in its effort to inject Christianity into public schools, after a new announcement by the state’s superintendent of public instruction.

On Thursday, ABC affiliate KOCO 5 News reported that Oklahoma Superintendent Ryan Walters is now requiring all K-12 public school classrooms keep a copy of the Bible on hand, and to give it the same regard as a history textbook. The new policy is to be implemented “effective immediately.”

Conservatives would suppress many elements of American history, yet would promote an ancient document that in no way can be considered reliable history. They want to tell stories that bind the tribe together, not to tell the truth or prepare students for life in the modern world.

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